What Is A Changemaker?
Meet The Changemakers
ChangeNOW Exhibit
Map of Change
Community Curators & Partners
DEI Consultants

RMSC

What Is A Changemaker?
Meet The Changemakers
ChangeNOW Exhibit
Map of Change
Community Curators & Partners
DEI Consultants

Meet The Changemakers

Discover more than 200 inspiring stories of past and present Rochester, Indigenous, and Haudenosaunee women visionaries, trailblazers, inventors, activists, and entrepreneurs who changed Rochester and the world. Get a glimpse of some of the featured Changemakers through these highlights.

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Aesha Ash

Jikonsaseh

Anna Murray Douglass

Mara Ahmed

Tekatsi:tsia’kwa “Katsi” Cook

Rebeca Gerschman

Martha Matilda Harper

Mercedes Vazquez-Simmons

KaeLyn Elizabeth Lee Rich

Danielle Ponder Esq.

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Share The Change

#BECHANGEMAKERS

Do you know anyone with a birthday today? 🎂 Well, you can tell them they share a birthday with America’s first retail franchise owner, Martha Matilda Harper! Featured in our past exhibit, The Changemakers, Harper truly revolutionized the heritage of women in business with her Harper Method. Her story inspires us to follow our dreams and #BeChangemakers for our community. #HappyBirthdayMartha 🎉

The Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World closed this past weekend, so now it’s time for our exhibits and collections team to get to work deinstalling the exhibit 🛠️ 🧰 Here are some #ProgressPics of the team removing collections objects, wall labels, object cases and more from the gallery. #BehindTheScenes #MuseumBTS #BTS #NYSMuseums #deinstallation #BeChangemakers

Thank you to all of the Community Curators, DEI Consultants, featured Changemakers, and other community partners who helped us develop this exhibit and allowed us to share your stories. We are so grateful to everyone who has had a hand in creating our exhibit, The Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World. While the larger exhibit is closed, we are making all of the content available through digital interactives that will live on at the Museum. We hope you all continue to #BeChangemakers in your community and beyond!

It’s time to say #GoodBye to our Changemakers exhibit 👋🏼 Today is your last chance to see the exhibit in its entirety. Plan your visit and get tickets in advance: RMSC.org/visit
#BeChangemakers

Our new Exhibits Designer had to learn some of the tricks of the trade for some #BehindTheScenes work on our featured exhibit, The Changemakers! 🤗 We have quite a few life-size cutouts of our Changemakers on display, but, over time, some of the cutouts began bubbling and needed to be replaced.
To make the new cutout, she had to color test the print settings to match skin tones and test various surface preparations to prevent future bubbling. She also practiced cutting with a Snoopy graphic with lots of nooks and crannies to make sure the final cutout for the exhibit was perfect.
An exhibit team's work is truly never done! #BehindTheScenes #BTS #MuseumBTS #ExhibitDevelopment #BeChangemakers

Hkadin Lee, one of the women featured in our Changemakers exhibit, draws on her own experiences to provide helpful resources and leadership to ethnic communities in their transition to becoming new Americans. After working hard, following her passions, and honing her skills, she became the Outreach Mission Coordinator for LABC, supporting Ethnic People of Myanmar refugees in the Maplewood area of Rochester as an advocate for essential support and services to supplement their cultural needs. Hkadin’s work is just one example of how Changemakers advocate, support, and stand up for others.
In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we’ve put a spotlight on the contributions of some impressive Asian and Pacific Islander Changemakers with Rochester roots. Check out our featured exhibit, The Changemakers, before it closes on May 16 to learn more about these impressive women. #APAHM #BeChangemakers

Parvatha Chidambaram, the artistic director of Bharata School of Indian Dance and Music, aims to build a cultural bridge to connect heritage with contemporary lives. Her work of preserving her heritage and culture through traditional dance is one of the many reasons why she was selected as a featured woman in our Changemakers exhibit-- but we wanted to know, what does being a “Changemaker” mean to Parvatha? Check out this video to hear her thoughts 🤗
In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we’ll be putting a spotlight on the contributions of some impressive Asian and Pacific Islander Changemakers with Rochester roots. Stay tuned to learn more! #APAHM #bechangemakers

Every time we walk through the Changemakers exhibit, our attention gets captured by this beautiful beadwork 😍 Beaders from the Tonawanda Seneca Reservation created these artworks for the RMSC Collection to honor the legacy of their ancestors and empower future generations-- and we are so happy to showcase their work in this exhibit! #BeChangemakers #Beadwork #ArtisticLegacies

We really enjoyed reading all of your “I Am” poems 😊 Submitted via a participatory experience within our Changemakers exhibit, the poem encourages people to explore their own identity (and was inspired by featured Changemaker Annette Ramos!). Check out some of the poems your fellow community members shared. #BeChangemakers #poetry

Originating in China over 4000 years ago, Feng Shui focuses on creating an environment with positive energy flows that transforms a space into one that is balanced and in harmony. Feng Shui Masters, like Louisa Ong-Lee, use a special compass called a luopan to help them organize direction and elemental flow. Her expertise in Feng Shui earned her clients spanning across the globe, and is one of the many reasons she was included as a featured woman in our #Changemakers exhibit 🤗
In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we’ll be putting a spotlight on the contributions of some impressive Asian and Pacific Islander Changemakers with Rochester roots. Stay tuned to learn more! #APAHM #BeChangemakers

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Thank You To Our Sponsors

Marketing Sponsor
James Bruen
& Jane Plitt
Advocating Sponsor
Media Sponsor

Content Area Sponsors
Optimax
Rochester
Clinical Research
Morgan
Stanley

This project was funded in part by awards from:

New York State WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE Commission

Interested in sponsoring The Changemakers?
Contact Katie Mackey at kmackey@rmsc.org or 585.697.1973.

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or those of the National Endowment for the Arts.

To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

Stay up to date with The Changemakers exhibit development!

Science Museum

657 East Avenue
Rochester NY, 14607
Information: 585.271.4320
Event Registration: 585.697.1942

Friday: 9:30am–5pm
Saturday: 9:30am–5pm
Sunday: 11am–5pm

Member-only Hours
Sundays: 10-11am

Strasenburgh Planetarium

657 East Avenue
Rochester NY, 14607
Information: 585.697.1945

For hours, see Show Schedule.

Cumming Nature Center

6472 Gulick Road
Naples, NY 14512
Information: 585.374.6160

Wednesday–Friday: 9am - 3:30pm
Saturday–Sunday: 9am - 4:30pm