THE AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM CONCEPT PLAN MaY 2012 HENRY ADAMS DaNIEL ALARCÓN EDWARD ALBEE NELSON ALGREN RUDOLFO ANAYA MaYA ANGELOU GLORIA ANZALDÚA PaUL AUSTER MaRY AUSTIN JAMES BaLDWIN TONI CaDE BaMBARA AMIRI BaRAKA L. FRANK BaUM ISHMAEL BEAH HaRRIET BEECHER StOWE SaUL BELLOW AMBROSE BIERCE ELIZABETH BISHOP JUDY BLUME WILLIAM BRADFORD ANNE BRADSTREET GWENDOLYN BROOKS StERLING A. BROWN MaRGARET WISE BROWN WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT TRUMAN CaPOTE ERIC CaRLE JOYCE CaROL OatES RaYMOND CaRVER ANA CaSTILLO WILLA CatHER MICHAEL CHABON RaYMOND CHANDLER MaRY CHESNUT CHARLES W. CHESNUtt SUSAN CHOI KatE CHOPIN SaNDRA CISNEROS MICHELLE CLIFF LUCILLE CLIFTON BILLY COLLINS JAIME CORTEZ StEPHEN CRANE NILO CRUZ COUNTEE CULLEN EDWIDGE DaNTICat JOHN DaU DON DELILLO TOMIE DEPaOLA JUNOT DÍAZ EMILY DICKINSON JOAN DIDION ANNIE DILLARD H. D. FREDERICK DOUGLASS THEODORE DREISER W. E. B. DU BOIS PaUL LaURENCE DUNBAR JONatHAN EDWARDS JENNIFER EGAN T.S. ELIOT RaLPH ELLISON RaLPH WaLDO EMERSON MaRTIN ESPADA JEFFREY EUGENIDES EZRA POUND WILLIAM FaULKNER F. SCOtt FITZGERALD JONatHAN SAFRAN FOER BENjaMIN FRANKLIN JONatHAN FRANZEN ROBERT FROST THEODORE GEISEL ALLEN GINSBERG JESSICA HaGEDORN DaSHIELL HaMMEtt LORRAINE HaNSBERRY REBECCA HaRDING DaVIS BRET HaRTE NatHANIEL HaWTHORNE JOSEPH HELLER LILLIAN HELLMAN ERNEST HEMINGWAY ALEKSANDAR HEMON PatRICK HENRY JAIME AND GILBERT HERNÁNDEZ VÍCTOR HERNÁNDEZ CRUZ OSCAR HIJUELOS OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES LaNGSTON HUGHES QUIARA ALEGRIA HUGHES ZORA NEALE HURSTON DaVID HENRY HWANG WaSHINGTON IRVING HaRRIET JACOBS THOMAS JEFFERSON GISH JEN Ha JIN GaYL JONES RajIV JOSEPH JACK KEROUAC MaRTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Ma XINE HONG KINGSTON EtHERIDGE KNIGHT YUSEF KOMUNYAK aa NICOLE KRAUSS JHUMPA LaHIRI EMMA LaZARUS CHANG-RaE LEE HaRPER LEE JONatHAN LETHEM SINCLAIR LEWIS ABRAHAM LINCOLN JACK LONDON HENRY WaDSWORTH LONGFELLOW ROBERT LOWELL NatHANIEL MaCKEY NORMAN MaILER PaULE MaRSHALL COttON MatHER COLUM MCCaNN ROBERT MCCLOSK E Y CaRSON MCCULLERS JOHN MCPHEE SUKE TU MEHta HERMAN MELVILLE ARTHUR MILLER LIN- MaNUEL MIRANDA TONI MORRISON WILLARD MOTLEY DaNIYAL MUEENUDDIN SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE HaRRYEttE MULLEN VLADIMIR NaBOKOV LORINE NIEDECKER FLANNERY O’CONNOR EUGENE O’NEILL SIMON ORTIZ CYNTHIA OZICK ZZ PaCKER THOMAS PaINE DOROTHY PaRKER SUZAN-LORI PaRKS JOHN DOS PaSSOS ANN PatCHEtt LUCIA PERILLO ANN PETRY ROBERT PINSKY SYLVIA PL atH EDGAR ALL AN POE K ATHERINE ANNE PORTER EZRA POUND E. ANNIE PROULX THOMAS PYNCHON ISHMAEL REED ADRIENNE RICH ALBERTO RIOS ED ROBERSON RICHARD RODRIGUEZ THEODORE ROOSEVELT HENRY ROTH PHILIP ROTH MURIEL RUKEYSER J.D. SaLINGER CaRL SaNDBURG MaY SaRTON JON SCIESZKA MaURICE SENDAK NtOZAKE SHANGE LESLIE MaRMON SILKO UPTON SINCLAIR JOHN SMITH BESSIE SMITH GaRY SNYDER SUSAN SONtaG EDNA St. VINCENT MILLAY GERTRUDE StEIN JOHN StEINBECK RENE StEINKE WaLLACE StEVENS AMY TAN EDWARD TAYLOR HENRY DaVID THOREAU JAMES THURBER HÉCTOR TOBAR NataSHA TRETHEWAY MaRK TWAIN JOHN UPDIKE LUIS ALBERTO URREA ALICE WaLKER MaRGARET WaLKER DaVID FOSTER WaLLACE EUDORA WELTY NatHANAEL WEST EDITH WHARTON PHILLIS WHEatLEY E.B. WHITE WaLT WHITMAN JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN THORNTON WILDER LaURA INGALLS WILDER ISABEL WILKERSON TENNESSEE WILLIAMS WILLIAM CaRLOS WILLIAMS C.K. WILLIAMS AUGUST WILSON HERMAN WOUK C. D. WRIGHT KaREN TEI YaMASHIta JONatHAN YaRDLEY DaNIEL YERGIN KEVIN YOUNG TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT 3 INTRODUCTION 5 THE MUSEUM 7 MISSION, MESSAGE, GOALS 19 GUIDING PRINCIPLES 21 INTERPRETIVE STRATEGIES 23 DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS 25 CHARETTE PARTICIPANTS 28 AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM CONCEPT PLAN MAY 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Development of this concept plan was made possible through grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Stead Family Foundation. These grants funded intensive and inspirational development charettes in Chicago, New York, and Boston. Participants included a diverse mix of scholars, writers, publishers, designers, and museum professionals. The leadership of the American Writers Museum Foundation gratefully acknowledges the generosity of treasure, time, and wisdom so fully given by all those who have made this plan possible. AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM CONCEPT PLAN MAY 2012 3 “There is a void in the American museum world. We collect in central points the artifacts of civilization and honor politicians and soldiers, athletes and artists, inventors and entrepreneurs, but we neglect our writers. In a country established as an idea explicated in written documents and embellished by generations of poets, novelists, and critics, the case for commemorating the written word is self-evident. After all, what is written describes a people and what is celebrated defines their values.” JIM