NUEVOlution
NUEVOlution! Latinos and the New South was designed to address contemporary issues
in the South’s rapidly diversifying racial and cultural landscape. I led the team that created this award-winning, 3,500-square-foot traveling exhibition, that opened in September 2015, created by North Carolina’s Levine Museum of the New South (LMNS) in collaboration with the Atlanta History Center and Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Bilingual, immersive, and interactive, it featured robust visitor contributions, year-long programming, civic dialogues, collaborative art, and online media that explored the surprising ways Latinos are shaping the South and the South is shaping Latinos.
The Big Idea was, “In surprising ways, Latinos are shaping the South and the South is shaping Latinos. Where do I belong in this Nuevo South?” With ¡NUEVOlution!, we wanted to provide opportunities in the exhibition, online, and in programs for visitors to realize that we are all shaped by where we live and we shape where we live. Our goal was for visitors to gain personal insights into our shared joys, struggles, accomplishments, hopes, and fears. Getting to know one another fosters understanding. Our personal values might not be that different from our neighbor or the community newcomer.
Brief description of the design challenge and design approach:
Our design challenge was to create empathy and build community with the growing Southern Latino population. Our design approach took the visitor on a journey of discovery. Through questions and interactive experiences, we created an arc from reflection to discovering your own attitudes, to understanding others, to ways to impact the future in their communities.