February 22, 2025 | The Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County had another wonderfully busy year in 2024. We welcomed 7,176 visitors, and we hosted many exciting programs, exhibits, and events.
Our annual exhibit, Dearly Departed: Death & Dying in Montgomery County, may have surprised some people. While many visitors quickly embraced both the local history component and the more general historical information in the display, others were a bit more skeptical … until they viewed the exhibit. The most frequent comment we heard was, “That exhibit was fascinating! I wasn’t sure what to expect from the title, but I learned so much.” Two speakers, Jeanie Regan-Dinius and Sheila Riley, who spoke on cemetery symbolism and Victorian mourning practices respectively, were a great complement to the exhibit and addressed enthusiastic crowds during the spring months.
Also on display in 2024 was Access Art!, an interactive exhibit by professional artist Owen Lowery. Owen was the Artist in Residence at Wabash College during the spring 2024 semester, and while he had his own extensive exhibit at the Dean Gallery on campus, he was also eager to engage with the wider Montgomery County community. The Carnegie Museum was fortunate to be the recipient of Owen’s outreach, hosting three interactive displays, including Balloon Song, Speech to Text to Sign to Song to Art, and Poetic Braille. At the end of the exhibit, Owen generously gifted us with our very own version of Balloon Song including sounds of Montgomery County, along with a magnetic poetry board. Come check it out if you haven’t already.
In addition to these larger exhibits, we rounded out the year with three community art shows in the fall: Home, The Journey Within, and Crawfordsville Schools Art Extravaganza. From professional to student artists, the Carnegie Museum has it all!
On the educational programming side, the total eclipse on April 8 got lots of attention in our area, and we rose to the occasion by providing several informational displays in the building, creating and distributing 500 take-home kits with eclipse-themed family activities, and hosting an outdoor viewing event for approximately 100 people. (A big thanks to the Simons Foundation for providing funding for these eclipse activities!) Our eclipse programming joined Family Art Day, Pi Day, Brain Day, and School Break Science in drawing nice crowds to the museum, offering families hands-on learning and demonstrations. We also kept kids busy in both summer and winter with our annual Summer at the Museum, Photos with Santa, and Winter Crafts events.
We were also excited to unveil our new website this year, which not only features our new logo and branding created by 1909 Digital, but also helps us to better showcase all of the things we have going on at the museum. You can even become a Friend of the Carnegie Museum through the website and sign up for the new digital monthly newsletter we’ll be unveiling in 2025.
In addition to all of this, the Carnegie Museum welcomed numerous school field trips, child and adult services groups, homeschool groups, Scout troops, local organizations, and author book signings, as well as visitors from all over the United States. It was a great year for us, and we can’t wait to bring you even more history, science, and art in 2025. Thank you for your continued support of the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County!
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