RAMP is providing research for a series of documentaries on the legal and community response to the racially motivated 2022 shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Working with the Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan University, we are creating resources on Buffalo’s racial history, Black community organizations, and the city’s history of racial violence that will inform the films.

After beginning the historic renovation process, trustees of the Wilson Bruce Evans House turned to us for next steps in bringing about their vision for an educational center. RAMP developed a comprehensive master plan that aligned the board’s goals, the family’s input, and the community’s needs with the historic building in downtown Oberlin. Through careful discussion, we helped the board clarify and articulate their priorities. Surveying similar institutions provided benchmarks for future planning alongside possible programming and audience development prospects.

By bringing together student researchers, local residents, and the college community, we expanded the traveling exhibit through programs that encouraged visitors to understand the relevance of this WWII-era history for today. Guest speakers, student docents, musical performances, and documentary films deepened the impact and widened the audience for this nationally-touring exhibition, for which we also researched and designed the local component.

A newly built hallway provided an ideal location to tell the remarkable history of Oberlin’s hospital. Julie synthesized research collected over decades into a story of community participation that brought together medical personnel, the college community, and local residents. With consideration for the medical setting, panel text was kept brief and presented on low-profile panels with easily cleanable surfaces.

As the social science researcher on a team tasked with developing a new exhibit to connect young people with nature and to encourage them become active conservators of the environment, Renee dove into the literature on climate change communication, exhibiting biodiversity, and cultivating environmental stewardship and produced written reports and presentations.