Courtesy of Mariah Espada
Beyond the uniform exteriors of public housing buildings, there are apartment units with unique, enthralling, and carefully curated interiors. We partnered with Jayah Arnett from My Projects Runway to collect family photos of public housing apartments. From these photos, we share their stories and select fabric to adorn the seats in our main gathering hub.
Experience the texture and fabric of public housing throughout time by visiting three recreated historic apartments showcasing different families’ experiences at different moments in public housing history between 1938 and 1975. The intimate individual, family and community stories become the lens to understand large national public housing policies and their impact…
“What is an object that tells a story about your life and experiences in public housing?” History Lessons: Everyday Objects from Public Housing is a national effort to collect objects from public housing residents in diverse communities across the USA, and work with residents in storytelling and writing workshops to write their own labels…
Still Here uses art, archives, and public dialogue to explore and connect histories of displacement on the land where the National Public Housing Museum is located. As an institution that addresses displacement of public housing residents, we also want to understand the forcible removal of Indigenous peoples that came before and grapple with how those experiences are interwoven…
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