JMM Insights: It’s Groundhog Day

It’s Groundhog Day!

The monotony and stress of self-quarantined life, the same news stories when we wake up each morning, and the depressing notion that this will not end soon. Bill Murray’s character is able to escape from his confinement in Punxatawney, PA only by accepting his situation, improving himself and improving the lives of his neighbors.

At JMM, we’ve taken the important first step of accepting reality. We will not reopen our doors until at least the middle of May, and we have cancelled or postponed all public programs through June. As Dr. Fauci has advised, we don’t set the timeline the virus sets the timeline. We will follow that advice.

For those holding paid tickets for events in April, May or June we hope you will consider donating the cost of the ticket to our continued operations or hold onto your tickets to exchange for credit toward a rescheduled or future program. Every gift makes a difference as we work hard (from home!) to maintain our capacity to create great programs you care about. (If neither of these options are feasible for you, please let us know and we will make arrangements for a refund.)

While we haven’t spent time learning to speak French or play the piano, we have been retooling JMM as a digital museum (temporarily). Last week we introduced you to Wondernauts, this week we are sharing resources related to our current exhibit Scrap Yard: Innovators of Recycling.

Scrap Yard was originally scheduled to close on April 26, but our revised plan will keep the exhibit on the floor through July, in the hope that more of you will be able to enjoy it after we reopen. In the meantime, we’ll be adding content to our digital museum every week.

Everyone who is reading this while restricting their travel outside of home is already off to a good start. Those of us who are also able to give to the Associated as well as JMM, are fulfilling a double mitzvah, helping those in urgent need and preserving our heritage so that it’s there for our children and grandchildren when this dark winter finally recedes.

If you are looking for other ways to volunteer from home, let me recommend this link to our partners at Jewish Volunteer Connection. The Passover narrative tells us that our people endured 430 years of slavery before liberation, I think that working together and supporting each other we can make it through a few months of isolation.

~Marvin

---

THE DIGITAL MUSEUM: SCRAP YARD

As part of our digital museum offerings, we’ve put together a few extra experiences for you related to our original exhibit Scrap Yard. We hope you’ll take a little time this week to explore this bonus content and let us know what you think.

First, check out this awesome series, Talia’s Tour Highlights. Talia Makowsky, our Visitor Services Coordinator, spends a lot of her time creating engaging experiences for our adult group visitors, including special tours for our exhibits – including for Scrap Yard.

And we didn’t want to leave our younger visitors out, so here’s a Blue’s-Clues-style series with Museum Educator Marisa Shultz and a fun design-your-own poster experience!

Already an expert on what’s in the exhibit from your previous visits? Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered with this series of “Making Of” videos sharing behind-the-scenes information you won’t find anywhere else. Hear from Marvin, Tracie, Joanna and more on some of their favorite stories, facts, and finds of making Scrap Yard – we’ll be adding to this series as we go, so be sure to check back often!

From a breakdown of recyclable materials and their uses to an in-depth glossary of scrap vocabulary (and slang!) to the stories of Scrappers past and present, told in their own words, our Scrap Yard website is worth exploring.

And in case you missed them the first time (or just want to relive the experience), you can watch recordings of a selection of our Scrap Yard lectures:

Cash for Your Trash: Scrap Recycling in America

Lives Built on Scrap: A Family Biography

Secondhand Travels of a Global Scrap Man

And, for your reading pleasure, a story that hits a lot of boxes – good news, recycling, Maryland, and COVID-19: A Recycling Company Just Discovered 36,000 N95 Masks in a Dumpster.