Category: Museum News
Fall Internship 2023
The First Amendment Museum is seeking interns for eight weeks beginning September 25th through November 17th, 2023.
Located in Augusta, ME, the museum is a nonprofit organization. We are strictly nonpartisan and are dedicated to educating people about, and inspiring them to understand, live, and love their First Amendment freedoms – religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.
Potential areas of engagement include exhibition research and design. Exhibits currently under consideration are bone records (recordings of banned music made on old X-ray films), contemporary and historic raids on newspaper offices, freedom of religion, media bias, and current threats to democracy but other topic suggestions relating to the First Amendment are open to discussion.
Intern Responsibilities
- Conduct research on a topic of interest relating to the First Amendment
- Write research conclusions in an accessible style for tour manuals and display in the museum exhibit
- Collaborate with museum staff to design and develop exhibitions
- Attend weekly meetings for research progress reviews
Intern Qualifications
- Currently enrolled in or graduated from an undergraduate or graduate program in education, museum studies, history, journalism, media studies, graphic design, or related field.
- Interest in museums, civic education, and civil discourse.
- Passion for protecting our First Amendment rights.
- Enthusiasm for engaging with museum visitors.
- Excellent computer skills.
- Familiarity with Microsoft Office, Gmail, Google Drive, social media, and website updates.
The First Amendment Museum is offering $1300 (paid by stipend) for a commitment of no more than 15 hours per week. The position may be in-person, remote, or hybrid. However, Interns may be asked to spend a minimum number of hours on-site to during the exhibition design process based upon their own schedule. Additional questions or interested applicants may email a resume and cover letter to Genie Gannett, Executive Director at ggannett@firstamendmentmuseum.org.
In this video, the First Amendment Museum hosts a discussion and debate on a proposal in the Maine Legislature (LD 123) that would make public schools subject to Maine’s anti-obscenity law and could ban schools from providing students with books and other educational materials considered obscene.
The bill was proposed by Sen. Jim Libby (R-Cumberland), who said his bill would protect children from inappropriate materials and provide a clear standard for what content would be allowed in schools.
Joining us for this debate is Nick Murray, Director of Policy with Maine Policy Institute, and Savannah Sessions, a school librarian and Legislative Chair for the Maine Library Association.
About the Presenters
Nick Murray
Nick Murray serves as Director of Policy with Maine Policy Institute, developing MPI’s policy research, analysis, and strategic advocacy priorities. He is the author of numerous articles and publications, such as the 50-State Emergency Powers Scorecard, Long-Term Growth vs. Short-Term Gimmicks: Maine’s Economy and Gov. Mills’ Second Biennial Budget, and the School Choice Map of Maine.
Savannah Sessions
Savannah has been a school librarian since 2015 and an educator since 2012. She has a passion for YA literature, information access and literacy, and library advocacy. Savannah works tirelessly to promote the notion that libraries are so much more than buildings full of books – they are community hubs. Outside of her professional life, Savannah has a great interest in historic preservation/conservation – especially of historic windows and gilded objects, good food, and mountain biking. She is the Legislative Chair for the Maine Library Association.
Summer Internship 2023
The First Amendment Museum is seeking interns (paid via stipend) for the Summer (May/August/September) of 2023.
Located in Augusta, Maine, the Museum is a non-partisan nonprofit organization dedicated to educating people about, and inspiring them to exercise, their First Amendment freedoms—freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. The interns will be expected to work closely with the Manager of Visitor Experiences and other Museum staff to conduct guided tours for the general public, conduct research and writing for Museum exhibitions and special projects, and assist with Museum programming and special events. These positions require the ability to stand for long periods of time, climb stairs, and interact positively with visitors on site at the First Amendment Museum (no virtual or remote internships available). Some additional hours during special events and evenings may be required periodically.
The First Amendment Museum is offering a $2,000 stipend for the total internship, as well as other professional development opportunities including admission to affiliated museums in Maine, one-on-one time with other professional staff, inclusion in staff workshops, and more. Interns will be expected to commit to the entire duration of time. Interns will be expected to work from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM onsite at the First Amendment Museum for three days a week either Monday – Wednesday or Thursday – Saturday.
Qualifications:
- Currently enrolled in, or graduated from, an undergraduate or graduate program in
museum studies, history, public history, education, journalism, political science,
sociology, gender studies, or related field with: - Interest in museums and/or civic education;
- Passion for First Amendment freedoms;
- Enthusiasm for working with the public;
- Excellent computer skills; and
- Familiarity with Microsoft Office, Gmail, Google Drive
Interested applicants should email a resume and cover letter to the Manager of Visitor Experience, Maxwell Nosbisch, mnosbisch@firstamendmentmuseum.org.
Applications are due by 12:00 PM on March 13th. Qualified interns will then interview with FAM staff via Zoom, and then final selections will be made. There are three openings available.
The First Amendment Museum is an EOE.
Augusta’s 1st Amendment Museum names new board leadership
Gene Policinski will succeed museum co-founder Genie Gannett as board president.
The following article was published by Central Maine on 1/17/2023. Read it on their website here.
