Transforming and healing a community through inclusive storytelling is the new mandate for museums of the 21st century, according to Jake Barton, the 34 year-old principal of the interactive design firm Local Projects. Local Projects was selected in April to co-design the permanent exhibition for the World Trade Center Memorial Museum.

According to a profile in Print (Sept-Oct 07), Local Projects "insists on a plurality of voices" in contrast to a "top-down presentation." The point is to create exhibitions that function as conversations rather than as repositories of authoritative fact. Barton says he is trying to "make diverse people visible to each other through a storytelling space."

The firm, which also designed Memory Maps for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the StoryCorps booth, attempts to choreograph "participatory drama" that incorporates Barton's ideas of connection and the importance of place.

What can be learned from Barton's work to apply to the city at large and to the public realm? Take a look and make your own judgment.

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