Arun Rath: Tell us some more about how it came together and what “Voices in Votes” is meant to be about.
Perry: So it’s a non‑partisan examination of democracy throughout the whole history of our country, from basically the very beginning until roughly about now. And it’s an interactive exhibit, so it has several games that people can play: from deciding what the most American food is or deciding who influenced the country the most; what images and words most represent our ideas of democracy; what does it mean to be a citizen; what kinds of ideas and words and values come to mind when you think about what it means to be a citizen? And the way they have designed the exhibit is to get people engaged. So, they have a bunch of parts of the exhibition for people to take photos of themselves, to record themselves. They have hashtags. All sorts of different things. And the first community in Massachusetts it was at was the Mohawk Valley Regional School District. And the folks at Mohawk Valley came up with a bunch of activities for kids to do. And they have shared those activities with all of the different libraries, so we can get our kids involved in a greater way than even the Smithsonian had thought about. So, we have kids involved in ranked‑voting activities and scavenger hunts. All sorts of different things. It’s really an activity for everyone in the family, not just typical museum‑goers, maybe. So from just a little tiny tots up to adults. And it’s an interactive exhibit.
