Dawn DiPrince is leaving her job as director of El Pueblo History Museum, and while her new job as chief operating officer of History Colorado will require her to move to Denver, she insists she isn’t leaving El Pueblo behind.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is that while I’ve been the director here for the past few years I’ve also been the chief community museum officer overseeing seven additional sites throughout the state,” said DiPrince, who became El Pueblo's director in 2013. “This (new job) is just an extension of the work I’ve been doing. I’m just taking on more responsibility.

“That will continue to include El Pueblo History Museum. We’ll be hiring a new director here, but this is still part of my work.”

In addition to El Pueblo, DiPrince oversaw museums in Fort Garland, Trinidad, the Ute Indian Museum in Montrose, Healy House Museum and Dexter Cabin in Leadville, The Center for Colorado History in Denver, the Grant Humphries Mansion in Denver and Fort Vasquez in Platteville.

DiPrince will continue to have a role in the operations of those museums, as well as all the other enterprises of History Colorado.

DiPrince will be leaving on a high note. The museum currently is a finalist for a national medal from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The recognition marks the second time El Pueblo has been recognized nationally while DiPrince was director. The Children of Ludlow exhibit received a national award for label writing.

“We would not be here if we did not have the community by our side,” DiPrince said. “I really think that this belongs not just to us but to the community and all the people who partnered with us to tell these stories.”

Shift in focus

DiPrince was active during her tenure at El Pueblo History Museum. The projects she initiated focused on the history of Pueblo and the surrounding area.

In the past, El Pueblo, like most museums, worked to attract tourists. DiPrince shifted that direction significantly.

“One of the things we did, just as an organization, we figured we’ve got these museums throughout the state, instead of just serving a tourism audience, we should be serving the communities where we reside,” DiPrince said.

“If we are thriving, dynamic institutions for our neighbors and community members, tourists will come, too.”

That pointed approach resulted in dynamic displays at El Pueblo on topics like:

• The Children of Ludlow, which dealt with the aftermath of the infamous Ludlow Massacre in 1918.

• The ongoing Borderlands of Southern Colorado exhibit, which deals with the myriad of borders that intersected and dissected Pueblo and played a role in its unique history. The exhibit was developed after months of research, including a symposium of experts from across the country who discussed their ideas on the definition of borderlands.

• The Bell Game exhibit dealing with Pueblo’s longstanding football rivalry (the oldest high school football rivalry west of the Mississippi) between Centennial and Central high schools.

• Original pages from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which helped define present-day Colorado was loaned to El Pueblo by the National Archives and put on display.

• The Museum Memory Project, where museum officials went out to local neighborhoods and sought input from the residents. Neighborhoods so far profiled include Eilers and Salt Creek, ongoing research is being done in Dog Patch and Avondale.

• Most recently, the museum developed a display on Redlining in Pueblo, detailing the practice of rating the investment value of homes in various neighborhoods based not only on economics, but on race and crime. While the practice was common in the 30s, 40s and 50s, it was outlawed in the 1960s and is now considered an unfair and racist practice today.

“For many, many years museums have felt like we are the bearers of knowledge,” DiPrince said. “You come to us to learn. We wanted to flip that. Yes, we have knowledge to share. We recognize when people come through our doors that they also are knowledge bearers and we want to learn from them.

“We try to always include aspects in our exhibits where people can share what they know and share their experience. That’s a small part of it. Then we go to these bigger programs. We recognize there are so many things we are not experts on.”

The borderlands

Pueblo and the surrounding area is fertile ground for researchers and anyone interested in history.

“Pueblo’s history is very layered,” DiPrince said. “I really think that heritage and culture are some of the biggest assets we have as a community. Often times we look outside for ideas or inspiration. I think there is so much rich culture and heritage that exists within our own community. There’s a lot of power and inspiration from that. Tons of other communities in Colorado are the exact same way.”

As director at El Pueblo, DiPrince was only too happy to delve into the many layers of the city’s history.

