Skip to content

Photo: Laura A. Macaluso

Public Art & Public History

Projects & Presentations

A Walk with Wellington

The  Walk with Wellington was an engaging public history event that explored the life and times of John Louis Wellington (1836–1910) through his art, which connected local history to broader national and cultural themes. Designed to make history accessible and relevant, the event invited participants to see the past through Wellington’s experiences…

C. William Gilchrist Gallery & Museum Cumberland, MD September 13-14, 2025

The Beekman Mansion and the Birth Place: Nathan Hale in American Memory

This work in progress reframes Hale’s story not through the familiar lens of patriotic martyrdom, but through the spaces he left behind and the people who later reimagined him. It also poses unsettling questions about what it means to love history, whether through reverence, restoration, or forgetting, and who has the authority to shape national memory…

2026

Presence and Absence in Pennsylvania

Bust of Captain John Carlton by John Fisher, c. 1786. The sculpture, in the collections of the York County History Center, is a keystone object through which to dissect the intersectionality of historical place on the Susquehanna River and the ways in which indigenous memory has been wiped from south central Pennsylvania identity and common cultural knowledge…

Revolutionary Narratives

The goal of the Revolutionary Narratives working group is to participate in, and co-create, projects supporting the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. Recognizing the historic moment in which we live and work, this group of public history practitioners and academic scholars focuses their efforts on historic houses…

Across the USA and Beyond 2021-2027

Art and the Black Muslim Image

A zoom conversation on the essays from "Black Muslim Portraiture in the Modern Atlantic"…

Islamic Study Center, Duke University May 28, 2022

Street Scene: CETA murals, New Haven and the Late 1970s

In collaboration with the Public Art Archive, this digital exhibit will expand Laura A. Macaluso's 2019 exhibit on the City of New Haven's first community-based public art program. Co-curated with Lori Goldstein and Alison Verplaetse of the Public Art Archive, the new digital exhibit will include more images, and archival documents as an open source exhibit supporting the role of public art in community development…

The Public Art Archive 2022-onward

Objectify Benedict Arnold: Making Memory of America’s Traitor

Son of an alcoholic. Merchant. Husband. Soldier. General. Traitor. This digital humanities project is a first look at the range of visual and material culture associated with the life and legacy of Benedict Arnold (1740-41-1801), a man who remains, almost 250 years after his infamous turn, symbolic in American culture. Reflecting the shadow of Arnold's long reach across geography and memory…

The Life and Times of William Lanson: Black Freeman in 19th Century New Haven

https://vimeo.com/647064129 Excluded from the city’s history for almost two-centuries, New Haven is finally elevating this important man for his contributions to our city. The program is the most comprehensive and accessible collection of historical data available on Lanson to date, and consists of a pamphlet, video, and virtual seminar. Pamphlet: William LansonDownload https://vimeo.com/545199310 Meet the Team Aleta Staton will be our host for the seminar…

Virtual Seminar by Site Projects, Inc. April 25, 2021