IN PURSUIT OF FREEDOM

In 2010, Brooklyn Historical Society, Weeksville Heritage Center, and Irondale Ensemble Project collaborated to tell the story of the role of black and white Americans in the anti-slavery and abolitionist movements before the Civil War. The project In Pursuit of Freedom (IPoF) was a unique collaboration, a three-year partnership consisting of several elements:

• Three separate exhibitions, each representing different perspectives of the In Pursuit of Freedom story
• A content-rich interactive website
• An education curriculum
• An artist’s memorial
• A series of historic markers
• An original theatrical production

Living in neighborhoods from Brooklyn Heights to Weeksville, Brooklyn abolitionists, black and white, helped to define the national debate and effected change on a local level in Brooklyn. Lord Cultural Resources, as a part of the Matter Practice exhibition design team, lead the community engagement efforts throughout Brooklyn and developed an Interpretive Plan to bring this story of courageous Brooklynites in the revolutionary and ante-bellum eras to the residents of the same communities today.