US-Africa Cultural Heritage Strategic Partnership

US-Africa Cultural Heritage Strategic Partnership Meeting Washington, DC

June 5, 2012

US-Africa Cultural Heritage Strategic Partnership Meeting Washington, DC

June 5, 2012

Purpose

Collaboration between US and African museums and cultural heritage institutions to identify and implement best practices to sustain partnerships that preserve and provide access to African cultural heritage collections

Build and promote strong ethical partnershipsFollowing sound and tested principles of partnership

Strategic PartnersInternational Council of African Museums: AFRICOM

AFRICOM is an international organization dedicated to promoting the development of museums and museum professions in Africa and the protection of Africa’s cultural heritage. It grew out of an International Council of Museums (ICOM) program to address the needs of Africa’s museums and professionals and is now fully coordinated within Africa. Its headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya.

http://www.africom.museum/

Strategic PartnersSmithsonian Institution

Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum and research complex. It consists of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park and nine research facilities in the United States and Panama. Additionally the Smithsonian is affiliated with 166 museums and other educational institutions across the country. Its mission is the increase and diffusion of knowledge. Lead Smithsonian units: National Museum of African-American History and Culture; National Museum of African Art; and Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

http://www.si.edu/

Strategic PartnersAmerican Association of Museums

The American Association of Museums (AAM) is dedicated to strengthening museums through collaboration of museum professionals, advocacy for museums, and the development of best practices for the museum field. Its membership is open to all people who work with museums, from directors and curators to volunteers. Every type of museum is represented including art, history, science, military and maritime, and youth museums, as well as aquariums, zoos, botanical gardens, arboretums, historic sites, and science and technology centers.

http://www.aam-us.org/

Strategic PartnersAssociation of African American Museums

The Association of African American Museums (AAAM) is a non-profit member organization that supports African and African American focus museums nationally and internationally, as well as the professionals who protect, preserve and interpret African and African American art, history and culture. The Association seeks to strengthen and advocate for the interests of institutions and individuals committed to the preservation of African-derived cultures.

http://www.blackmuseums.org/

Strategic PartnersInstitute of Museum and Library Services

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development.

http://www.imls.gov

Strategic Partners Michigan State University

Michigan State University has had a long history of engagement in Africa with over 160 faculty working in Africa and one of the leading African Studies Centers in the US. The Michigan State University Museum has a legacy of collaborative partnerships with museums, universities, and cultural agencies in Africa and has been a test bed for innovative digital projects. MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online is one of the leading humanities technology centers in the US with a history of collaborative work in Africa.http://www.msu.edu/

Strategic Actions

The framework called “Big Framework for Collaborative Projects” which was established with strategic partners in Year 1 is now being used for fundraising and strategic next steps. The “Framework” includes the following areas:

Big Framework of Collaborative Projects

1. Digital Collaborations: Exhibitions, research, collections, education, evaluation/reflection on practice, networking international collections. Digital access to manuals. Leveraging social media.

2. Professional Development Training: Digital Cultural Heritage Field School/Digital Humanities Field School: documentation, preservation, skills development, career pathways

3. Expansion of opportunities for cultural heritage worker exchanges and internships: a.) foster sharing information and experiences related to the development of and protection of museums; b.) enhance knowledge and skills base of individuals on both sides of the exchange; c.) increase networking between museums and universities in the US and African countries; d.) facilitate adoption of international museum standards and procedures; and e.) maximize utilization of limited resources.

4. Museums and Economic Development: Museums on both continents have multiple and complimentary roles to play in the arena of economic development in Africa through cultural and natural heritage enterprise.

5. Expansion of entrepreneurship linked to cultural heritage, especially for youth, women, and at-risk and underserved communities: Identified areas of local cultural/natural resources can be used to empower youth, women, and underserved communities with new skills to foster identity for social and political growth and to mitigate against urban drift.

Big Framework of Collaborative Projects (continued)

6. Museums, Cultural Heritage, and STEM: Develop activities and curricula that will strengthen teacher and student performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.New approaches to add value to collections: interactive, protection, info on illicit/appropriate marketing - partnerships with communities, generating new skills, and building investigative capacity models

7. Stimulate new approaches to add value to collections: Include field of serious games and the creation of digital repositories of data—to educate individuals to identify and intercept illicit transport of heritage assets and to market the value and impact of loss of cultural heritage assets.

8 Strengthen strategies that focus on current critical or crisis issues: Trauma situations, whether natural or other disasters, including armed conflict, present a host of health, economic, social and cultural challenges. Assist the heritage sector in cases of national or regional trauma, but developing a strong heritage sector that bolsters healing and rebuilding processes.

