UNC Charlotte and the Levine Museum of the New South

Hello from UNC Charlotte, North Carolina's
urban research university and home to more than 25,000
UNC Charlotte 49ers.
This university has always had a strong connection
to the city and to the surrounding region.
Today, there are 49er connections are everywhere,
from thousands of alumni that live and work in the region,
to business and community leaders of every kind.
Today we take a look at one such partnership
with the Levine Museum of the New South.
UNC Charlotte has been continually looking for ways where
we can integrate the work that we do
and the researchers that we have into the community
and the Levine Museum of the New South has come up as a very natural partner
for us in a place where we feel like we can be a resource
and that matters that an institution like ourselves
finds ways to provide everyday dialogue and resources back into the community.
This has been a way to expand the minds of our students through the opportunities
that they have touring exhibits and as well as the community
getting to know who we are and the caliber of folks that we have here
at the institution teaching.
Because UNC Charlotte is the region's Research University and because
we define ourselves as not just a Research University,
but as an Urban Research University, we hire faculty who have great expertise
in things that relate to the problems and needs of this community.
The University of course has been involved with the Levine Museum
of the South since it was first born. More recently, I think the partnership
has really deepened. Our faculty have not just contributed
to the conversations that have taken place
at the Levine where we've discussed issues
of great importance to this community.
Again, education, energy, environment, the role of the arts
in the community, all of those things have been topics for conversation
between the university and the visitors to the Levine Museum.
Well, the Levine Museum of the new South and UNC Charlotte
have had close ties since the museum's founding 20 years ago.
Dr. David Goldfield of the History Department was actually
a founding board member, and he along with founder Sally Robinson
and other founding board members really selected the name
of the museum as well as, selected the guiding values that have
really shaped how we deliver our mission every day.
Scholarship, education, collaboration, inclusion, and fiscal responsibility,
and over there 20 years, we have presented a number
of joint programs.
Last year when the Levine Museum produced the Changing Places Exhibit,
which was just a dynamite exhibit that really talked about
the changing demographics of this region.
Our faculty from geography, were able to contribute to the
conceptualization of the project, but also we have faculty
who evaluated the response of the public to the project.
It's been fascinating for a group of geographers,
who are mainly academics, to be able to see how their work
can be represented to the public, and how we can engage
a wide range of audiences, from children and youth, to adults,
in issues that are really important to them as professionals.
It's also, I think, really important to see that we have tremendous
capability at the University.
I think sometimes, because we're at the northern edge of the county,
people think we're in North Dakota, and in fact we're pretty close.
And we have lots of people with great expertise in the whole
range of areas that are very important to the mission of the Levine Museum,
but also to Charlotte as a whole.
Well as part of the museum's 20th anniversary celebration this year,
we have brought back our award-winning exhibition
Courage: the Carolina Story that Changed America.
About the Carolina roots of the landmark Brown V. Board
of Education school desegregation case.
And a major aspect of its return is the creation of New Courage.
Where is courage needed today?
What New Courage does, is gives high school and college students
the opportunity to voice their own views, their own opinions.
It really provides the authentic voice of the next generation
and for too many of us, we don't hear that often enough.
We have to know of our own past and experience the pain of it,
to make certain that it never happens here again.
To me, what this partnership has shown is how you can move from outreach
to genuine engagement because the ongoing relationship
allows you to build on the earlier success
and we become more effective, and together we can accomplish
so much more than we could ever do singly.
And not only benefit our institutions, but also create greater good
for our community.
UNC Charlotte is connected to the city of Charlotte
and the surrounding region, now more than ever.
Community conversations and countless other efforts
taking place all the time help make this a better place
for business, for learning, for life.
If you would like more information on all the community initiatives
at the University, or for ways you can be involved,
visit uncc.edu.
From the campus of UNC Charlotte, thanks for staking your claim with us.
We'll see you next time.