I have an enduring interest in multi-sensory museum experiences, especially when they bring in outside experts to expand a museum’s sensory impact. My collection of favorites include the Brooklyn Museum appointing a Cellist in Residence, the Prado inviting a perfumer to create scents for specific artworks, and the Detroit Institute of Arts serving drinking chocolate to complement an exhibit on beverages introduced into Europe in the 16th century. In today’s guest post, Meeghan Kane, Manager of Community Engagement at the South Carolina State Museum, spills the tea on an exhibit that is multi-sensory and fits into another of my other favorite categories–museums helping visitors envision the effects of climate change is having their community.
–Elizabeth Merritt, VP Strategic Foresight and Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums, American Alliance of Museums
In Fall 2024, a small team from the South Carolina State Museum traveled to the University of South Carolina’s nearby campus to chat with faculty at the School of Music. We were hoping for more music in the museum and opportunities for student musicians, and one off-hand challenge really resonated: our planetarium is a very weird space acoustically. If anyone could figure out a musical performance there, surely, they were among this talented group of musicians. A few students enrolled in the entrepreneurship program at the School of Music (led by Associate Professor of Violin and Violin Pedagogy Ari Streisfeld and Dr. David Cutler, Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation) accepted this challenge with vision and enthusiasm.
The South Carolina State Museum was also ready for a new challenge. I arrived at the museum three years ago at the beginning of its campaign to “Reimagine the Experience.” This is a construction project with a new roof and some much-needed updates to our historic building, a former textile mill built in 1891, but it’s also a transformation of our galleries and the stories we tell. We are planning large-scale renovations, including new immersive exhibitions and hands-on educational spaces, and, as the Manager of Community Engagement, I spend most of my time determining how best to create new experiences and highlight new voices – often in unexpected spots in the museum and often with music.
Julia Jacobsen reached out to Planetarium Manager Dr. Liz Klimek and me not long after our museum team’s meeting at USC. Julia was a senior, finishing up her degrees in violin performance and marketing studies and plotting her final requirement to satisfy a concentration in entrepreneurship. It was called the Curiosity Project and demanded big ideas and community engagement, along with a willingness to try new things.
My advisor for the related course, Dr. David Cutler, encouraged me to think big about what I would do and find ways to get involved within the community. I have a deep care for our planet and sustainable practices, and he had just had a meeting with SCSM staff about bringing music from USC to the museum, so we decided to reach out to inquire about performing in the planetarium. This was my first time directing a performance that was to be held at a community space, so I was initially unsure of the museum’s willingness to take on this project that had never been done before. However, I was thrilled to receive support for the project and be connected with both Meeghan and Liz.
Julia Jacobsen
At an initial on-site meeting with me and Liz, Julia envisioned an immersive experience that included videography to project images on the planetarium’s dome, accompanied by a classically trained quartet. The experience dramatized the impact of climate change in our communities here in Columbia, SC, including places “hidden from our daily lives.” We loved Julia’s ideas about sustainability and stewardship, and her artistic approach to accessibility, and put a date on the museum’s calendar for an April performance and community talkback called Music for Sustainable Change. Julia borrowed a 360° camera from USC, rented a drone from a neighbor, and taught herself how to use Adobe After Effects editing software.
When it came to capturing the footage, I visited two landfills around Columbia, and visited the Riverwalk near the zoo several times. I first experimented with mounting the 360 camera onto the drone, but the resulting footage was shaky as it didn’t have the same stabilization that the drone’s built-in camera had. I ended up getting different kinds of shots without the drone that worked better in the end, but my absolute favorite shot, the one overlooking the trash in the landfill, was captured with the drone’s camera.
Julia Jacobsen
I also spent about 2 hours sitting at two different street corners of some of the busiest intersections in Columbia, and it was a wild experience to see the sheer amount of commuter traffic there was into the city. We usually sit in our vehicles for such a short span of our day, but the traffic and damaging chemicals continue to be released constantly to the point where we don’t see how bad it is over time.
Liz and I scheduled a few rehearsals to see Julia’s footage on the planetarium dome and to ensure sound quality in the theater. The video was brilliant – colorful, moving, and perfectly designed for the dome. The quartet, arranged in a tight circle at the bottom of the planetarium theater, minimized the impact of the dome on their sound, while still sounding powerful and delicate at the same time. In the last few weeks leading up to the performance, David Dickson, the museum’s former Public Relations Manager and current TV Engagement Coordinator for Covering Climate Now, reached out to head a post-performance discussion.
On April 24, 2025, Julia, along with fellow USC students, Aidan Billings, a senior violinist, Douglas Temples, a doctoral violist, and Hillary Flowers, a doctoral cellist, performed selections from Olivier Messiaen, Philip Glass, and Antonín Dvořák – all chosen to correspond with Julia’s imagery projected onto the planetarium dome. Afterward, David Dickson shared insights from his work with the press on climate change issues, and fielded questions from the audience. Everyone left wanting to learn more, and Julia departed with a completed Curiosity Project.
This experience absolutely opened me up to the possibility of doing more multidisciplinary performances, especially those relating to social and environmental concerns. I had never organized a performance with so many different artistic elements, so I have now gained sufficient confidence that I can do it again and even better in the future. I’m very used to performing in orchestral concerts that mainly centered around sharing beautiful or interesting music, but hosting a performance with a larger impact in mind was so much more rewarding and complemented my passions in other areas beyond music.
Julia Jacobsen
Music for Sustainable Change was one of several programs at the museum designed to engage our state in community conversations. Like other cultural institutions, we aim to be an educational resource and a community convener – a place to gather and a space where young people can express their ideas, take on big issues, and flex their talents and skills. We host Constellation Concerts in our observatory, allowing for night sky viewing while South Carolina artists perform; we invite guests to learn about the legacy of Black foodways in the state and the leadership of Black chefs, farmers, and fishermen in sustainability efforts in our Harvesting Heritage series; and we partner with nationwide efforts to create hands-on history programs for high school and college students, like Douglass Day. Increasingly, our best-laid plans begin with a spark of curiosity from a young and talented South Carolinian with a big idea. We just need to make sure we’re listening.
