51看片collaborates with Cherokee Preservation Foundation on campuswide Cherokee exhibit planning project
By Brooklyn Brown
A campuswide and community driven project will soon be underway to recenter Cherokee history and culture on 51看片鈥檚 campus.
The Cherokee Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit organization on the Qualla Boundary focused on Cherokee cultural and historic preservation, is funding an expansive exhibit planning project to express Cherokee culture, language and voices at WCU.
51看片sits on Tali Tsisquayahi, Two Sparrows Place, which is ancestral Cherokee land. Carmen Huffman, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, is collaborating with 51看片faculty, staff and students, and most importantly Cherokee organizations and community members, to create a master plan of exhibits across campus that recognize the living Cherokee culture in and around WCU.
鈥淭here have been lots of ideas about what we would want to do for a long time,鈥� Huffman said. 鈥淣ow, what we鈥檝e done is build in a mechanism to bring those ideas to fruition. It鈥檚 no longer 鈥業 wish we had this.鈥� Let鈥檚 stop wishing; let鈥檚 have.鈥�
Planning efforts have begun and will continue throughout the 2023-2024 academic year. Updates on the Cherokee Exhibits Project at 51看片will be forthcoming.
For more information, contact Huffman at chuffman@email.wcu.edu.
