Schoolhouse Odyssey: The Exhibition

“Schoolhouse Odyssey” documents some 170+ “ghost” schools in California, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Ohio, Nebraska, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Montana, Washington, Vermont, Colorado, and New Mexico. A fully developed exhibition was presented as Schoolhouse Odyssey: Remote Location Ghost Schools and Voices from the Past - A Literal and Metaphorical Journey at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, California, March 23 - May 8, 2011. 

The exhibition includes some 90 of Schoenfeld’s photographs, several thematic essays, memoirs, antique and recent literary texts as wall signage, and display cases of antique schoolbooks, related artifacts and classroom ephemera. A handmade school desk with slate chalkboards is in the center of the gallery.

Interactive materials were created for all ages of viewers to use with smart phones and maps to explore concepts written about in exhibition essays and wall texts, and otherwise expressed in the exhibition. Detailed contents of the exhibition is documented on a CD, available for reference, and this website.