College can seem like a transitory experience for students: four years on a campus far from home, surrounded by a community you barely know. Michael Zhang, a Ph.D. candidate in art and archaeology, wanted to “make students aware of the history” of Princeton, particularly the stories of its local Black community, which inspired a new exhibit at Butler College’s James S. Hall Memorial Gallery, “Being at Home in Princeton.”
Part history, part art, and part technology, the exhibit includes a timeline of the Black community in Princeton from the 1700s to the present, along with photos from the Historical Society of Princeton; a series of postcard-themed paintings by Nigerian artist Onome Daniella Olotu, a recent artist-in-residence at the Arts Council of Princeton; and an immersive virtual tour of notable sites in town, including renderings of lost spaces and audio recollections from community members.
For example, viewers can see a 360-degree outdoor view of the former Witherspoon Street School for Colored Children, which served the town’s Black students until Princeton’s local schools integrated in 1948, and then step inside a virtual representation of a classroom, where an audio link narrates former student Leonard Rivers’ memories of the school.
The virtual reality tour was created by Museumverse, a group of graduate students that aims to help arts and cultural institutions use technological innovation in their exhibitions. The group launched during the pandemic. “We were seeing a lot of new technologies proliferate during COVID,” Zhang said, “but it wasn’t really appearing in the museum space.”
Since its founding in 2021, Museumverse has partnered with the Princeton University Art Museum, Morven Museum & Garden, the Drumthwacket Foundation, and the Historical Society of Princeton. Shruti Sharma, a Ph.D. candidate in electrical and computer engineering, said these collaborations rely on trust, and it has been encouraging to see how many local institutions have been open to working with Museumverse to explore new dimensions of storytelling.
“Being at Home in Princeton” will be on display through Dec. 3, and the virtual reality tour is available online at bit.ly/museumverse-tour.