"A New Agora for New York: Museums as Spaces for Democracy" is a state-wide humanities discussion series project that explores the context and main controversies behind our democratic system. Controversies including the principles and events that inspired the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the struggle for civil rights, voting rights, and equal participation in our democracy; the freedoms and responsibilities of citizens; and the formal and informal processes of our political systems.

This project supports the work of 12 museums and their communities across the state of New York as they use the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service's Museum on Main Street exhibition, Voices and Votes: Democracy in America as a launching point to explore, reflect on, and tell the story of their role in the evolution of American Democracy. 

Each museum creates a response exhibition that is featured alongside the Smithsonian exhibition where the museum has the opportunity to share their local story and connection to American Democracy as a whole. As part of the project each museum also hosts a series of programs that invites their communities both in person and online to engage with civic discussion and the topics and themes of American Democracy.