On February 28, 2012, the Heritage Philadelphia Program and the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative continued our Hidden Stories venture through a discussion between constituents of both initiatives. We talked about the nature of collaboration, historic object interpretation, artistic responsibility, and much more. Below is Sebastienne Mundheim’s response.



by Sebastienne Mundheim, White Box Theatre

"Counsel woven into the fabric of lived life is wisdom," it is such woven wisdom that the storyteller hands on.
—Esther Leslie on Walter Benjamin

On Entering a Collaborative Relationship within a Commission: Understanding the Investment of the Artist

I am grateful for the dialogue we have around storytelling. I grappled with these thoughts all night. I am glad for the provocations. I came to be a responsive art-maker through circumstance. When commissioned I do try to find an authentic love relationship—a true revelation. I like the anthropological experience of visiting the unknown and trying to describe it, engage with it. They are exercises, but within each exercise I try to find a true voice.

by Richard W. Fink II, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Sketch Club



Cliveden: Home of the Chew family and site of the 1777 Battle of Germantown. Spirits of departed soliders are believed to remain on the property.


In the fall of 2010 I received a “Scholars in the Interpretation of History” award from HPP. The grant supported development of public programs that explored connections between historical ghost stories, contemporary spiritual practices, and the power of place. While there was no clear expectation for what these public programs should entail, I was asked to create a project that went “beyond predictable ghost tours.”

by Cornelia S. King, Curator of Women’s History, Library Company of Philadelphia

I was intrigued to be invited to join a field trip sponsored by Heritage Philadelphia Program (HPP) and the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative (PTI), which I described to my colleagues at the Library Company as a mash-up between people like us (special collections librarians and archivists) and people in the performing arts. I imagined wonderful outcomes; wouldn’t it be great to collaborate on programming that would re-create the singing, dancing, and theatrical staging that is documented by the printed sheet music, playbills, and programmes in our collection? 

by Sarah Biemiller, former Senior Program Associate for The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage

I attended Jan Ramirez’s lecture here at the Center on October 20, 2011. She came here to talk about the intricacies of designing the National September 11 Memorial Museum. The museum will consist of 110,000 square feet of exhibition space, located “within the archaeological heart” of the World Trade Center site. Using archives, personal narratives and authentic artifacts, the museum will “provide a link to the events of 9/11, while presenting intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning, and recovery that are central to telling the story of the attacks and the aftermath.” Ms. Ramirez’s lecture was raw. It was profound. But first and foremost, it was sensitive and thoughtful. Obviously the subject matter is delicate. She emphasized how they want to create a museum that honors all those who perished that day, as well as the countless individuals who assisted in the recovery, all the while remaining sensitive to the victims’ families and to their memory. 

This program was formerly known as HPP Scholars in the Interpretation of History

Heritage Philadelphia Program (HPP) of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2011 HPP Awards for Interpretive Inquiry and Investigation. This professional development opportunity supports individual practitioners in the investigation of imaginative projects in public history.

• connecting the present to the past in engaging, imaginative, and meaningful ways,

• responding to audience/community interests or needs,

• demonstrating a complex understanding and presentation of history.