National Museum of American History

Chris has developed many varied programs at the Museum ranging from lectures and panel discussions to family festivals and historic theater performances. Chris wrote and directed the interactive play Join the Student Sit-Ins which has been presented more than 1500 times since the Museum’s reopening day in November 2008. The program has garnered thousands of positive comments from the more than 300,000 visitors who have participated in it. The short interactive play presents the story of the sit in for desegregation that began on February 1, 1960 at the Greensboro, North Carolina F. W. Woolworth lunch counter that is now part of the Smithsonian National Collection. Join the Student Sit-Ins was awarded the 2009 Smithsonian Education Excellence Award honoring the best educational program across the Institution. Under Chris’s leadership, the Museum’s theater program team continues to develop and present interpretations of historic characters from America’s past ranging from well-known individuals to Americans whose stories are unknown to most of our visitors, but who were equally important in shaping the American experience.
 

Chris worked to create the National Youth Summit, a series of programs that convenes thousands of middle and high school students nationally and internationally around a historical topic with relevance for young people today. Most recently these programs have focused on the Dust Bowl in 2012 and Abolition in 2013. In 2011, Chris directed the Museum's programs in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Rides including the first National Youth Summit, which engaged thousands of young people nationwide with veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. In 2010, he led efforts to honor and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro sit-ins including the Youth Town Hall with the Greensboro Four. In 2005 Chris created “We Shall Overcome: The 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights March,” a living history and musical tribute to the civil rights activists who put their bodies on the line to bring about the Voting Rights Act. He directs the Museum’s annual celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. Chris also worked on the exhibition Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life and managed the Lincoln Lecture Series which looked at issues faced by the 16th president that are still relevant today.

As Acting Director of the Department of Public Programming during the Museum’s renovation from 2006 – 2008, Chris led the strategic planning and concept development for educational programs for the general public visiting the Museum. He planned the programming for the Museum’s grand reopening and the overall daily experience for the first year following the renovation. Visitors encountered more floor staff, music programs, theatre, and hands-on opportunities when they visited the revitalized Museum.

Chris presented, planned, and supervised public programs and exhibitions for eighteen years at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, before joining the staff of the National Museum of American History.

Online resources

Online Conference: Civil Rights from Lincoln to Today

http://smithsonianeducationconferences.org/sessions/civil-rights-from-lincoln-to-today/

Podcast: Freedom Songs

http://americanhistory.si.edu/connect/podcasts/history-explorer-freedom-songs

Webcast: The Brass Letters of Citizenship - Lincoln, African Americans, and Military Service

http://americanhistory.si.edu/connect/webcasts/brass-letters-citizenship-lincoln-african-americans-and-military-service

Video blog on the creation of Join the Student Sit-Ins

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/video/Restaging-the-Greensboro-Counter-Sit-in.html

Television program: Daedal Doors - Horsing Around at Greenfield Village

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUKBZYFpyl4

Blog Post: The Greensboro Sit-In -How do you exhibit commitment?

http://blog.americanhistory.si.edu/osaycanyousee/2010/05/how-do-you-exhibit-commitment.html