The VOICE exhibit, which opened on May 12 and will run through July 28, drew inspiration from the public to build the collection.

Denice Blair, co-manager of the of the museum education team, said while determining the core words of the exhibit, they looked at synonyms of the word “voice.”

“That took a lot of thinking and defining where we wanted to set the boundaries,” Blair said.

After determining the words, the museum sent out requests for people to send in their own interpretations of the word via a Pinterest board. Blair said from these submissions, the team took inspiration and assembled photographs and artifacts.

Four months and hundreds of entries later, the VOICE exhibit was born in the Heritage Gallery at the MSU Museum.

The exhibit features the public interpretation of each of the words in different sections, as well as various interactive pieces. For example, a typewriter is used to help express the word “converse,” while a voice modulator is meant to exemplify “sing.”

The exhibit also features a live Twitter feed as another means of tying the visitors to the exhibit.

Blair said in new philosophies and museum studies, people are moving toward a participatory model in museums.

“Museums are listening to members of the public and asking them about their interests, their educational ideas and what they’d like to see in exhibits,” Blair said. “So this actually aligns with that.”

Gary Morgan, MSU Museum director, said the MSU Museum strives to have a range of exhibits that cover the array of many disciplines. Morgan said the VOICE exhibit is a little different from exhibits in the past.

“(It’s meant) to prompt people to think about the ways we express ourselves,” Morgan said. “It’s really an exhibit about the way people communicate.”

Morgan said the museum constantly is seeking to cater to the diverse needs of all the different communities.

“People are engaging, people are finding their time is well spent,” Morgan said. “When you see people talking together about the exhibit, you know you’re doing something right.”