Pueblo is at far west border of the Louisiana Purchase. The portion of the city on the north side of the Arkansas was part of the Louisiana Purchase. Portions of the city on the south side of the river were part of Old Mexico and, later Texas Territory. Throw in the many borders of the Indian tribes who roamed through the region and it’s easy to see Pueblo was a critical crossroads in the mid to late 1800s.

That knowledge led DiPrince to develop the Borderlands of Southern Colorado Exhibit, which launched a discussion of what, exactly, defines a borderland.

The exhibit not only is ongoing but expanding. New Borderlands exhibitions will open in Trinidad (in May) and at Fort Garland (later this summer).

The Bell Game

The rivalry between Centennial and Central was launched in 1892, was halted between 1908 and 1920 after a brawl ended the 1907 game, and then restarted in 1921.

In several years, the teams played two games, one during the regular season and one on Thanksgiving. After 118 games, Central leads the series 56-53 with nine ties.

The game regularly draws sellout crowds to Dutch Clark Stadium in Pueblo.

“There are so many ways to tap into a city’s history to help build vibrant communities,” DiPrince said. “The Bell Game was a great example. This is a story that the community loves. This is a true community story.”

DiPrince took it one step further by inviting students from both schools to curate the display.

“I think there’s something really powerful about passing on that legacy and ensuring that it lives on,” DiPrince said. “People in our communities don’t see themselves as writers of history. But they are. That’s important. History isn’t just something we passively consume, but something we create and write as well.”

The timing of the exhibit was ironic. The Pueblo City Schools Board of Education is considering closing Centennial, which would end the rivalry and kill a well-known and popular part of the city's history.

Redlining

Redlining was simply a way of doing business in the early part of the 20th Century. Now, we look back at it as little more than institutionalized racism.

Local banking, real estate and business leaders would grade neighborhoods. The best neighborhoods were bordered in green. The worst were bordered on red. The problem was how those ratings were determined. Neighborhoods that were designated red often didn’t earn that rating solely financial risk, but racial, ethnic and economic makeup of the residents.

The practice was halted by the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Redlining effectively segregated the country and neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s are still feeling the effects of that designation today.

DiPrince did some research and uncovered a map of Pueblo from the 1930s that showed which neighborhoods were redlined. The research was painful. One of the redlined neighborhoods was one where her ancestors lived.

“It was stunning in some ways, but also affirming what people already suspected,” DiPrince said. “It’s really nice to have what you think is going on validated.”

Other programs

When the school week was shortened to four and a half days and now to four, DiPrince saw a need to be filled. What would working parents do with their kids on Friday afternoons after school was out?

So, she organized Hands on History.

“It was designed to meet the needs of working families when the kids weren’t in school,” DiPrince said.

The program has since expanded not only to a full day on Fridays but a summer program as well.

“Kids are learning history through their hands and their own actions,” DiPrince said. “That’s one program we’ve exported to other communities. Trinidad has had a great program for a few years now. Ford Garland has as well.”

Heart in Southern Colorado

DiPrince grew up in La Junta, but always had close ties to Pueblo.

“My family immigrated to America. They came to Pueblo,” DiPrince said. “Growing up my grandmothers lived here. I had one grandma who lived in Blende and one who lived on the Southside. When you come from a big Italian family, you go to grandmas’ house every weekend. I spent nearly every weekend up here.

“I feel like Pueblo was already part of my blood. It was just part of our upbringing.”

DiPrince, her husband Chris Markuson and their three children, Matt 19, who is attending Creighton University; Sophie, 18, who will attend Santa Clara University next fall; and Mario, 11, a middle schooler, will be moving to Denver sometime after Sophie graduates from Central this spring.

“It’s a big move,” DiPrince said. “But the thing that makes me feel better about it is that El Pueblo will still be part of my work. It’s not like I’m disappearing.”

mspence@chieftain.com, @MSpenceSpts