Beyond Glass Cases: The Library Company of Philadelphia’s “Collections Lab”
Beyond Glass Cases: The Library Company of Philadelphia’s “Collections Lab,” funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, represents the Library Company’s ongoing commitment to boldly, honestly, and thoughtfully interpreting challenging, and at times harmful, collection items. As the Library Company approaches its 300th anniversary in 2031, one of our most pressing challenges is to confront our own history as we strive to inspire our diverse constituency towards transformative and meaningful reconciliation.
Three synergistic, exploratory projects (2024), a culminating exhibition (2025), and a symposium (2025) form the scope of Beyond Glass Cases. The Library Company has partnered with visual artists, a musician, and a scholar to offer an experimental mode or method of engaging with a designated collection item or group of items that takes the collection beyond display in a glass case. While holding space for the collection item’s historical significance, the projects transcend traditional exhibition models with the goals of finding new and better ways of advancing understanding and engaging public awareness of their complex histories.
To learn more about each of these projects, click on the links below: