Help Reimagine Eastern California Museum

Ideas Sought on Ways to Revitalize Facility, Collections

Friends of the Eastern California Museum is hosting a community listening session next week in the hopes of gathering ideas and other feedback on ways to update the museum’s collections and shape upcoming exhibits and activities.

The facilitated discussion will start at 6 p.m. Thursday, September 26 at the Legion Hall in Independence and all residents and visitors are invited to attend.

Community outreach is part of a three-year multi-phase effort to revitalize the County’s museum with grant funding from the California Cultural and Historic Endowment. Museum Director Shawn Lum applied for the highly competitive grant in 2022 in the hopes of creating more relevant in-person space, building a more robust virtual visitor experience, and honoring previously untold, historically under-represented Tribal and rural stories of Eastern California. Lum’s proposed project, “Reimagining Eastern California Museum,” was awarded a $364,500 grant to be spent over three years.

According to Lum, the project is designed to re-imagine the Eastern California Museum in order to build a visitor-centered experience that more fully contextualizes the existing 30,000-plus object collection, through community stakeholder input, within the 6,000 square-foot gallery space. The project is intended to improve equity and understanding of the diverse communities of Inyo County, incorporate greater inclusion of the region’s Indigenous communities, and transform the museum from object-centered to narrative-centered interpretation themes.

“We know there are so many ideas, thoughts, and interests that you may have about collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of Inyo County,” Lum said. “Please participate in this workshop and help us shape new plans for interpretation of our collective past.”

Eastern California Museum was established in 1928 and holds a vast collection of objects related to the natural history, community history, and cultural history of the region. This grant- funded multi-year project will develop updated ways to share the stories and lived experiences of local communities with visitors.

Grant funding is limited, so public feedback will be especially valuable in helping museum staff capture priorities and discover new ideas for Eastern California Museum.

For more information about the museum, as well as access to its online collection gallery, visit https://www.inyocounty.us/residents/things-to-do/eastern-california-museum.