Museum Opens in New Orleans

The new Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience (MSJE) recently welcomed visitors to their four galleries with over 4,000 artifacts, which explore the relationship between Jews and Southern communities in the United States. Cortina Productions designed, produced, and installed seven interactive exhibits for the new museum in New Orleans, LA.

Anne E. Tucker, Curator at MSJE shares her experience working with Cortina Productions on this project. “It was an exceptional experience working with Cortina to bring our Museum’s interactives to life, from oral history kiosks and a Yiddish language game to a map that allows visitors to explore artifacts in our collection that are currently not on display. One of the digital exhibitions, our interactive quilt table, allows people the opportunity to make their own quilt square by choosing fabrics, patches, and even drawing unique designs before they “stitch” their square into our community quilt. This interactive serves as the anchor experience for visitors, where they tie together their own experiences with the stories and lessons they learned in our Museum. It was so rewarding to see Cortina translate our curatorial ideas and educational goals into such an engaging experience. Based on reviews from our visitors as well as reviews in the news, it’s definitely resonated with our communities!”

Galleries feature topics from “Immigration to the American South” and “Jews in Southern Culture” to “Foundations of Judaism” to help advance MSJE’s mission of promoting understanding and recognition of the Jewish experience in the Southern States.

Multimedia exhibits enable visitors to build deeper connections to exhibit content and encourage reflection and learning. For instance, the Foundations of Judaism interactive video wall is a fun and visually engaging experience that invites visitors to learn about the traditions of Judaism, including Jewish holidays and the Yiddish language. The Holocaust Oral History interactive allows visitors to explore and connect to video testimonies from Holocaust survivors who immigrated to the American South after World War II. These compelling first-person accounts present a human face and voice to the stories and provide visitors with a deeper understanding of a well-known aspect of Jewish history. Another exhibit invites visitors to explore an interactive map and learn more about southern Jewish communities through a current and updatable database of Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities web pages.