LEACH, CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES INTRODUCTION America as a nation is built on its treasured visitors to the worlds that books have created by writings—the Declaration of Independence and reenacting the stories and their context. We will the Constitution, the great writings of the show visitors the national significance and global nineteenth century, the extraordinary riches of the reach of American writers and their works. Visitors twentieth century. Americans as a community and will leave the museum encouraged to read and as individuals have been shaped by stories, poems, write at all levels. The American Writers Museum speeches, plays, songs, is both an idea and a place. It will be a vibrant, “It is time autobiographies, histories, experiential center dedicated to the explication and for a national essays, screenplays, and more. exploration of American writers and their works, and it will be a hub for national discourse on Our writers have recorded museum of writers and writing. our history, imagined our American lives, entertained us, and While not collections-based, the American writing and explained us to ourselves, Writers Museum will leverage national partner continuously helping to relationships to create changing exhibitions that writers…” shape and enrich not only include important our sense of ourselves individually but also our “ to celebrate the collections from shared understanding of who we are as a nation. It role of writing universities, libraries, is time for a national museum that celebrates other museums and writers, studies the role of writing in our nation’s in our nation’s private collections. We history and culture, and helps place writing and history and will not compete with writers at the center of our national conversation. other outstanding culture…” programs, but rather, Welcome to the American Writers Museum! It is we will make the museum community aware of rooted in the essential pleasure of reading. It will the myriad literary resources available nationwide. be a place for adventure, revelation, contemplation, Web-based exhibits, programs and partner links participation, learning, sharing and delight. will be essential tools for ensuring wide visitor Galleries, exhibits, and social spaces will invite involvement and long-term sustainability. visitors to participate in discovering the rich variety of American literature, from the earliest works to the most recent. We will transport AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM CONCEPT PLAN MAY 2012 5 “The idea of an American Writers Museum seems to me long overdue. The literate world has known and prized American writers since the generation of Emerson and Thoreau. Whitman and Emily Dickinson have influenced poets and readers in English and in translation into many languages. The great current continues, and a museum honoring and portraying American writing would be an honor to the suffering and vision from which our literature came.” W.S. MERWIN, US POET LAUREATE THE MUSEUM The idea of the American Writers Museum Through the charette process, we have vetted has been met with universal acclaim. The most numerous exhibit and visitor experience common reaction to it is, “You mean we don’t possibilities. While conceptualizing the physical have an American writers museum?” The aspects of the new museum we have been mindful questions that immediately follow are, “What of the incredible possibilities of web-based will be in it, what will it look like, and what engagement with our audience as well. Integration will I do there?” of website experiences with the on-site experiences will continue to be a fundamental part of the Here is what The American Writers American Writers Museum’s identity. Museum will be: It will be a place where A concept plan is not a design. Therefore, the task of such a plan is to present evocative diverse audiences have unique and examples without locking in too much specificity unexpected encounters with American too soon. The examples that follow are indicative, only to be refined and improved through writers and writing; it will be a place continued discourse. with engagement so compelling it will be a must-see, must-do part of the nation’s cultural landscape. This concept plan is a milestone in the evolution of a simple idea into an institution of substance. We know the American Writers Museum will grow and adapt to new insights and influences over its next period of development. This document represents our aspirations today. AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM CONCEPT PLAN MAY 2012 7 MUSEUM ORGANIZATION are accessible off the Literary Lounge: the multi- THEMES The diagram below distills the more detailed purpose theater and the Writers’ Hall. Nested The intellectual framework for The American visitor experience descriptions that follow into a around the Writers’ Hall are the focus halls aimed Writers Museum is characterized by its content simple overall