Public Museum's Ethnic Heritage Festival
On Saturday, January 21st, Grand Rapids Public Library participated in the Public Museum of Grand Rapids', Ethnic Heritage Festival, which kicked off their newest permanent exhibit, “Newcomers: The People of the This Place.” The exhibit, seven years in the making, tells the story of the many ethnic communities who made their home in Grand Rapids. Over 3,000 people took advantage of the free admission to the museum and enjoyed the scheduled events of the day including ethnic music and dance, storytelling, and even a beer tasting. At noon, an announcement was made for the 2008 “One Book, One County” selection, A Free Life by Ha Jin. Local Ethnic societies and community organizations had promotional tables throughout the Van Andel building.
The GRPL table promoted the the library's immigration project with one section of Rebecca's Near's photo exhibit, now on display at all the GRPL branches. We also gave out flyers for the February African American events in February at GRPL and the History Detectives event on February 9th. Items highlighting ethnic resources in the Grand Rapids History & Special Collections department included notebooks with copies of some of our Native American and African American photographs and handouts referencing various ethnic resources. Ruth Van Stee, Chris Byron and Rebecca Near, employees on hand that day at the museum, enjoyed talking with visitors.
The event was a huge success and the museum plans on making it an annual affair. We were happy to be part of the day's success and represent GRPL.
