Museums/Living History Events

Museums, historical sites, museum houses, living history villages, heritage sites, and other “places of the past” can be especially enhanced with a visit – or even a artist-residency — from Silhouettes By Hand.

Lauren Muney, the artist of Silhouettes By Hand, has a special interest in history and helping others enjoy the treasures of history. She believes that ‘history’ is only a new understanding of our ‘present’. History is not just boring facts; history is contemporary people doing modern things – for their own time. It has its own surprises. She has studied the development of the artform as well as portraiture in Colonial, Revolutionary, Federal, and Antebellum America. Her specialty is to come in period-correct clothing, use period supplies whenever possible, and discuss details of the history while working, thus completing the visitors’ feeling of their participation in a traditional art. (Shown above: Lauren at 1860s-era Upper Canada Village, Morrisburg, Ontario, Canada)

Guest Interaction and Historical Interpretation

Lauren’s favorite events to participate are living history facilities and events, whereby the visitors can experience this traditional portraiture style – and feel like they have “been back in history” themselves. While there are only a handful of traditional freehand silhouette artists in the United States and Canada, is is rare to find a silhouette artist who interprets history to the visitor at the same time, bringing the visitor closer with the heritage. Imagine: a period-correct artist, in period-correct clothing, discussing the many factors of the time period, providing a valuable keepsake for the visitor.

Guest Benefits:

The guest receives a personal, interactive interpretative experience, focusing on that specific time period.
The guest sits for a freehand-scissored profile portrait, experiencing this historical portrait form in less than 3 minutes for the scissoring.
The guest, now a participant, connects deeper with the culture and feelings of the period, deeper than an observer’s viewpoint.
The guest takes home his or her portrait to remember themselves ‘time-traveling’.
The guest remembers their enjoyment of the facility and the event.

Museum/Facility Benefits:

The facility creates and develops a new event to capture the community’s attention, imagination, and communication (“buzz”). This can entice new and returning visitors to the facility.
The community and guests who visit the silhouette ‘station’ (and presentations) are enveloped in deeper interactivity than traditional interpretative tours, enhancing the guest benefits already provided by the facility.
Good-publicizing facilities can (and should) create a media event before, during, and after the silhouettes visit, increasing publicity and increasing revenue.
The rarity of having a historically-focused artist can also be turned to the media benefits of the facility.
Collaborating between several museums in a city can help the budgets of each museum bring Silhouettes By Hand to each facility.
Silhouette portrait keepsakes connect the visitor to the facility, both in the visior’s home and in networking with friends and loved ones.
Collaborating with a visitor-focused, highly-experiened-interactive artisan returns on investment more than commercial silhouette artists or even community volunteers.

Historical Time Periods:

Silhouette portraits are especially appropriate for facilities and events of the following historical periods:

18th century (1700′s) silhouettes: Colonial America, Georgian England, Rococo/Baroque Europe
19th Century (1800′s) silhouettes: Federal America, Westward expansion, Regency, Victorian, Romantic, Neo-classic, Industrial Age, Gilded Age
20th Century (1900′s) silhouettes: Edwardian, modern

Event Themes for Silhouette Portraiture:

Historical facilities or groups can use silhouette portraiture for special event days or even longer visits. The event possibilities are endless, including:

New Year celebrations
Valentine’s Day (a popular poetic love celebration celebration dating back to 1415)
Mother’s Day
George Washington’s Birthday
Independence Day celebrations
Family events
Bastille Day
Heritage celebrations
Living history towns and villages
Spring, Summer, Fall, or Harvest festivals
historic handcraft, skilled trade, or mechanick festivals
Market Fairs
Tea Festivals
technology development
pseudosciences
Christmas, Yule, and Hanukah celebrations
New Year’s Eve
conferences
private events

Photos and Contact:

A few photos are shown below from past events. Visit the Silhouettes By Hand Facebook page for more photo examples and historical tidbits, updated thrice per week.

If you are a historic, living history, or museum facility seeking superb guest interactivity, quality interpretation, and excellent hospitality, please contact Lauren with your event ideas and dates. She will send you an information sheet, and will create an event-specific proposal based on your facility, time period, and needs. Several budget options are available. Presentation programs are available, malleable to your needs.