How do we choose an exhibition topic?

You may have noticed that we have several new museum-quality display cases in the lobby of the library where we’ve been curating rotating exhibitions seasonally, or that JPL Curates gains a new exhibition page just as often. 

A patron recently asked us how we choose the content of these exhibitions. It’s a great question, but it doesn’t have a single, straightforward answer. When determining our exhibition programming, which we start working on about a year in advance, we ask ourselves a series of questions: 

What commemorations or anniversaries will be coming up during the programming period? 

Will this exhibition overlap with any Jewish holidays? 

We have done this a few times over the last two years, but we recognize that our seasonal programming does not change frequently enough to program for each holiday. (We also don’t have the capacity to change them as often as there are holidays!) We do have something very special planned for March, however--stay tuned for an upcoming issue of our newsletter der zamler for more information!

Is there a major anniversary coming up? 

For 2024, the answer is yes – the 110th anniversary of the library! We look forward to bringing you content related to the history of the library later this year. 2023 also marked 100 years since the birth of poet Chava Rosenfarb, which we celebrated by putting on an exhibition of Yiddish Poets of Montreal where she is heavily featured.

View the I turn to the poems of my friends exhibit

Are there any major events happening at the JPL with themes that overlap with our collections? 

What are the topics of the upcoming rare books workshops?

Alongside hosting Dr. Robin Vose in November 2023, we mounted an exhibition of censored books from the rare books collection, which is still on view in the library until March 2024. 

Have the archivists recently found anything that they think is important to share? 

While processing materials, is there anything that has really stood out that would interest our communities? 

This is how an architecture exhibition came to fruition – while former processing Archivist Kate Moore was going through the materials, she realized that the fonds might be a good candidate for an exhibition. If you missed it in the fall, the online exhibition is still available! 

View the Jules Janco exhibit

What perspectives have we been representing lately in our programming and which perspectives have we not given enough attention to? 

Have we been taking care to show windows into women’s history in addition to men’s?  

Archives in general tend to have more documents related to men and their activities than women. This is something we consider when trying to develop programming, so that we are not doing greater harm in reproducing these historical biases or omissions. Thankfully, the JPL Archives holds the records of numerous prolific women, such as Rita Brianksy. We had the pleasure to interview the artist last January, and featured an exhibition of more than 50 years of her sketchbooks that coincided with the launch of the video interview with the artist. If you visited more than once while the exhibition was up, you may have noticed that we were intermittently flipping pages of the sketchbooks, to bring a whole new exhibition each week. 

View the Learning to See: The Sketchbooks of Rita Briansky exhibit

Have we been making an effort to exhibit materials from Mizrahi and Sephardic fonds, in addition to Ashkenazi?  

The JPL Archives contains significantly more fonds attributed to Ashkenazi Jews than to Mizrahi or Sephardic Jews, and we are working with researchers to take stock of the other voices in our holdings. Once complete, we hope to use this guide to create more content around these identities and strike a better balance in our outreach representation.  

Have there been any topics that many researchers and community members have been asking us about lately? 

If our reference archivist notices common themes across several researchers, this is something that we consider when planning programming. Do you have any subjects you’d love to see featured in JPL Archives and Special Collections exhibitions, at the library or online? Let us know in the comments!