MANY is New York State’s representative of the MoMS program, an outreach program of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service that brings traveling exhibitions, educational resources, and programming across America to communities through local museums, historical societies, and other cultural venues.

Voices and Votes is adapted from the exhibition American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith currently on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. This traveling exhibition includes many of the same dynamic features: historical and contemporary photographs; educational and archival video; engaging multimedia interactives, and historical objects like campaign souvenirs, voter memorabilia, and protest material. 

As our nation approaches the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we know that museums are searching for ways to engage their communities with connections to the history of our nation. They are seeking ways to tell multivocal stories of our past, to embrace all the people who live in their communities regardless of race, religion, or nation of origin. 

Learning about and understanding democracy is a process that takes place at the intersection of place, the individual, and the community. Museums with their depth of public trust, central locations within communities, and their physical and programmatic gathering spaces can become a new Agora* for the twenty-first century. Within these trusted spaces, objects of material culture, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, literature, and works of art can ground conversations in shared experiences. 

Smithsonian resources available to the twelve museums will include digital learning curricula, preformatted press kits, and other capacity building tools. MANY staff will organize the exhibition travel, and help each museum plan, implement, and evaluate the exhibitions and interpretive programs. 

Voices and Votes exhibition themes include:

• the principles and events that inspired the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution;
• the struggle for voting rights and equal participation in our democracy; 
• freedoms and responsibilities of citizens; 
• the formal and informal processes of our political systems;
• music, performance, and visual arts as expressions of democracy;
• protest and actions beyond the ballot including civil rights movements and the struggles of historically marginalized people;
• and supporting new American citizens.