Supporting Museums – Serving Communities: An Evaluation of the Museums for America Program Appendix F: Case Studies Contents Akwesasne Cultural Center: Saving Our Basketry for the Next Seven Generations ............................................... 2 Chester County Historical Society: Linked Electronic Collections Access Catalogue ............................................ 6 Chicago Botanic Garden: North Lawndale Career Training Program ....................................................................... 9 Children's Museum of Oak Ridge: Appalachian Heritage Project ............................................................................ 13 Connecticut Children’s Museum, Inc : Museum Multiple Intelligences Inclusion Project ................................... 16 COSI Toledo: Science Café ............................................................................................................................................. 18 Denver Museum of Nature and Science: Project Curiosity ....................................................................................... 21 Genesee Country Village and Museum: Our History Revealed: A Master Plan for Interpreting 19th Century American Life ............................................................................................................... 24 Johnson County Museum: Johnson County’s Photographic History on the Web ................................................ 27 Kidscommons Children’s Museum: Building Buildings ............................................................................................. 30 Lincoln Children’s Zoo: Bug Buddies Inquiry Center ................................................................................................ 33 The Magic House, St. Louis Children's Museum: Star-Spangled Center Interpretive Exhibits, Educational Programming and Assessment .......................................................................................... 36 Maryhill Museum of Art: Sustaining Change of the American Farm: A Farmer – Artist Dialogue .................... 39 Mission Inn Foundation: Hands on History ................................................................................................................ 42 Mount Vernon Hotel: “Fare for All at the Mount Vernon Hotel” & “People of Our Past” .............................. 46 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: The Fine Art of Service ............................................................................................ 49 Mystic Aquarium: Seal Rescue Clinic Innovative Exhibit Enrichment .................................................................... 52 National Aquarium in Baltimore: Watershed Moments ............................................................................................. 56 Pacific Asia Museum: Chinese Textile Collections Access ........................................................................................ 59 Peninsula Fine Arts Center: ARTreach: Experience Mali .......................................................................................... 62 Pratt Museum: Kachemak Bay: An Exploration of People and Place Education Project .................................... 66 Queens Museum of Art: Corona Plaza: Center of Everywhere ................................................................................ 69 Round Lake Area Park District: Traveling Ecosystems ............................................................................................. 73 Suquamish Museum: Digitization of Oral History Tapes Project ........................................................................... 75 Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation/ Monticello: Thomas Jefferson’s Libraries, An Annotated Bibliographic Database .................................................................................................................... 80 USS Constitution Museum: Bringing “Old Ironsides” to Life .................................................................................. 83 1 Saving Our Basketry for the Next Seven Generations Institution: Akwesasne Cultural Center Institution Discipline: Specialized Native American Museum Location: Hogansburg, NY Grant Size: $11,255 Region: Mid Atlantic Grant Period: 2006-2007 Institution Size: Small Project Background The Akwesasne Cultural Center had benefited previously from IMLS funded projects focusing on basketmaking and the preservation of their Mohawk black ash splint and sweetgrass basket collection. For instance, The Center was a recipient of collections care training conducted by an IMLS National Leadership Grants for Museums grantee, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. These IMLS projects laid the groundwork for proposing an MFA project addressing research and documentation of their basket collection in order to 1) inform the development of future exhibits; 2) continue to preserve the basket collection; and 3) strengthen the engagement with the community. Considered a “good size” grant for The Center, it should be noted they also put a small grant from the New York State Council on the Arts toward this project. Sue Ellen Herne, the Akwesasne Cultural Center Museum Coordinator, reported one of the project activities was interviewing twelve local basketmakers and elders about basket styles, uses, customs, use of the Mohawk language and philosophical ideas to guide The Cultural Center’s exhibits. A trip to another museum housing native baskets was planned for additional research. The Canadian Museum of Civilization was identified as the most beneficial to visit. One of the interviewed basketmakers was a nurse working for a community program, Mohawk Healthy Heart Project, who suggested having program participants join the museum staff in visiting The Canadian Museum of Civilization. Since The Center is known for providing community access to educational and cultural resources and services, Hernes said they were happy to have the program participants join them. After accepting The Cultural Center’s visit request, The Canadian Museum of Civilization offered to bring out their complete collection of over 100 baskets for the visiting group to view. The visiting group was given an overview on the basket styles and baskets from different time periods by the curator and followed up with informal viewing and questioning. Key Factors in Success The main factor attributing to the project’s success was having The Canadian Museum of Civilization so willing to accommodate the Cultural Center’s request to visit. Herne felt it was not typical for a museum to “actually do something out of their usual everyday business of the day”. That is, the effort put into bringing out their comprehensive collection of baskets into one space went beyond the typical museum offerings. Another factor adding to the success of the visit to the museum was having community involvement. This had not been originally planned but having community members including Mohawk Healthy Heart Project participants and some local basketmakers join the Cultural Center staff made it even more rewarding in terms of sharing education and enrichment with the community. 2 Partnerships There were no formal partnerships planned for this project, however, an informal arrangement was made with the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) and the Mohawk Healthy Heart Project during the implementation of the project. Hernes said both their museum and CMC benefitted from this partnership. “We were able to access additional information about native basketry from them”, “they can now access information from us” and they “utilized their collection more fully due to our request”, explains Hernes. The Iroquoian baskets had not been collected at any one time so they were never put in one space together before. Hernes also stated that The Pequot Museum and Research staff can be viewed as informal partner since they served as advisors prior to and during the MFA project. Role of Evaluation No formal external or internal evaluation was conducted. Hernes said they received voluntary feedback from participants who enjoyed the trip to CMC. Some have recently asked if another trip like this could be planned. Community Effects The community of Akwesasne was touched by this project in many ways. The twelve interviewed elders and basketmakers were given the opportunity to reflect on and share their experiences within the context of the heritage of basketmaking. They have also strengthened their connection to the Center by contributing ideas about exhibit themes. One interviewee suggested focusing on “Honor Our Ancestors” since this is how she perceives the Center’s role. The trip to the Canadian Museum of Civilization provided the community with access to other native basketry. The community members participating in the trip learned more about Iroquoian baskets and in turn were able to put the Center’s collection into a broader context. It was reported that the active basketmakers in the group looked upon the visit as inspiration for new works. In addition, those from the Mohawk Healthy Heart Project program were encouraged to integrate culture into the healthy lifestyles the program promotes. Overall, visitors’ cultural ties were strengthened by learning about native basketry, which their families were a part of. Due to this project, community members and researchers now have access to the voices of basketmakers. An individual can listen to the different perspectives of the elders and active basketmakers. One graduate student has used these tapes in her research