What is Dynamic Preservation?

Executive Director of Menokin, Sam McKelvey and Jennifer Thomas, then Executive Director of the Virginia Association of Museums, sat down for a conversation around the Menokin’s concept of “dynamic preservation” as it relates to Menokin’s Glass House Project, Menokin overall, and the culture of historic preservation.  A video version of this interview conducted virtually may be viewed at the bottom of this page.  

“JT”:  Jennifer Thomas
“SM”:  Sam McKelvey

JT: Welcome. I'm Jennifer Thomas, Executive Director of the Virginia Association of Museums.  I'm here today with Sam McKelvey, Executive Director at The Menokin Foundation.

Hello, Sam, welcome.

SM: Thanks for having me, Jennifer.

JT: Sam, you have really made a commitment to Menokin’s mission and vision being centered on this concept of “dynamic preservation”. Please briefly tell us how this evolved, and what this means for Menokin.

SM: Dynamic Preservation is a developing concept at Menokin to seek adaptive, changing, and fluid preservation or interpretive approaches to find relevance and connections for people with the past.

We do this in very contemporary, emotional, and often abstract ways to give an individualistic experience when it comes to history at Menokin. We are not only about one place in one time, but really about the entire continuum of stories that that came about at Menokin.

Often times when you look at entire swaths of history it becomes very complex, very, squishy, so to speak. This idea of dynamic preservation allows us to deconstruct history for the individual that comes to Menokin, and to see what that experience means to them and why this (the past) is important to that individual.

JT: For those who might not be familiar with the term “dynamic preservation”, imagine you're at a grocery store in line and somebody asks you about Menokin and “dynamic preservation”, what would you say to help them understand better what that means?

SM:  It is a contemporary take on historic preservation. I like to compare it to a contemporary art museum in many ways. We are a contemporary preservation museum. We are taking very modern and often abstract ways to connect people to history. We will never be a finished product.  We will be changing the way that we preserve the site continuously to best speak to what that preservation on site means to people.

JT: So what is it about Menokin that made you think of this concept of dynamic preservation?  How did you get there?

SM: It actually came from a turned down grant application we applied for several years ago for an interpretive plan.

When they learned about our concept of what we're doing with the (Menokin Glass House) ruin, which had already planned, they believed that we were putting the cart before the horse – that we were picking a preservation technique without really knowing why we were choosing this technique.

Even though we knew it (why the Glass House treatment) ourselves, we never really put that on paper, so it really forced us to take a step backwards and think about why people are interested.

The concept of a ruin really allowed us to develop this concept of dynamic preservation – that when people see the ruin that we have at Menokin, it offers a whole wide range of experiences.

People wonder how did this place get here?  Who are the people that lived here? What happened to Menokin? Why is it in the shape that it is today? We noticed that when people came there, they all had different takes and different emotional experiences of that history.

We really wanted to preserve that (experience), so we went back and created this concept (dynamic preservation) that everything we do teases out this emotional connection to the place, and what it means to each individual person that comes here.

JT:  You mentioned the Glass House as one element of Menokin as an example.  How would dynamic preservation play out in the Glass House when talking to a visitor?

SM: (The Glass House) is our premiere project right now because it is a ruin and (resulted) in the formation of this idea of dynamic preservation.

When you come here, you have individual takes. One of my favorite pictures is a lady that's sitting in front of the ruin with a chair, just kind of taking it all in and what it means to her own experience. And so we wanted to keep that concept. 

The problem is it's a ruin and will continue to deteriorate.  So how do we enclose it to protect it from the elements, but still allow it to speak as its original authentic self that encapsulates this entire history of Menokin?

And so we decided very quickly the best way to do that with dynamic preservation is to put a very contemporary enclosure on it (the ruin) that allows the ruin to speak literally through the glass. So all the original elements of the ruin are still in place without us making it something that it never was.

And so this concept of the Glass House allows us to connect the archaic and modern through the glass enclosure, but also allows that individual connection to history shine through when people experience the ruin and its original state on their own

JT: You mentioned earlier you came to this mainly because of a failed grant application for an interpretive plan.  But “dynamic preservation”, the way you're talking about it, it's almost not having an interpretive plan in the traditional sense, but for letting individual experiences take the lead.

SM: That is a good way to look at it.  Now - we're not void of history.  We have many years of history and generations that we talk about. Individuals will make what they want out of it. They already do. I think in many ways, museums in the past have focused too much on fact-based history.

I think that in the business of museums, we should be studying memory and how people connect with history.  People are going to come here and look at our history, and we're going to talk about history, but they're going to go to their own concepts and their own history that they grew up with, the people that surrounded them, their own ideas of what that history is to make emotional decisions based off of that.

Let's look at the history, but what does it mean to you? What references, what emotions does that hit in your own experience, and how does that relate to other people that are also coming here and connecting with that history? 

I think it (memory) influences everything we do, including politics and race relations today. It's all based off of the way you look at your own life and the world around us, and the history that surrounds us. And I think it's terribly important for relevance for museums today to connect with memory and not so much historic fact.

JT: That's really interesting. You've always said that Menokin is more than a museum and this seems to kind of tie into that idea, but what specifically do you mean by that?

SM: This goes into the nature of the involvement of museums right now in that we're becoming more about the community itself. We're trying to work with the community to become that community anchor, to make it a part of us – and a part of them.

History never ends. We are right now a part of Menokin’s history that will evolve, and the community will put their own mark on the Menokin’s history. And so it's not only about the past, it's a living history, and the museum will continue to evolve with the community to fit those needs of what they need it for …

I think what's important for us to know, and specifically with dynamic preservation, is we will change and adapt and move with the passage of time. It is more than a museum collecting old things or talking about old facts – it's relevant in everything that we do today.

JT: The idea that it isn't a static being, it's not a static answer. It will continue to change with the needs around it. I think that's really, that's really interesting. And I love thinking of museums that way. Yes.

JT:  Well, thank you Sam, for talking with me today.  If somebody is hearing this and would like to know more about how this is happening (at Menokin) with dynamic preservation, where should they go?

SM:  I hope they come to our website first -- www.menokin.org or Google us at the Menokin foundation. We have a lot of material on there that talks about this role of dynamic preservation.

And we're working with other museums to talk about the idea of memory and its relevance today. So come to our website, come to our museum. We have 500 acres to enjoy and to talk about history.

JT: Great. Thanks Sam. Have a great day.

SM: It was a great pleasure. Thank you, Jennifer. It's a pleasure talking to you today and Virginia Association of Museums.