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  • 1.  Finding new immigrant communities

    Posted 07-15-2015 10:55 AM

    Dear Colleagues,

    I have just joined Museum Junction. I work in the NJ Department of State for the NJ Historical Commission. My office is the largest history funder in the state. We regrant project and general operating support funds to history organizations, and to a network of 21 county cultural and heritage offices that grant arts and history funds to smaller, local organizations. Our colleagues at the New Jersey Historic Trust provide capital preservation grants.  

    We are asking our county partners to conduct a needs assessment in each of the 21 counties. One of the goals will be to identify organizations that are serving ethnically diverse audiences that may not be aware of the state or local history granting programs.  I am wondering if you might suggest some consultants who have experience with locating new groups and identifying new immigrant communities. I have a few consultants in mind already and would appreciate any suggestions. We are looking for consultants in the Mid-Atlantic region for budgetary reasons. 

    Thank you,  

    Niquole

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    Niquole Primiani
    Director of Programs
    New Jersey Historical Commission
    Trenton NJ
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  • 2.  RE: Finding new immigrant communities

    Posted 07-16-2015 09:27 AM

    Hi Niquole,

    I don't have consultants to suggest, but I'm interested to follow this discussion as we're trying to reach similar communities here at the Michigan Humanities Council, a funder of museums and other cultural heritage organizations in the state.  We have a new program that focuses specifically on race and ethnicity (http://www.michiganhumanities.org/heritage-grants/). In the process of setting it up, we established an advisory group composed of regional organizations. They really helped us reach new audiences/applicants,which have resulted in compelling projects, although we are still trying to reach more communities across the state, particularly recent immigrants.

    I think it's an important discussion, particularly for funding organizations, so I'm glad to see others focusing on it as well.

    Joe



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    Joseph Cialdella PhD
    Program Officer
    Michigan Humanities Council
    Lansing MI
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  • 3.  RE: Finding new immigrant communities

    Posted 07-16-2015 10:23 AM

    Hello Joe and thank you for responding. Your grant program sounds interesting and like something I would like to offer here. I will definitely take a look.

    It is my hope that this first phase will lead to a larger project to conduct research on communities of color. I would like to ask how they define history, why is it important, how it is a part of their lives and if they participate in programming offered by our grantees. Ideally this research will help the organizations we fund to engage diverse communities and ensure that their history is a part of our state collection and story. It may also help to diversify the staff and boards of our institutions because  that is when real change happens. I would like to apply to a national funder to conduct this research and have already talked to our state library and Rutgers University about partnering.   

    Do you know about the project in NYC? I think it is the NY arts council that is looking at the ethnicity of the boards and staff of cultural institutions with the goal to diversify the two.

    One last thing I'll tell you about in NJ is a project called The Newest Americans. Students at Rutgers Newark, on of the most ethnically diverse campuses in the US, are recording oral histories of new immigrants in Newark.   http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/news/newest-americans-project

    Thanks for your interest and hope to talk again.

    Niquole         

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    Niquole Primiani
    Director of Programs
    New Jersey Historical Commission
    Trenton NJ
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Finding new immigrant communities

    Posted 07-17-2015 09:24 AM

    Thanks Niquole. I didn't know about the New York project, so I will investigate it further. I think diversifying boards and re framing the topics and way we tell history in the public realm is another longer-term goal we hope to see from our program as well. We are working with an outside evaluation firm so next year we will have some more detailed information to share about what worked, what didn't, and what the grantees projects have revealed.

    Hope we can stay in contact as our projects develop and evolve.
    Best,

    Joe


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    Joseph Cialdella PhD
    Program Officer
    Michigan Humanities Council
    Lansing MI
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Finding new immigrant communities

    Posted 07-20-2015 10:26 AM

    Thank you. I look forward to hearing about the projects in which you've invested. It sounds like you have a model we can all learn from. 

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    Niquole Primiani
    Director of Programs
    New Jersey Historical Commission
    Trenton NJ
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Finding new immigrant communities

    Posted 07-21-2015 01:46 PM

    There are some groups that have targeted this kind of crowdsourcing very well, specifically the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle. Several years ago they got a big national grant to write a handbook on how to work with diverse ethnic communities for exhibits and programming.

    Also, WELCOME PITTSBURGH is a community initiative launched by the new(ish) mayor of Pittsburgh to figure out how to involve more of the newer immigrants to the city, as well as getting current constituents feeling more included.

    Hope this helps!

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    Nezka Pfeifer
    Curator
    Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art
    Scranton PA
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Finding new immigrant communities

    Posted 07-22-2015 11:52 AM

    Thank you so much Nezka for providing these examples. It is really great that some organizations and citites are working on reaching new immigrant communities and providing learning examples for the rest of the field.

    I did not know about the Welcome Pittsburgh initiative. It reminds me a little of the work NYC is doing to capture data on the ethnic backgrounds of the staff, board and audiences of cultural institutions. This initiative is coming out of Mayor Bill de Blasio's http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/arts/new-york-city-plans-to-study-the-diversity-of-its-cultural-groups.html?_r=0.

    Thanks again.         

           

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    Niquole Primiani
    Director of Programs
    New Jersey Historical Commission
    Trenton NJ
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    Original Message