In an age when attention spans shrink and digital experiences dominate, creating meaningful encounters with history presents unique challenges for cultural institutions. Robert Parker, curator at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, has met this challenge with remarkable vision in the museum’s newest exhibition, TITAN, which celebrates the extraordinary life of Reginald F. Lewis.

The exhibition, marking the museum’s 20th anniversary, doesn’t merely display artifacts behind glass, it reimagines what engagement with historical figures can mean. By transforming museum spaces into portals through which visitors literally step into Lewis’s world, Parker has created something more akin to theater than traditional exhibition.

Democratizing design

What makes Parker’s approach particularly noteworthy is his commitment to collaborative curation. Rather than imposing a singular vision, he emphasizes the importance of collective creation.

“It’s a lot of strategy behind design and building and the creative process,” Parker notes. “Luckily I have a team of individuals that will tell me, okay, this does not make sense. Okay, this works.”

This democratic approach extends to the visitor experience itself. Unlike exhibitions that prescribe a specific path, TITAN invites exploration on one’s own terms. “We didn’t want a linear experience,” Parker explains. “We wanted people to be able to start in any aspect of this exhibit and to be able to sit with the messages.”

The result is what Steed describes as a series of passages, “I felt like there were corridors each time you moved, where the imagination could go and take you based on what they were saying, and that reflection was with you, and then you had to take another passage.”

Designing emotional architecture

First, spatial storytelling that connects past to present. Rather than simply displaying photographs or artifacts, Parker recreated essential environments from Lewis’s life, his office desk and his private jet, complete with photographs of Lewis in those spaces. These installations allow visitors to physically inhabit moments from his journey.

Second, geometric continuity between container and content. “We focus on a lot of the geometrical shapes that were reminiscent to the facade of our building in terms of the architecture of the Lewis Museum,” Parker explains. This subtle design choice creates a visual relationship between the building itself and the exhibition within it.

Third, vertical movement as metaphor. Steed describes how the exhibition’s layout creates a sense of ascension: “It felt like elevators that you were riding an elevator, you came down clearly to get on the desk. You’ve got to go up, and the movement just to take yourself and elevate whoever went up.”

These elements combine to create what Parker calls “this escapism for the moment” where visitors can “really connect to Reginald F. Lewis and his story.”

Humanizing history

Despite the innovative design, Parker emphasizes that the exhibition’s ultimate goal is deeply human, to present Lewis not as a mythologized figure but as a real person whose extraordinary achievements stemmed from qualities anyone might cultivate.

“In history, typically we like to romanticize figures, and we like to put individuals on pedestals,” Parker observes. “I think we’ve done the opposite. I think we did our best to humanize him in a way where you can see his lessons learned, and you can see how he bounced back from failure.”

The exhibition highlights Lewis’s focused determination from an early age, including his handwritten college schedule that demonstrated his methodical approach to success. “You can see what he was thinking in the 1960s in terms of what it meant for him to excel well after his college days,” Parker notes.

It also explores Lewis’s resilience in the face of setbacks, embodying his philosophy to “keep going, no matter what.” Parker explains that visitors can “see how he bounced back from failure,” offering inspiration regardless of one’s field.

Perhaps most importantly, it reveals “the more or softer side of Reginald F. Lewis” as a family man, showing dimensions beyond the corporate titan and philanthropist that most associate with his name.

Museum as spiritual journey

For Steed, experiencing TITAN transcended mere education, it became what he describes as “a spiritual journey.” He recounts, “By the time I got to the other side of the room I felt like I could keep going and going and going and going, and know that I was supposed to be there, and that he was there with me, and that it was a space for me to fill up.”

Parker embraces this characterization, “I’m grateful that it was a spiritual journey for you, and I think that was the ultimate goal for it to be a journey.”

This transformation of museum space into spiritual journey represents a profound shift in how cultural institutions might approach their mission . Rather than positioning visitors as passive observers of history, the TITAN exhibition invites them to become active participants in a shared narrative.

Reimagining cultural space

The significance of Parker’s work extends beyond this single exhibition. At a time when cultural institutions face questions about relevance and engagement, TITAN offers a compelling vision for how museums might evolve.

By treating space as narrative, emphasizing emotional connection over mere information transfer, and creating environments that foster personal reflection, Parker demonstrates how curatorial practice can transform the museum experience.

“I think for any child born in Baltimore or Maryland to walk in there, I think he gives them a pedigree that they didn’t give themselves,” Steed observes. “He says it’s yours, so you can claim it. It’s in you.”

This sentiment captures the exhibition’s ultimate achievement. It doesn’t merely present Lewis’s story, it creates a space where visitors might discover their own potential. In doing so, it fulfills the deepest purpose of cultural institutions, not just preserving the past, but inspiring possible futures.

The TITAN exhibition at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum represents a bold step forward in museum design, one that other institutions would do well to study. By reimagining how we engage with history, Parker has created something that, like Lewis himself, breaks boundaries and redefines what’s possible.