Historic Columbia Receives Southeastern Museums Conference Exhibition Award

Historic Columbia is pleased to announce that the Robert Mills Warming Kitchen exhibit, Heat and Hardship: The Hidden Labor of Enslaved Cooks, is the recipient of the 2025 Southeastern Museums Conference Gold Award in the $25,000 Exhibition Budget Category! The SEMC Exhibition Competition showcases the best in our profession and provides benchmarks for regional exhibition efforts in Southeastern museums. 

"I am elated that our hard-working team is being recognized for this project," notes Historic Columbia Executive Director Suzanne Brooks. "Their creativity has elevated the visitor experience by providing a meaningful, sensory exploration of life at this site 200 years ago."

With funding from South Carolina Humanities, Historic Columbia opened Heat & Hardship: The Hidden Labor of Enslaved Cooks in February 2025. This exhibit reimagines one of the Robert Mills House’s most popular spaces, the warming kitchen, through the installation of hands-on activities that incorporate touch and smell. Rather than solely interacting with wall panels, visitors listen to first-person perspectives, made available with the Dutch technology Guide-ID, that contextualize the experiences of three individuals associated with the site in 1823. In the exhibit, visitors hear Robert Mills explain his views on design and slavery, Sarah Hall fret with paranoia about how her food is prepared, and enslaved cook Lydia describe her longing for separated family as she memorizes yet another recipe.

For many visitors, exhibitions are the public face of museums, and effective planning, management of resources, research and interpretation, collections care, public programs, publications, and fundraising all contribute to the fulfillment of a museum's mission. Expectations and standards were exceptionally high for this year’s applicants. The SEMC Exhibition Competition received a record-breaking number of applications from a wide variety of museums across the southeast. 

The Exhibition Competition recognizes exhibitions for overall excellence or for stretching the limits of content and design through innovation. Winning entries were well-designed exhibitions of merit with educational value and demonstrated, respectful treatment of objects. Recipients of the awards were judged by an appointed jury of museum professionals across the region who specialize in curatorial studies and exhibition design. 

Award winners will be recognized at the 2025 Annual Meeting Awards Luncheon on October 22, 2025, in Montgomery, Alabama, and in the Winter 2025 Edition of INSIDE SEMC, a digital publication of the Southeastern Museums Conference. This designation recognizes Historic Columbia’s contribution to professional standards in Southeastern museums.

Project Team

CURATORIAL
Rebecca Woodruff, project lead
Katharine Allen
Rachel Gregor
Rachel Ward  

GRAPHICS
Emily Brown  

IN-HOUSE FABRICATION
Kevin Jennings
John Sherrer  

ANIMATIONS
Furman Fortner  

ACTORS
David Alexander: Joe & Peter
Aaliyah Broadwater: Charlotte
Jessica Crowe: Sarah Hall
Sam Moore: Henry
Carly Siegel: Nancy & Lydia
Katie Slack: Matilda

VOICE ACTORS
Em Eldridge: Sarah Hall
Jay Hazen: Robert Mills
Ebony McKinley: Enslaved Cook
John Sherrer: Storeroom Narrator 

SCHOLAR REVIEW & ADVISEMENT
Jill Found, PhD
Nicole Maskiell, PhD
Rabbi Meir Muller, PhD
Mark Smith, PhD