Explore the stories and cultures of people in Lowell from the past and the present in the One City Many Cultures Exhibit at Lowell National Historical Park! Built with the help of over 100 contributing community members, the exhibit brings to life the stories of the many different communities that call Lowell home!
Discover different forms of cultural expressions from different groups across Lowell! From food to music to dance, discover how different peoples have made Lowell their home while honoring their traditions.
October 15, 2024 - April 2025
Open Daily
1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Free parking is available at 350 Dutton Street, Lowell, MA in the Hamilton Canal Innovation District (HCID) Parking Garage. Please stop at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum to have your ticket validated so you qualify for free parking. Expect around 0.5 miles of walking from the HCID Garage to the exhibit. For a fee, street parking and the Joseph Downes Garage are both located closer to the exhibit.
Get a sneak-peek of the installation process for Lowell National Historical Park's newest exhibit!
A Community Effort: Making One City, Many Cultures
Parade of Flags at the Lowell Folk Festival
Lowell NPS
Lowell National Historical Park is working with our communities to co-create a new exhibition in the Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center titled "One City, Many Cultures", which will replace the existing exhibit about immigrants.
This new exhibit will:
· Tell the stories of cultures and cultural changes that have found their place(s) in Lowell.
· Provide a safe, accessible, and high-quality, visitor experience that is audience-centered and relevant to 21st-century visitors.
· Replaces the current exhibit on immigration installed in 1988
A community roundtable meeting
Lowell NPS
A Community-Engaged Process
The Park recognizes that the stories we will be presenting are the stories of the people of Lowell. Through roundtable discussion, people are collaborated with the park to plan and guide this project. Roundtable discussants share perspectives on the themes of the exhibit. During the pre-design stage, those discussions have informed the selection of stories for the exhibit. As the process moves forward, roundtable discussion will also inform planning and design. Participants also serve as ambassadors throughout the city and connect this project with people, their stories, and objects that may convey the themes of the project. The roundtable includes persons with a range of experiences and backgrounds, including scholars of immigration history, civic, and community leaders, and others. The roundtable discussion process enables the Park to direct this exhibit as a community-engaged project.
Thematic Concepts
Exhibition themes and concepts have been synthesized from community roundtable meetings as well as staff feedback, and speak to specific visitor questions about cultural diversity.
1. Mobility and Transition - What are key factors that compelled or encouraged persons to relocate from their family or place of birth? What struggles did people face when arriving and adjusting to life in a new place? How were these experiences echoed/paralleled throughout history?
2. Building Community - What brings a community together? How do people find a sense of belonging and familiarity? How has the definition of community changed over time?How do issues that communities face (inter- and intra-) impact individuals, the community and city?
3. Cultural Commonalities - What are the social qualities of a multicultural city such as Lowell? How have people come together - through time and across great distances - to interact, and share experiences? How do the specific, universal experiences define the Lowell cultural landscape? How are cultural traditions and practices maintained, transformed or abandoned over time?
Project Timeline
Pre-design Stage Fall 2018-Fall 2019
Roundtable discussions identified exhibition themes and messaging.
Planning and Design Stage Fall 2019-Summer 2021
Roundtable participants and park staff are working with an outside contractor Design Minds to develop and design the specific exhibition.
Fabrication Stage Fall 2021-Fall 2023
A contract will be let to fabricate and install the exhibition.
Exhibit Opening September 23, 2023
A group of dancers perform at the Southeast Asian Water Festival
