In early 2020, Camp Verde Community Library was looking forward to hosting the Smithsonian Museum’s “Voices and Votes: Democracy in America” traveling exhibit, part of the library’s goal of highlighting the history of our country’s political process during the election year.
Camp Verde was supposed to be the first location in the state to host the exhibit, but the coronavirus pandemic upended the library’s plans. The exhibit will instead came the library starting on Saturday, Jan. 16.
“The year of elections is gone now, but it’s about democracy in America, not just elections,” Library Director Kathy Hellman said. “Camp Verde library is the vote center for Camp Verde. We thought it was totally appropriate to tell the story of democracy in America and how it has changed.”
“It’s probably better not to have it connected to that because 2020 was not a very nice election,” Hellman said.
The exhibit is a partnership between the library, the Smithsonian, and the Arizona Humanities Council. After CVCL hosted the Smithsonian Water|Ways exhibit, focusing on river conservation efforts, along with the same partners, they became interested in continuing to host Smithsonian traveling exhibits like this one.
The League of Women Voters of Greater Verde Valley also partnered with the library to expand the exhibit, with a special “I Am An American Too” exhibit focused on the history of voting rights for American Indians, with input from the Yavapai-Apache Nation Cultural Center.
“At the start of the new year, Voices and Votes allows us to pause and reflect as we place the events of 2020 into the context of our nation’s history and explore what it means to be an active participant in the governance of not only the country but also this community,” Hellman said. “With continued sanitizing and safety protocols in place, we look forward to visitors spending time with the exhibit.”
Regular COVID-19 restrictions in the library continue for this exhibit, with anyone who wants to visit the library having to wear a mask. According to Hellman, the library does not have restrictions for total attendance in the building, but does for specific spaces, which will need to be enforced if large crowds try to visit the exhibit. However, traffic in the library has been much lower than in a normal year during the pandemic, and Hellman is hopeful that for the most part, the exhibit will remain social distanced even as more visitors come to see it.
Hellman hopes that even with the election over, the exhibit will inspire citizens to take a continued interest in the country’s political process, and to treat democracy as an important part of our country beyond just the elections every four years, especially in connection to public libraries.
“It’s one of the last places in the country — libraries are — where people can come together with all opinions, and not be told what to think or belittled for what they think,” Hellman said. “They have the freedom to read, to choose for themselves what they think, and I think that’s really important to our community, to have a neutral space where people can make up their own minds.”
