The Smithsonian National Museum of American History is one of my favorite museums for its dedication to creating exhibits that highlight and inspire young girls. The museum has a new exhibit titled I Am A Game Changer (Soy Un Cambiador De Juego). The exhibit is a “family-friendly, interactive exhibition on the intersection of invention, sports, and technology developed by the museum’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.” The exhibit showcases dynamic stories and objects, some of which highlight women and young girls who have made an impact through their inventions and sources of technology in the athletic world. This article will focus on how showcasing the impact of women and young girls on the athletic world can inspire young girl visitors.
The entrance to the exhibit has screens of a presentation that feature the various stories and objects showcased in the exhibit and the significance of the exhibit. One of the slides on the presentation reads, “No matter what your age, shape, or size, every woman and girl has the right to the benefits of exercise.” This explains how the exhibit seeks to explore all issues and controversies within the sports world and inspire visitors to feel like they can make a difference no matter their age, gender, and ability.
Along with an early prototype of the sports bra created by Hinda Miller and Lisa Lindahl in 1977, the exhibit also showcases the story of Arielle Rausin, who, at 21 years old, founded Ingenium Manufacturing, a company that develops her innovation of 3D printed gloves for para-athletes involved in wheelchair racing. Stories like Rausin’s are significant as they can help inspire young girls who have a wide range of disabilities and enjoy playing sports. The showcasing of the stories of young disabled girls is not often something museums focus on when curating an exhibit. Raisin’s story is one of the few stories that explain how young girls have created innovations that have greatly impacted the sports world.
The issue with the exhibit is that despite being referred to as a family-friendly exhibit, the entire exhibit has a lot of detailed labels, panels, and other sources of writing on the interactives that visitors under the age of 13-15 years cannot fully comprehend. The museum’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation also developed the Spark!Lab. Spark!Lab is a children’s space also located at NMAH that seeks to allow young children to become inventors. My next article will focus solely on Spark!Lab. The center has created some interactives that allow you to feel as if they, too, can create innovations that can positively impact the sports world, similar to the young girls showcased in the I Am A Game Changer exhibit.
-Lindsay Guarnieri
Junior Girl, Curatorial
Girl Museum