The Brownsburg Museum’s development team for the current exhibit, “Interwoven: Unearthed Stories of Slavery,” was selected to participate in a roundtable discussion at the recent Virginia Association of Museums 2025 annual conference in Blacksburg.
The session, “Building Experience, Building Community: Incorporating Community Engagement in Exhibit Planning and Design,” marked the first time the all-volunteer Brownsburg Museum was invited to attend the state’s premier conference for museum professionals.
Team members included Julie Fox, museum director; Dee Papit, exhibit developer and writer; and Brian Thomson, exhibit designer. Together, they joined other panelists from the National Park Service and an Alexandria-based exhibit production company to share with attendees how the core tenets of community engagement can be applied and implemented in exhibit planning and design.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to share the story of our small museum and the Brownsburg community,” Fox said. “Many attendees are museum professionals, so it was also a great honor to showcase our museum at the statewide conference.”
“The focus of conferences like this is professional development for museums and historic sites. So, the opportunity to share the story of our small two-room, all-volunteer rural museum was really exciting,” responded Papit. “I hope that by sharing our story, especially with other smaller organizations, we can inspire them to realize that great stories are not exclusive to larger urban museums. They also belong to local community museums.”
Fox led the team’s roundtable discussion and shared with the audience how the museum involved various community members in developing the exhibit. Before the exhibit was installed, multiple groups — from UVA graduate students to members of Asbury Church and descendants of those enslaved in Brownsburg — were engaged to help develop ideas and content.
“To think we were at the forefront of museum practices, such as ‘community engagement in planning and design,’ is a great tribute to our work. But, involving the community from the very first inkling of an idea to its completion as an exhibit is simply how things are done in a small place, so it came naturally to us,” remarked Fox.
The Virginia Association of Museums (VAM) represents hundreds of museums across the commonwealth. Its mission is to advocate for the importance of museums in our communities and strengthen the cultural sector by supporting museum professionals throughout their careers with professional development, networking, and thought leadership. This year’s conference theme, “Looking Back To The Future,” explored how looking at the past helps residents shape the future of Virginia’s rich and diverse museum community. The event was held at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center.
The Brownsburg Museum will reopen the “Interwoven” exhibit for its second season starting in April. The museum is open to the public on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. Special group tours can also be arranged. More information can be found at the website brownsburgmuseum.org.
