IHS Awarded $150K Grant for Indiana Experience

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has given IHS a $150,000 grant in the “engaging communities” category for Indiana Experience.

IHS was chosen from 433 applicants across the United States. The IMLS grants awarded support high-priority activities that advance museums’ missions and strategic goals, helping them to serve the public more effectively. “By making it their mission to provide the public with top-notch programming and knowledgeable staff, the 2009 grantees have demonstrated that they know what is important to their communities,” said Anne-Imelda Radice, director of IMLS.

Awarded in three categories – engaging communities, building institutional capacity and collections stewardship – the grants fund projects such as exhibitions, training, research, planning, technological upgrades, the purchase of equipment and educational programming.

“This is wonderful news for our Campaign for the Indiana Experience,” says IHS President and CEO John A. Herbst. “It validates our mission and gives us a huge push in the right direction as we work to make the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center a place where people will discover a new way to live history.”

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.

An Indiana Experience Preview

The Indiana Historical Society will spend 2009 preparing for the delivery of the much-anticipated Indiana Experience, designed to make the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center a destination. The grand reopening is scheduled for Spring 2010.

The addition of more interactive and high-technology experiences will appeal to visitors and extend the length of their visit, and physical changes will improve the flow of the building. “We’ll bring the people of the state a uniquely Indiana experience – one that connects them with their rich heritage in new and exciting ways,” says IHS President and CEO John Herbst.

Those new and exciting ways include You Are There, which features three-dimensionally reconstructed historic photographs that include first-person interpreters, allowing visitors to step into another era. The 1945 grocery store will be back next year by popular demand, joined by two other images come to life – one that will take visitors to Robert F. Kennedy’s speech in Indianapolis the night Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and one that will re-create a visit to a 1920s auto repair garage in Hartford City.

Allowing visitors to travel through time using innovative technology, touch screens and immersive displays of historic images, Destination Indiana is IHS’s newest experience, developed to better explore and understand the story of Indiana. In 2010 and beyond, new journeys and more personal stations will be added.

The W. Brooks and Wanda Y. Fortune History Lab is a hands-on demonstration lab that allows visitors to learn and participate in conservation and preservation activities. Within that space, INvestigation Stations allow visitors to “do” history as they analyze historic documents, research their family trees, search for clues in historic photographs and explore careers in history. Renovations will also allow visitors a window into the IHS’s real life History Lab – the Conservation Lab – and provide an opportunity to see conservators at work.

The revitalized Cole Porter Studio will be an intimate multimedia space with a performer/facilitator and original materials dedicated to Cole Porter’s life and work. Anything Goes will be expanded into a bimonthly 1940s-era nightclub with cabaret-style shows. Also refreshed will be the popular Indiana Town Hall Series, an ongoing series of public forum discussions with expert panelists exploring contemporary topics.

To prepare the History Center for the Indiana Experience introduction, IHS will close several parts of the building for some interior renovation. Work begins Jan. 5 and will run through the course of the year. In order to continue its service to the community, however, IHS will maintain regular public access to several of its spaces.The William Henry Smith Memorial Library attracts several thousand visitors each year who utilize the IHS research collections, and operating hours remain Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“Students, scholars, members and the general public depend on regular availability of the Indiana heritage resources provided by the vast IHS Collections,” says Steve Haller, senior director, IHS Collections and Library. “We are pleased that we can work around the remodeling project to offer uninterrupted access.”

The Frank and Katrina Basile Theater will continue to host performances and some IHS-related programs through the end of March and again beginning in the fall of 2009. “More than a dozen organizations such as the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and Storytelling Arts of Indiana call the theater home,” says Mark Szobody, senior director, Special Events. “It’s important to us to maintain those associations.”

“We’re energized for the work we’ll do in 2009 to bring the Indiana Experience to the citizens of Indiana,” says John. “It’s an extraordinary time in our nation’s history, and 2010 will mark an extraordinary year in our organization’s history – a time when we’ll have more of the tools we need to reach out to people across the state.”


March 2009:

News from the CEO

January 2009:

News from the CEO
Plan for 2009

December 2008:

IHS Engages In $23.8 Million Campaign for "The Indiana Experience”:
$8M Gift from Eugene and Marilyn Glick Jumpstarts Efforts to Deliver New Destination Experience

Campaign for the Indiana Experience™ Case Statement (5MB PDF)