Hello Bridget!
Sounds amazing! While I was the Senior Educator at the San Diego Museum of Man (now Museum of Us) I developed, facilitated, and taught all programs connected to the RACE: Are We So Different exhibition from 2016 to Spring 2020. Once the museum opens back up, it will continue programming. If you would like to talk further about this, let me know. It is pretty detailed and for grades 5th through adult ages. In the future, they will have new programs and are in the process of higher a new person. I ended up getting a job else where because of COVID furloughs. Below is a summary.
I gathered various items, photos, and objects throughout history connected to the history of race, racism, identity, and activism. Guests of all ages engaged with the objects and photos to have a note tangible and activity experience. Some of the items are a BLM shirt, a green book, AIM patch, Huelga pin, Kapernick Jersey, Eugenics book, census reports from 1860 (last taken before emancipation), white supremacy signs that were actually left in our exhibit by someone trying to recruit (terrible), and numerous others that balance examples of racism and fighting against oppression. All objects are real or true to form. A very specific program was part of a partnership the museum has with something called School In The Park which is funded by Price Philanthropy. I developed and taught week long curricula for 6-8th grade students from Wilson Middle School. 6th grade touches on how and why race was created, how it impacts us, and how to be an upstander (active alley) and activist. The past three years, their final project was to create a poster representing an activist they learned about (for example Alicia Garza and BLM) or someone they feel is an upstander/change maker/ or activist. They then presented their project to museum guests. 7th and 8th grade focused on identity (racial, ethnic, and LGBTQA+), representation and misrepresentation, decolonization, and how to think critically about what is being portrayed (for example, students go through one of the museum's older exhibits about the Maya and think about if it is accurate or not, who is it representing/misrepresenting, why they think it is setup that way, what are perspectives that people might leave with, and who should the museum being taking with to change it, among other things). Students then choose what exhibit or identities they want to present on (Race, LGBTQAI+, Kumeyaay and Balboa Park).
Even though the grades have slightly different topics, all grades learn and engage with BLM. Example of activism? Identity formation and embracing? History of racism and oppression? So on and so forth.
Sorry I could go on and on! I am extremely proud of those programs and the students for their dedication, vulnerability, and work they put in to their projects.
All the best!
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Sydney Garcia
Post Graduate Research Association - Forensic Anthropologist -
San Diego CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-08-2020 02:39 PM
From: Bridget Girnus
Subject: Black Lives Matter and Museum Education- Program Models
Hi All,
I am a Museum Studies masters student at the University of San Francisco and am working on my final Capstone paper which is analyzing the ways art museum educators are responding to the Black Lives Matter Movement through programming. I am hoping to gather models of programs that are engaging students about BLM topics or have been influenced by strategies such as antiracist pedagogy, critical race theory, critical pedagogy, etc. If your museum, art or otherwise, has an applicable program I would love to hear about it in a short blurb. Also, if you know of other museums doing this work, I would greatly appreciate your suggestions.
Thank you so much for your help,
Bridget Girnus
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Bridget Girnus
MA Candidate | Museum Studies
University of San Francisco
btgirnus@dons.usfca.edu
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