Partnership With U.S. State Department Fosters Cross-Cultural Ties
Washington, DC, 12/19/2008 -

The American Association of Museums (AAM) announced today that it was accepting proposals for the second cycle of the Museums & Community Collaborations Abroad (MCCA) program. MCCA is an innovative partnership between AAM and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that empowers museums to connect people in the US with people abroad while at the same time strengthening ties between the museums and their communities.

          “Respected thinkers and commentators have declared today’s globalized world to be flat,” said Ford W. Bell, president of AAM. “The goal of MCCA ─ and of AAM as a whole ─ is to ensure that this is true, enabling museums to become vibrant and vital institutions with enduring connections to their communities, both here and abroad.”

          The MCCA program has two primary goals:

• For Communities:  Through innovative museum-based exchanges, awardees will identify stakeholders in the communities they serve and work to meet their needs while broadening cross-cultural understanding in each community.

• For Museums:  Awardees will develop replicable models for international collaborations that reach beyond museum walls and directly involve the public.

MCCA allows museums to propose projects that reflect their institutional goals, unique collections, capabilities, audiences and expertise.  Participants integrate their communities into project activities through collaborations with local or tribal governments and schools, hosting community events, working with US Embassy-sponsored activities and partnering with local media outlets.

MCCA’s museum-based exchanges have demonstrated how partnering with museums and communities abroad can increase intercultural understanding as well as create cohesion between museums and the people they serve. Two of the four very successful first-year MCCA programs are Inside/Outside/North & South and Promoting Volunteerism: Engaging Youth in Building Community.

In Inside/Outside/North & South, museums in Colorado, Bolivia and Mexico worked with local youth from predominantly minority and majority neighborhoods to discuss stereotyping and prejudice. After online discussions with one another, the young people worked to create multi-media exhibit about minority/majority relations and marginalization in their three societies. The exhibit traveled to each of the three museums, where a youth-driven public forum comparing the struggles faced by the youth in their communities was held in conjunction with each opening. “We got to interact with the students and ask questions about their everyday lives and vise versa,” noted one youth participant, a Denver-area high school student from a majority-Hispanic school. “Through the projects, we got to see the obstacles they faced, but through the open dialogue we got to see the people behind the projects and got to know them for who they were....  I always thought that because they were at different latitudes, longitudes, and [have] different cultures influencing them, they would be completely different people from me, but when push comes to shove, we got to see that [we are all] young adults facing the same problems.”

          In Promoting Volunteerism: Engaging Youth in Building Community,, schoolchildren in Tajikistan and Indiana, in collaboration with the Dushanbe Zoo and the Black Pine Animal Park, joined forces to volunteer in local zoos and to create educational materials for zoo visitors. The program is credited with fostering a spirit of volunteerism among the Tajik youth which had heretofore been nonexistent and strengthening youth participation in the volunteer corps in Indiana.  "’If not us, who? If not now, when?’  These two questions are very magical," notes Tajik project manager Victor Ibragimov.  “Through this project, Tajik and US children had a unique opportunity to learn and practice one of the powerful magic tricks that changes the world around you to much a better place to live.”  “We aim to help students understand the zoo is ‘their’ zoo,” agrees Lori Gagen of Black Pine. “If they choose to help improve conditions they will be creating a wonderful place for families to gather, learn, and enjoy.”

For detailed information on all the current grantees, please see www.aam-us.org/mcca.

Details about the Grant Process

          MCCA projects are community focused and must produce tangible outputs that engage their audiences. Museum participants identify their own partners and collaborate to create a mutually beneficial project proposal. The project structure and timeline are at the discretion of the participants. However, projects must be completed within 15 months from the time funding is awarded and must involve travel for both US and non-US museum staff.

          The grant pool for the 2008-2010 cycle of MCCA has increased from approximately $315,000 in the 2007-2009 inaugural cycle to $450,000. This allows for an increase in the number of grants given as well as in the grant amounts. Museums may request up to $120,000 in MCCA funding; awardees are required to identify a 50% direct or indirect match for all MCCA funds received..

          A staff representative at the US museum acts as the project manager, disbursing funds as called for in the project budget and filing both quarterly and final reports.

          Instructions for the MCCA proposal process can be found on the AAM Web site at www.aam-us.org/mcca. Deadline for finding a partner and for the submission of the Statement of Intent to Propose is January 30, 2009.

About the American Association of Museums

The American Association of Museums (AAM) has been bringing museums together since 1906, helping to develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge and providing advocacy on issues of concern to the entire museum community. With more than 15,000 individual, 3,000 institutional and 300 corporate members, AAM is dedicated to ensuring that museums remain a vital part of the American landscape, connecting people with the greatest achievements of the human experience, past, present and future. For more information, visit www.aam-us.org.

About the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the Department of State fosters mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through international exchanges and cultural programs. For more information about the activities of the ECA, see http://exchanges.state.gov/cultural/.

Press Contact:
Dewey Blanton
202-218-7704
dblanton@aam-us.org

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