Museum of History and Industry Programs
MOHAI creates and presents award-winning exhibits that explore specific themes in local history or present nationally relevant topics to local audience. MOHAI's core exhibit, Essential Seattle is a chronological exploration of the region, bringing history to life and exploring major events and experiences of the people of Puget Sound. MOHAI also curates and builds exhibits, such as The Arts & Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest, which following its stay at MOHAI traveled through the state of Washington.
Anchoring these exhibits are artifacts and images from MOHAI's extensive permanent collection, including more than three million photographs, over 100,000 3-D artifacts, and an archive of 200,000 items such as corporate records, theater programs, ephemera and oral histories. The collections provide an invaluable resource to researchers interested in the rich past of Seattle and the Puget Sound.
MOHAI's education programs served more than 17,000 K-12 students and teachers last year. MOHAI works with area teachers to ensure all programs are aligned with state learning standards and are easily integrated with lesson plans. Through museum-based programs and history trunks in the schools, MOHAI provides hands-on experiences for students that connect what they learn in the classroom with artifacts and stories from our past. MOHAI ensures that all students regardless of means can participate by providing scholarships and subsidizing bus transportation.
Reaching out to the community beyond the museum walls, MOHAI offers a wide range of public programs. From the award-winning series MOHAI Minutes on You Tube to history tours that explore and interpret Seattle's past to classes and workshops on researching a history project, MOHAI makes history accessible and fun for people across the region.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
In 2010, MOHAI won the Award of Excellence from the Washington Museum Association for the the exhibit The Arts & Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest. MOHAI presented this exhibit in 2009-10 as an exploration of the exceptional work from this artistic movement in the Northwest during the early twentieth century. It showcased significant buildings and interiors, furniture, glass, metalwork, ceramics, textiles, fine arts, graphics and book arts, and photography with over one hundred objects drawn from public and private collections.
In November 2012, MOHAI will open a new museum in Lake Union Park. There, in the historic Naval Reserve Armory, MOHAI will present exhibits that not only help people better understand Seattle's past, but will also see people depart feeling more deeply committed to Seattle's future. Meanwhile, MOHAI remains vibrant at its Montlake location through June 2012, presenting exhibits such as Now & Then, an original exhibit that views Seattle history through the lens of repeat photography.