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More than a Job: Work and Community in New Bedford’s Fishing Industry provides visitors with an introduction to the workings of the fishing industry as well as explore themes including labor history, immigration, sustainability, and the changing nature of work and community.
This exhibit features a replica working deck, scallop dredge, galley table, bunks, historic and contemporary images and footage, and more than sixty audio clips sharing the many voices of the fishing community.
Funding for More than a Job: Work and Community in New Bedford’s Fishing Industry is provided by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and significant support from Bristol County Savings Bank. Major in-kind support for this exhibit was provided by Fairhaven Shipyard and Blue Fleet Welding. Support for an online companion exhibit and curriculum materials was provided by Mass Humanities and Bristol County Savings Charitable Foundation.
Click to watch the Keynote Speech by Brian Boyles, Executive Director of Mass Humanities, at the Fishing Heritage Center’s 5th Anniversary Celebration and Grand Opening of More than a Job.
On view Thursday, November 14, 2024 – Sunday, June 1, 2025
Casting A Wider Net showcases the stories of Cape Verdean, Vietnamese, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran members of New Bedford’s working waterfront in their own words. The exhibit is the culmination of the Casting A Wider Net community oral history project which was developed to collect and share stories of communities of color that have been and continue to be an integral part of New Bedford’s commercial fishing industry. The resulting photographs, recordings, and transcripts will become part of the Center’s archive and the NOAA Voices web-based archive and are the basis for the exhibit. Learn more about the project here.
The exhibit will showcase videos, photographs, and quotes from the oral history interviews as well as links to the full interview transcripts. Visitors will have the opportunity to hear the voices of each person who was interviewed, view a scrapbook of photos narrators and their families, and can even write them a message in the exhibit guestbook. Anyone who is interested in learning more about the CAWN project is encouraged to attend the free exhibit opening on Thursday, November 14, to explore the exhibit and meet program participants. More exhibit tie-in programs for 2024-2025, including school programs, film screenings, cooking classes, and special presentations, will be announced in the coming months. Check out FHC’s upcoming events page to stay up to date on all exhibit-related content.
Check out what people are saying about CAWN on our Press Page!
Casting A Wider Net is funded in part by a Wicked Cool Places grant from New Bedford Creative, a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and an Expanding Massachusetts Stories grant from Mass Humanities, which received support from Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
