When the Shockoe Institute opened Expanding Freedom at Richmond’s historic Main Street Station in April 2026, it marked more than the debut of the organization’s first permanent, historical exhibit. It established a new national destination for exploring one of the most consequential chapters in American history and invited visitors to examine how the legacy of racial slavery continues to shape the present.
Located in Shockoe Bottom, once one of the nation’s largest centers of the domestic slave trade, the more than 12,000 square foot experience places visitors at the center of a story that is both deeply local and undeniably national. Through immersive, historical exhibit environments, multimedia interpretation, artifacts, and interactive learning, Expanding Freedom traces the evolution of racial slavery while encouraging thoughtful reflection about its enduring impact on American civic life.
The exhibit was designed to meet visitors where history happened. Rather than presenting the past as something distant, it creates spaces that encourage visitors to grapple with difficult truths while connecting historical events to broader conversations about freedom, justice, and shared responsibility. As Shockoe Institute CEO Marland Buckner explains, “We have nothing to fear from the facts. Our goal is to use the lessons of our history, the facts, as tools, not as weapons. That way, we’ll be in a better position to give everyone a seat at the table to talk about how we make our future better than our past.”
Delivering an experience of this scale required close collaboration among exhibit designers, historians, technologists, and fabricators. Working alongside Local Projects, 1220 Exhibits translated complex design concepts into physical environments that visitors can move through, interact with, and experience firsthand.
Throughout the gallery, nearly every space incorporates custom fabrication produced in 1220’s Nashville facility. The team fabricated dimensional lettering, applied graphics, interpretive graphic panels, reader rails, digitally printed wallpaper, SEG stretched fabric graphics, and mobile interactive AV stations that seamlessly integrate educational content throughout the exhibit.
One of the most technically distinctive installations is a custom fabricated metal drum featuring precision CNC cut viewing holes. Designed to reveal curated moments within the exhibit, the structure required exact machining and fabrication to maintain both its visual impact and visitor experience.
The exhibit’s entrance establishes the tone immediately with a large dimensionally cut feature that introduces visitors before leading them into a series of immersive environments. Elsewhere, custom curved vertical wood slat walls combine with silkscreen graphics applied directly onto the wooden surfaces, demonstrating the careful coordination required between woodworking, graphics, and finishing to achieve a seamless final installation.
Among the exhibit’s defining features is a full scale 1860s era cargo boxcar, fabricated entirely in house by the 1220 team. More than a scenic centerpiece, the structure serves as a powerful interpretive environment that helps visitors understand the realities of forced transportation during the domestic slave trade. Inside, silhouetted figures silkscreened onto the interior walls reinforce the emotional weight of the space, while tinted mirrored glass surrounding portions of the installation deepens visitors’ sense of immersion and reflection.
The complexity of bringing these environments to life was not lost on the Shockoe Institute team. Reflecting on the fabrication process, COO Todd Waldo said, “I’m an engineer, and I’ve built and created things before, but watching this really methodical process of going from design, doing a prototype, ‘can we keep this?’ ‘is this good?’, and then moving all the way through fabrication and then getting it here, 1220 was the perfect partner to be involved in that.”
Projects like Expanding Freedom demand more than individual fabrication techniques. They require coordination across nearly every discipline under one roof. Woodworking, metal fabrication, CNC machining, scenic construction, graphics production, AV integration, finishing, and installation all came together to produce an exhibit where every component supports a unified narrative.
As visitors move through the galleries, the fabrication intentionally recedes behind the stories being told. Every panel, graphic, structure, and interactive element exists to support the educational experience rather than compete with it. Achieving that balance, where craftsmanship enhances interpretation without distracting from it, is one of the defining challenges of museum fabrication.
For 1220 Exhibits, Expanding Freedom represents the kind of work that defines the company’s approach to museum experiences: translating ambitious creative vision into durable, highly detailed environments that educate, engage, and endure. By combining precision fabrication with collaborative execution, the project transforms design into an experience that allows visitors to encounter history in a way that is immersive, memorable, and deeply human.
Now welcoming visitors in Richmond, Expanding Freedom stands as both the inaugural exhibit of the Shockoe Institute and an important addition to the growing collection of cultural institutions committed to telling complex stories with honesty, empathy, and exceptional craftsmanship.
