Exhibition Sites

“A New Agora for New York: Museums as Spaces for Democracy” programs will explore the context and main controversies behind our democratic system 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.

Humanities New York will work with MANY and the twelve museums to produce Community Conversation programs that will focus on the relationship between democracy and republican institutions, between the dynamism of the former and the regularity of the latter and will use a critical humanities lens to explore the influence of the past not just on the present, but also on the different futures of the public imagination. HNY staff will work with staff at the selected museums to teach them how to implement their own Community Conversations the day after the Community Conversations public program. Community Conversations programs promote dialogue by bringing people together to join in a facilitated discussion. These discussions will use a short humanities-based text centered on an aspect of American identity.