Wyandotte Museums Receives $14,500 Grant

An exhibit honoring Wyandotte's long history is about to be resurrected.

is one of 30 groups to receive grant money from the Michigan Humanities Council.

Wyandotte was awarded $14,500 for the reinstallation of its city history exhibit gallery, which was on display for more than 30 years in the basement of the museum.

Jody Egen, Wyandotte's director of museums and cultural affairs, said she was honored to be included in this year's grant awardees.

“To be recognized by the council in such a generous manner speaks to the relevance and significance of our exhibit proposal," she said. "We look forward to sharing Wyandotte’s unique and fascinating history in a new and engaging way.”

The money will be used for an interactive exhibit that explores the earliest history of Wyandotte to the industrial revolution. Grant monies will support research, content and experience development, fabrication and installation of the exhibit, which will be housed at .

“This exhibit will focus on the distinctive local relationship between the human and natural environment, culminating in an understanding of what makes the city of Wyandotte unique," Egen said. "We seek to explore and illuminate the interplay between the land and the native people, and how that eventually developed through settlement and industry throughout the 19th and early 20th century into the community Wyandotte is today. This confluence of culture created a community distinctive in the local area, recognizable as an intangible element by both citizens and non-citizens alike."

The exhibit will have two levels: a lower level that will focus on Wyandotte’s prehistory, geography, and early industries, and a second level that will delve into the social history of the city in the post-settlement period.

The lower level display will be housed in the museum's basement, while the other level will be housed on the third floor.

“In the basement level, visitors will be able to explore how history illuminates this interplay of humanity and the environment to create a bedrock understanding of the fundamental core of our heritage," Egen said. "The site where Wyandotte sits today was, in the 1700s, a village for the Native American tribe known as the Wyandot, a part of the Huron Nation. Our rich Native American heritage will be featured, including the culture of the Wyandot people and their integral role in the history of the area. This foundation will then carry our visitors to the next level, physically and psychologically, where they will explore Wyandotte’s social history with an emphasis on ethnic groups, neighborhoods, lifestyles, businesses, schools, etc. The early history of Wyandotte, literally at the very foundation of our building, reinforces the rest of the Museum tour by setting the stage for this convergence of societies.”

Museums Assistant Sarah Schwochow said she looks forward to working on the project, which will be a permanent display. It's scheduled to be completed within a year.

“I’m very excited for the development process in planning this exhibit," she said. "Working with our panel of humanities professionals will be such an amazing experience. Gaining their insights on this project will bring new and interesting perspective on Wyandotte history that will translate into a fresh and relatable exhibit.”

The Michigan Humanities Council, which promotes cultural, historical and literary projects, awarded $350,850 in major grants to 30 Michigan nonprofits this year. Twenty nonprofits applied for grants last year. That number skyrocketed to 51 this year. The grants will provide organizations in 16 Michigan counties with money to host cultural events through exhibits, lectures, writing programs, festivals and more.

“We received an extraordinary number of very exciting, high-quality grant applications this spring and the Michigan Humanities Council has made the very bold decision to fund double the number of grants we usually fund this time of year as a result," Council Board Chair Timothy Chester said. "This is more than double the amount of grant dollars we awarded in the fall cycle, but with such a large number of great projects on the table, we decided to get the funds out into the communities now when the need is so great."