AUGUSTA — The First Amendment Museum has announced the appointment of new board officers and members, including naming Gene Policinski, senior fellow for the First Amendment for the Freedom Forum, to succeed museum Co-Founder Genie Gannett as board president.
www.centralmaine.com
Policinski, FAM’s newly elected board president, has been a member of FAM’s board of directors since 2020. Policinski is a founding editor of USA Today and a longtime proponent of diversity as an essential element of a free press. Policinski joined the Freedom Forum in 1996 as executive assistant to the president and retired in 2020 as president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum Institute.
Policinski is also the former COO of the Newseum, a national trustee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and a member of multiple journalism associations, including the News Leaders Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. He holds a Certified Journalism Educator designation from the Journalism Education Association.
“The five freedoms of the First Amendment power and protect the open discussion and vigorous debate that is vital for a self-governing people,” explained Policinski. “The First Amendment Museum is the right institution at a critical moment in our nation’s history to educate and remind our fellow citizens of those freedoms — and of the responsibilities that are inherent in them.”
Succeeding Policinski as board secretary is Janet Marstine, a board member of FAM since spring 2022. She is honorary associate professor of Museum Studies (retired), University of Leicester, U.K., and is an independent scholar and consultant based in Yarmouth. She writes on diverse aspects of museum ethics, from curatorial ethics to negotiating the pressures of self-censorship to artists’ interventions as drivers for ethical change.
Marstine has done ethics consulting with institutions from the National September 11 Memorial Museum to the Royal Air Force Museum, and she has served on advisory boards for the U.K.’s National Holocaust Centre and Museum and the E.U.-funded research project Transmitting Contentious Cultural Heritage with the Arts. Marstine serves on the board of the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine.
The FAM also appointed Rex VanMiddlesworth as a member of the board of directors. VanMiddlesworth spends his summers in midcoast Maine, and is a senior counsel at O’Melveny in Austin, Texas. His practice focuses on commercial litigation, administrative law, energy, and alternative dispute resolution.
The First Amendment Museum, 184 State St., is open year-round for tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Free Teacher Seminar Onsite at James Madison’s Montpelier for Maine Educators
Scholarships available for Maine teachers, giving them the opportunity to deepen First Amendment knowledge, train in Virginia, share back with Maine students and community
(Augusta Me., January 6, 2023) — The First Amendment Museum is looking for Maine teachers to travel to James Madison’s Montpelier and attend teacher training seminars centered around the First Amendment. Full scholarships are currently available to teachers working in Maine.
In 2022, the First Amendment Museum partnered with James Madison’s Montpelier in an Institute for Museum and Library Services, Museums for America grant to develop non-partisan programming that encourages a better understanding of the First Amendment.
Over a three-year cycle, the two museums will develop programming that inspires and empowers Americans to become more active, better informed and engaged citizens.
The grant funding enables the two institutions to:
- facilitate four two-day training seminars in Virginia for 100 teachers nationwide, including at least eight teachers from Maine;
- develop and implement workshops for 250 Maine students that will help students connect civics with their local history; and
- host community workshops in Maine that encourage participants to delve deeper into understanding how civic change occurred throughout their local history.
Christian Cotz, chief executive officer of the First Amendment Museum since 2020, previously served as the director of visitor engagement at James Madison’s Montpelier. “As a past developer and participant in Montpelier’s onsite trainings, I know firsthand the level of excellence the staff brings to their work, as well as how meaningful participants find the experience,” Cotz said. “The collaboration between my talented colleagues here at the First Amendment Museum and the team at Montpelier will yield phenomenal results. My hope is that many of Maine’s social studies, history and civics teachers will take advantage of this exciting continuing education opportunity.”
The first of the four teacher seminars is scheduled for March 31 – April 2, 2023, and is focused specifically on the First Amendment. The three seminars that follow are set to happen between fall 2023 and early 2024.
The program includes meals, lodging, travel reimbursement, textbooks and resources, and continuing education credits available through James Madison University.
Teachers can apply at www.montpelier.org/events/seminar_firstamendmentschool. There is an $85 nonrefundable registration fee per seminar, which should be paid within 15 days of acceptance.
We’re excited to share this front-page article for the winter 2022 edition of Women’s Quarterly of the Morning Sentinel / Kennebec Journal. It features the First Amendment Museum’s co-founder and president of the board, Genie Gannett as she talks about her family history and future plans with the First Amendment Museum.
This article was written by Nancy P. McGinnis and was originally published on Thursday, January 20, 2022. You can read the entire edition online here.
Please click on the images to enlarge them.
Related Articles
Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) share their thoughts on the importance of the First Amendment in advancing democracy.
“[The First Amendment] enabled us to remain a free people, it enables us to engage in the rigorous debate that we have in this country, and to communicate with one another freely.”
– Senator Angus King
“Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of all other freedoms.”
– Senator Susan Collins
Renowned professor of the early American republic joins efforts at the First Amendment Museum
The First Amendment Museum (FAM) announces the appointment of Peter S. Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Professor Emeritus at University of Virginia and a specialist in the history of the early American republic to the Museum’s Board of Directors.
