Liz Ševcenko is Vice President for Interpretation for the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Coordinator for the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience. Completing her Ph.D. in American history at New York University, she has most recently published "The Making of Loisaida" in Mambo Montage: The Latinization of New York City (Columbia University Press, July 2001). Her project "Mapping Memories," in which visitors were invited to contribute their memories to a changing map of New York City and discuss conflicting claims to urban space, was produced at the Museum of the City of New York, the Tenement Museum, the Eldridge Street Project, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, as well as at community centers and street fairs. She has partnered with public artist Shimon Attie on projects in New York and Boston exploring the hidden histories of urban landscapes.

At the Tenement Museum, Ms. Ševcenko has directed several initiatives to bring history to bear on discussions on pressing social issues and projects to address them. As Coordinator of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience, Ms. Sevcenko works with the directors of historic sites around the world, building their capacity to use their histories to address contemporary issues. The Coalition is currently working with the National Park Service, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Trust of Britain on how to develop sites of conscience initiatives within their networks. The Coalition has also partnered with the International Center for Transitional Justice to consult with NGOs and municipal governments around the world on how to establish places of memory as sites of reconciliation and rebuilding in societies recovering from trauma. Ševcenko has consulted with various historic sites and networks of cultural institutions, including the Minnesota Historical Society, the Paso Al Norte Immigration History Center in El Paso, TX and the Sanford Ziff Museum in Miami, FL. She had the pleasure of coordinating the "Great Places, Great Debates" conference with the National Park Service and the Regional Plan Association.

lsevcenko@tenement.org

Seven Thousand Stories
Liz Sevcenko led a small group of conference participants through the Museum. Each year, the museum has over 100,000 visitors who see the museum in groups of no more than 15. Those participants who were fortunate enough to get spots on the tour were treated to a National Historic Site different from the norm. Unlike sites recognizing great men, e.g. Monticello, or one event, e.g. Appomattox Courthouse, or an era in our history, e.g. Erie Canal, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum begins with the stories of 7,000 people. These were mostly recent immigrants, who lived in this tenement at 97 Orchard Street. The residents' stories are used to teach visitors about the immigrant experience from 1863 when the tenement was built, through its closing in 1935, and on beyond to today's immigrant stories. The Museum continues to draw from its neighborhood, still largely populated by new immigrants.

Liz told her audience that the purpose of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is to use the 7,000 stories to give visitors insights into the past and to help inform discussions on contemporary issues.

Liz Sevcenko in the doorway above shares the stories of residents that lived and often worked in rooms such as this one.

Dialogues are as Current as Today's Headlines
Liz explained that since the tenement was reopened as a Museum in the mid-1980s, it has been used to bring visitors together in dialogues around issues faced by its residents :

• Who is an American?
• Who decides who is an American?
• What were the available work choices?
  
• What is acceptable housing?
  

In 1867, the Tenement House Commission gave the 1st legal definition of tenement housing. A tenement is a building housing 3 or more unrelated families. When the 97 Orchard building was constructed there were no building or housing codes; there was no indoor lighting, nor indoor plumbing. Gas lighting was added late in the 19th century. Indoor plumbing was added in 1901. Electricity was added in 1924. When the 1901 housing law required every room to have a window, 'borrowed' light openings were added for rooms that did not face an exterior wall. Changes at 97 Orchard Street track the history of building codes that addressed air and light as public health issues. The building was always mixed-use, with residential spaces frequently being used as places of business, particularly as part of the garment industry. The building's issues were both issues of acceptable housing and of acceptable working conditions.

Liz Encouraged Dialogue Throughout Tour
Liz Sevcenko encouraged discussion throughout the tour by asking questions, such as imagine yourself here, what is similar today? She explained that this is what Museum guides do with all tours. They then usually end tours for school groups in the activity room, where kids can touch things and try on clothes. A highlight is the living history guide who acts as the daughter of an immigrant family who lived in the building.

Some Dialogue Techniques and Issues
Liz provided lots of information on what the Lower East Side Tenement Museum has found successful in engaging visitors. She suggested:

Asking visitors "What struck you? What resonated with your own life experiences?"

Explore larger issues; pose questions that would trigger discussion and dialogue:

• Women's roles: What were their lives like? What options do women have today that these women didn't have? What constraints? Why are things different? Why are some things the same? What are child care options? What is it like to be a child living here?
• Limits of historic reconstruction: What activities went on outside on the street? How are they different today? How were common spaces used? How is that different today?
• Sense of identity and pride: What was the immigrant experience? How did they learn to fit in? How did they decide what to keep and what to reject? What do you do in your life to create a sense of identity? As you grow and move into new life stages, what do you keep and what do you change? How do you decide?
• Community institutions: What institutions are important to residents, e.g., synagogues, community centers; what is the relationship of residents to the greater community? What is a resident's responsibility to the community? What were the relationships among families in the multi-ethnic building? What is your relationship to your neighborhood today?
• Childhood: What is the responsibility of the state to ensure childhood rights? What is the balance between the state and parents? How was time spent in public and private spaces?

She went on to explain that dialogue is done through conversations on the tour by posing questions that relate to current issues and encouraging personal responses from visitors. From there, guides move to bigger issues. Dialogue is also done in post-tour sessions that last one hour.

Museum Reaches Out Beyond Visitors
While the Museum devotes much of its effort to its 100,000 visitors, many of its programs are aimed at today's immigrant communities. The Museum is nestled in a neighborhood that is still largely populated by recent immigrants. New Asian immigrants in particular are Museum neighbors.

The Lower East Side Community Preservation Project is one example of this outreach. The Museum was concerned about changes going on in the neighborhood. It convened community institutions: churches, synagogues, libraries, and other community groups. Together they entered into dialogues about personal experiences. The Museum was interested in finding out what places in the neighborhood are important for each group to tell their stories. Now they are working together to discuss shared issues.

The Museum is also reaching out to their neighbors by offering English classes. Initially, the Museum began by trying to teach classes, but it became too complicated to take on curriculum issues. Now they work with other organizations who teach English to new immigrants. Six different English units are offered. Besides learning English, students talk about how immigrants in this building found homes, found jobs, took care of their children. This has proven to be a powerful tool to help these new immigrants solve parallel problems today.

The museum convenes groups that would not normally meet, such as garment industry management and workers, to deal with specific issues. In this case, the Museum provided a neutral environment that facilitated discussion between the groups. After a day-long summit about what new perspective could be gained by looking at the garment industry in the past, participants emerged with new ideas about how all sides could work together to prevent sweatshop conditions in the future. The Museum prepared a report used to encourage follow-up with continued dialogue. In addition, the Museum reaches out to school children; it offers online materials for use for for grades K-12.

Sharing Experiences
The tour ended with a lively discussion of how these programs might relate to work at the group's own sites.

One participant enthused, "Wow! You can do this without being heavy handed! We usually have to make it pretty to make it accessible for our visitors".

Still, participants had some reservations. One participant observed that some sites have high turnover among docents, making this kind of program a real challenge. Another pointed to sites that use college students. They are interested in these ideas and close in age to school groups; but are sometimes not emotionally mature enough to handle issues that come up in dialogues. Similarly, another concern voiced was on sites that use psychology students. They learn about social groups and facilitation in their studies, but may not be prepared to deal with the messiness and ambiguity of history and complex stories.

Despite some misgivings, the group embraced the idea of engagement and left having experienced firsthand through the tour the way that the dialogue process can work.

For more information on the Lower East Side Tenement Museum visit:

http://www.tenement.org/

Last Updated: August 30,2004