With Cooperative Extension’s centennial only a few years away in 2014, it’s not too early to look in your attics and back rooms for lost treasures with historical value. That’s how we found a treasured set of murals created for Alabama Extension to display at the 1939 Alabama State Fair. Learn what new and exciting things have happened since 2006 when Extension communicators parlayed the rediscovery of these historically significant New Deal era murals into a unique project that created both a touch point to our past and highlighted our present mission. Explore the journey of how the murals went from their dusty attic confines to the gallery of the Birmingham Public Library to their eventual home in the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art on the Auburn University campus. Extension communicators were involved in efforts to restore the murals and promote them in a new book, “Digging Out of the Great Depression,” published by the Birmingham Historical Society. These efforts garnered extensive publicity and goodwill for Alabama Extension – often to audiences not generally reached through traditional means. See what hidden treasures can draw attention to your organization and how you can maximize rare opportunities they can create.
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