Overview
This project will be launched as part of a course taught at DePaul during Spring 2026. It will involve students to create a location-based narrative game set at Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery. The finished game invites families to explore Graceland in a new way and uncover interesting stories about groups and individuals.
Background
The Hidden Narratives at Graceland Cemetery Program is funded through a grant from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation. It was awarded to DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences which in turn have invited several of DePaul’s faculty to develop topical, public-facing digital audio tours and/or small museum exhibits for Graceland Cemetery in the context of a project-based learning class for DePaul undergraduates.
The grant is a part of the Donnelley Foundations Broadening Narratives program designed to use existing collections to tell the stories of overlooked Chicago people and communities. Their website (https://gddf.org/collections/) describes the impetus for the program as follows:
“Collections are comprised of diverse narratives that provide perspectives from the past, contribute to a better-informed present, and lead to a more inclusive, sustainable and healthier future. We encourage collecting organizations … to amplify overlooked voices and animate and expand the stories and insights derived from their collections. Diverse narratives include the stories and perspectives of culturally specific communities—African Americans, Indigenous peoples, and other people of color—LGBTQ perspectives, working-class narratives, small community experiences, as well as other underrepresented groups and viewpoints. Emerging, compelling underrepresented perspectives reflective of collections in the areas of science, public health, and the natural world are also important to our regions’ collective narratives.”
HexLab Team
Richard Wetzel