ANNA L. WEISSMAN, PHD

FOUNDRY DESIGN STUDIO, CHICAGO, IL

May 2022-

We work with cultural institutions, businesses, and non-profit organizations to help them tell their story and preserve their history 

• Institutional genealogical research​​

• Archive design 

  • Curate ephemera, photographs, documents, and physical artifacts 

  • Preservation storage solutions

  • Digitization, audits, acquisition policies 

• Installations and digital exhibits

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 

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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

• 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