Interactivity Begins

The conference commenced Thursday morning with breakfast at themed tables. We self selected a table based on areas of interest and Angelica and I chose an Exhibits table. We met museum staffers from St. Louis, Champaigne, Il, Virginia Beach and Omaha. They shared info on projects at their museums as well as recommendation to visit the Lincoln museum in Springfield. My favorite story came from Judy Leise a St. Louis area consultant working on a project for Delta Dental. Her current project is an expanding dentistry museum where the board is forcing them to keep set of 3 ft. tall teeth. She is trying to include them around the stage of a recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre! The Board created these many years ago and will not let them go.

After breakfast we all went to the opening Plenary session with speaker Dr. Johnetta Cole, Director, National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian. Dr. Cole was introduced as a “thought leader”,and spoke on preparing children to become21st century learners & contributors. She referred to the audience as her sisters and brothers based on her upbringing in a southern church, from the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, her training as anthropologist—kinship is more about behavior than biology and shared values. She said we share a profound belief in the power of museums to teach and even change lives. She called herself a newbie to world of museums and was honored to be asked to speak today.

Dr. Cole says we must continue the call for diversity and inclusion and create inclusive environment that makes everyone feel comfortable. When children’s museums are at their best they are models of diversity and inclusion. We should educate youngsters not only about the world they live in but the world they will live in.