Northeast by Northwest (NExNW) is a collaboration among peer-institutions in the northeast US to showcase their ancient Assyrian reliefs in a networked and meaningful manner for new and traditional audiences. I was part of a working group—made up of information scientists, conservators, imaging and modelling specialists, museum curators, educators, collections managers, archaeologists, and digital humanists—that met for an inaugural workshop in May 2019 at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine. We identified three primary objectives for the collaboration:
1) to create an online exhibition presenting the Assyrian reliefs and their histories and providing public and scholarly resources for exploring in innovative ways;
2) to establish a scholarly database devoted to sharing standardized data, images, and other resources related to the reliefs;
3) to develop a robust, ongoing forum for networking our collective research, resources, and expertise.
As a participant in NExNW, I am working on a committee focused on issues of Audience. If anyone has suggestions for how this project can engage with and itself become enriched and grow from new means of connecting with audiences old and new, I’d love to hear from you!