ANNA L. WEISSMAN, PHD

HISTORY COLORADO, Denver, CO

June 2023-

I lead History Colorado’s exhibition development program, serving as the interpretative content expert for History Colorado's core, traveling, temporary, and regional exhibits within cross-divisional exhibit teams​

• Lead History Colorado exhibit projects through all phases of exhibit development ensuring that cross-departmental exhibit development teams meet the needs of exhibit projects, producing 8 exhibits annually

• Help define main messages and themes, sets audience experience goals, generates storyboard, historical writing, interpretation, and exhibit script

• Provide expertise on pedagogy and technique as primary translator of research and intellectual content into creative, engaging, evocative, audience-focused exhibits​

• Coordinate with colleagues across History Colorado, including curatorial services, collections access, publications, philanthropy, membership, marketing, and communications and design and production to ensure clear communication and coordination for exhibition planning​​

HISTORICAL PRESERVATION COMMISSION OF LA PORTE, IN

September 2021 - May 2023

• Chair

  • Lead commission in planning and executing public education and outreach events, revenue-building enterprises, and community engagement for the advancement of La Porte's significant structures and historic districts

  • Lead annual planning, budget management, and ordinance compliance

  • Spearheaded original research on historic districts and individual historic sites for local designation Produced 75-page orientation manual and training for new commission members

  • Produced marketing and promotional materials (Guide to Local Designation; Six Reasons why Historic Preservation is Good for our Community)

  • Liaised with representatives from the department of Community Development and Planning, Code Enforcement, La Porte Common Council, and the office of the Mayor to ensure ordinance compliance

  • Liaised with representatives from Preserve Historic La Porte and Indiana Landmarks to coordinate on key initiatives and outreach events

HISTORIC BARKER MANSION, Michigan City, IN

• Restoration Project Management 

  • Managed $4.5-million-dollar site improvements and development projects, structural repairs, and restoration of a 165-year-old building

  • Managed $50,000 historic garden restoration (fall 2020-fall 2021) 

  • Provided weekly project updates with guided presentations and design input for Board of Directors

  • Procured conservators for specialty work

• Exhibits​ & Digital Content Design

  • Planned and implemented all temporary and permanent exhibits, including Legacy of Freight (1,200-square-foot, multi-room permanent exhibit on historic Haskell & Barker Car Factory, opens December 2022)

  • Managed $300,000 exhibit budget

  • Managed and collaborated on exhibit design with contracted graphic designer and illustrator 

  • Managed exhibit fabrication and installation timeline with Ravenswood Studio, major Chicago exhibit house  

  • Worked with Purdue-Northwest engineering students and faculty advisors in design and implementation of scale model of factory for inclusion in permanent exhibit

  • Provided digital content including monthly newsletters, social media campaigns, curatorial presentations, photography, and videography

  • Planned and implemented temporary pop-up exhibits

• Collection & Archive

  • Managed $2-million-dollar historical collection, digital archive, and physical archive

  • Overhauled digital database and performed comprehensive inventory on entire collection (~2,000 items)

  • Planned restructuring and reorganization of archive

  • Supervised volunteers and part-time curatorial staff 

SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY (NMAH), Washington, D.C.

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• Curatorial team, African American Social Justice History

  • Designed research on acquisition history, documentation, curatorial notes, exhibits pertaining to African American history 1963-1979; developed and implemented organizational methodology of division records

  • Spearheaded new collections initiative across divisions regarding responsible, community-focused collection practices, African American and Native communities 

  • Helped manage $40,000 for auction

• Exhibition team, “Girlhood: It’s Complicated” permanent exhibit (5,000 sq. foot gallery, June 12, 2020- January 2, 2022) and traveling exhibit (2023-2025)

• Collection team, “New Paths to Change: Undocumented Immigrant Activism, 2000 to Present,” with the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

• Researcher and copywriter for the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's Center for Restorative History

MATHESON HISTORY MUSEUM, Gainesville, FL

PANAMA CANAL MUSEUM COLLECTION, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, GEORGE A. SMATHERS LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, Gainesville, FL

• Guest curator of temporary exhibit “Fog of War? WWII Propaganda in the Panama Canal Zone,” March 2020

  • Researched, developed, and curated exhibition for 15 large cases

  • Created object list, curator’s statement, all interpretive text, exhibit layout, and exhibit press release

  • Worked with Curation and Collections Management teams in the Panama Canal Museum Collection and the Latin American and Caribbean Collection

  • Presented proposal to exhibit stakeholders for final stage approval

• Collections management

  • Inventory for objects and developed and implemented new organizational system based on medium for objects of the Panama Canal Museum Collection

  • Coordinated projects in consultation with Head of Special Collections