Onuf, who retired to Maine several years ago, brings extensive scholarship in American history to the Board of Directors and the new concept museum that inspires people to understand and exercise their First Amendment rights. The FAM is located in the historic capital district of Augusta, ME in the former home of media titan, Guy P. Gannett, and was founded by his granddaughters, Genie Gannett and Terry Gannett Hopkins.
“The First Amendment has never been more important to Americans than it is now,” Onuf said. “I am honored to serve on the board of the First Amendment Museum, a critically important civic resource for our troubled times.”
Onuf was educated at Johns Hopkins University, where he received his A.B. in 1967 and Ph.D. in 1973, and has taught at Columbia University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Southern Methodist University before he arrived in Virginia in 1990. In 2008-2009 Onuf was Harmsworth Professor of American History at the University of Oxford; in 2014, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“We are absolutely delighted to have Peter’s vast knowledge and scholarship of America’s founding history on our Board as we build a museum of the future,” Christian Cotz, Chief Executive Officer said. “Peter’s expertise will help us expand our vision and fully share the importance of the First Amendment with our visitors.”
Onuf conducted extensive research on Thomas Jefferson’s political thought, culminating in Jefferson’s Empire: The Language of American Nationhood (University Press of Virginia, 2000). The Mind of Thomas Jefferson (2007, also Virginia), grows out of earlier studies on the history of American federalism, foreign policy, and political economy. He and co-author Annette Gordon-Reed published Most Blessed of Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (Liveright, 2016); his Jefferson and the Virginians: Democracy, Constitutions, and Empire was published in 2018 by Louisiana State University Press. With Ed Ayers and Brian Balogh, Onuf was also a founding co-host of the public radio program “Backstory with the American History Guys”. His early scholarship focused on federalism, territorial expansion, and 18th-century international relations.
“We are at a crossroads in our country’s history and having a deeper understanding of our First Amendment freedoms is more important than ever,” Genie Gannett, President and Co-Founder said. “The First Amendment gives us the freedom to speak, publish our ideas, to practice religion, or not, and gives everyone a pathway to make the changes in our society that we want to see”.
First Amendment Museum Receives a $249,000 Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
A rendering of the design for the completed First Amendment Museum in Augusta.
The First Amendment Museum (FAM) was awarded a highly competitive Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the amount of $249,000 to “Complete the Permanent Exhibition Design for the First Amendment Museum.” The FAM is a new non-partisan museum focused on educating and inspiring individuals to exercise their First Amendment rights: religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.
“The FAM is thrilled to receive this federal grant which will move our project forward in important ways,” said Christian Cotz, CEO. “The museum’s exhibitions will demonstrate how Americans have utilized their First Amendment rights as a tool to advance our society and to create that ‘more perfect union’ that is our civic charge. But perhaps more importantly, these dynamic, thought-provoking, and interactive exhibitions will inspire people to live their freedoms and exercise their rights in more intentional and effective ways.”
The First Amendment Museum has embarked on a sitewide restoration project to transform the historic Guy P. Gannett house, located next to the Maine State Capitol and Governor’s Mansion, into a 21st-century museum. The exhibition will be created by celebrated designer Helen Reigle of HER Design in Boston, whose portfolio includes the Boston Public Library’s Dear Boston: Messages from the Marathon Memorial, the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s A Whole New Game, and America on The Move at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
“This major grant will help us create a visitor experience that is unique, interactive, and relevant,” said Genie Gannett, Co-founder and President of the Board of Directors. “We’re tremendously grateful to the IMLS for their generous support of this effort.”
The state-of-the-art exhibition will allow visitors to encounter, interact with, and reflect upon their rights by reinforcing the notion that we utilize and engage with our First Amendment freedoms daily, often inside our own homes. Incorporating best practices for exhibition design, each room of the museum will interpret a particular aspect of the First Amendment. For example, a dystopian kitchen will show what life would be like in a society without the First Amendment; the Library of Censorship will highlight books, movies, and music that have been banned throughout the years; a teen bedroom will explore youth speech and social media; and the exercise room will engage kinesthetic learners.
A dystopian kitchen will show what life would be like in a society without the First Amendment.
The completion of this exhibition will contribute to visitors’ understanding of their First Amendment rights and inspire them to practice and preserve the five freedoms of the First Amendment.
“We are in the beginning stages of this campaign to build an inspiring new museum here in Maine,” said Jamie O’Brien, Chief Development Officer. “The IMLS Grant is an important step, and we hope others will join us in this non-partisan project to inspire and educate on the importance of utilizing our First Amendment rights for the betterment of our society and our country.”
About the First Amendment Museum
The First Amendment is the cornerstone of democracy; when Americans value our freedoms, democracy thrives. The First Amendment Museum is a non-partisan museum that inspires us to “Live Our Freedoms” by understanding and using our First Amendment rights to advance democracy so that all reap the benefits. Visitors can explore the Museum located in the historic capitol district of Augusta on free guided tours of the temporary exhibition spaces – available from 10 am – 4 pm, Monday through Friday, and on Saturdays until September 4th.
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