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Investigating Where We Live 2008

July 30, 2008 - January 19, 2009

Tactile
A visitor to the IWWL exhibition explores one of the tactile elements.
Museum Staff
Investigating Where We Live (IWWL) is a four-week summer program created by the National Building Museum in which middle and high school students from the Washington metropolitan area use digital cameras to explore, document, and interpret the built environment in D.C. neighborhoods. For IWWL 2008, students examined the Brookland, Deanwood, and Stanton Park neighborhoods. Their photographs, writings, and artwork are featured in this exhibition, Investigating Where We Live: A New Angle on Northeast.

Participants met three times a week to work with Museum staff, volunteer instructors, student interns, professional photographers, writers, design professionals, and curatorial experts. Three teams were assigned to investigate the physical and cultural aspects of their respective neighborhoods. Students gained an understanding of each neighborhood's identity by interviewing people who live and work there.

Installation
An IWWL participant prepares one of the walls for the exhibition of their work
Museum Staff

As the culmination of the program, participants designed and fabricated this exhibition with the goal of communicating what they observed in their neighborhoods. The participants visited exhibitions at the National Building Museum and other area museums to learn about the exhibition design process. Each neighborhood team then developed a theme and design concept which guided their selection of photographs and writings. Finally, the participants incorporated these themes, photographs, writings, and artwork into this student-designed exhibition.

Sponsors & Partners

Major funding for Investigating Where We Live is provided by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts; the Neighborhood Investment Fund; District of Columbia Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development; and The Beech Street Foundation.  Additional support for outreach programs is provided by The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; The Capital Group Companies; The Clark Charitable Foundation; The DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation; The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation; and Joseph F. Horning, Jr., among others.