9. Identification, dissemination, support and recognition of best practices/model projects: Develop strategies to nurture, incubate, and give status to excellence.

10. Identification of, access to, and updating of reference documents: Identify, digitize, and make accessible important in-print manuals and reference documents.

Big Framework of Collaborative Projects (continued)

11. Domesticating Cultural Policy: Take the lead in “domesticating” global policies to ensure that they are in alignment with conventions and charters by working with African museums and cultural heritage communities to: a) review security and documentation policies; b) adopt international standards for collection documentation and Code of Ethics; c) improve conservation resources and procedures; d) enhance collection security; e) assist in global accords; f) support global and local legal frameworks for cultural heritage preservation; and g) link records of looted African resources using digital technologies.

12. Strengthen the capacity of museums to create and effectively share digital and physical exhibitions: Identify and support strategies to facilitate learning how to plan, implement, and manage traveling exhibitions, make information available on existing traveling exhibitions, and the develop digital exhibitions.

Year 2: Strategic Actions

Africa Global Track Professional Educational Program at the 2012 American Association of Museums Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, April 2012.Supported by the American Associations of Museums, Smithsonian Institution, Michigan State University, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Getty Foundation.

• Session 1: Africa Global Track Orientation Session

• Session 2: Trauma: creating shared communities in cultural/natural heritage risk management.

• Session 3: Preservation and Access: Creating global community access to African heritage collections.

• Session 4: US and African museum exhibits in a digital age: creating and linking local and global communities

• Session 5: Young, Informed, Engaged: Innovation in Creating Sustainable Global Youth Communities.

• Session 6: Africa Track Evaluation and Needs Assessment/ Closing Session

Year 2: Strategic ActionsTravel and Other Activities

Meetings on the African Continent The US-Africa Cultural Heritage Strategic Partnership meeting was held at the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal on March 7-9, 2012Using the planning process entitled, Strategic Doing, to ensure continued consultation with constituencies as the project moves forward beyond planning to doing, the outcomes of the meeting included: 1) evaluation of progress to date; 2) establishment of priority activities for 2012-2013; 3) drafted outlines for grant proposals; 4) identification of additional funding sources; and 5) advancement of planning for the ground-breaking Africa Global Track program for the American Association of Museums Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.

Consultations with Pilot Partner Organizations in South AfricaConsultations were held with the Mandela Museum, Ifa Lethu, South African Quilt Heritage Project, Kathrada Foundation Museum Center, University of Witwatersrand, and Iziko Museums.

Meeting in the United StatesThe US-Africa Cultural Heritage Strategic Partnership meeting was held at the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture, Washington, D.C., April 21, 2011. The meeting focused on the initial planning for a innovative international program of sessions at the American Association of Museums Annual Meeting in Minneapolis (April 29-May 3, 2012) to showcase and strengthen international collaborative partnerships between African and American museums/cultural organizations.

Year 2: Strategic ActionsIntellectual Property

Developed MSU's KORA open-source digital repository softwareto be more accessible to African institutions and scholars

KORA (kora.matrix.msu.edu)

The project continues to use the MSU Developed project planning digital resource KORA as a key part of this global digital collaborative work. KORA 3.0 is nearing its release date. Significant improvements have been made for efficiency and user experience design. A number of new features are being added to enhance usability and ease of use by cultural heritage institutions. • Update internal KORA code to handle multiple database back ends

• Update the pagination of search results internal to KORA

• Kora Interface Re-Design

• Improve Searching Controls

• Evaluate KORA for session variable safety

• Add XML Validation to Controls

• PREMIS: Implementation of Archival Flag

• KORA code review

• Full Text Indexing full integration and final testing

• Improved batch updating of controls

Year 3: Proposed Strategic Actions

• Professional Exchanges

• Africa-US Museum Institute

• Africa-US Professional Museum Leadership Development Model Projects

• Museum Professional Oral History Project: Digital teaching modules for museum studies

• Games and Digital Exhibitions Projects

• Capitalize on existing Fulbright Specialist Program

SUMMARY OF PRIORITY COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS FOR 2012-13

A. Professional Training Pilot Projects for Museum Staff

1) IFAN, Dakar, Senegal/Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Project, D.C. Conduct collaborative research, documentation, digitization and interpretation of Goree Island (Senegal) archaeological collections.

2) Professional Exchanges: Capacity Building through a Mentoring Exchange Program for African and

America Museum Professionals for the Design and Development of Youth Exhibitions. A proposal has been submitted to the Getty Foundation that will support four museum partnerships with museums in the US and Africa with a focus on the design and development of exhibitions for student-age audiences that will foster innovative use of museum collections and resources.

SUMMARY OF PRIORITY COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS FOR 2012-13 (cont.)

B. Professional Museum Leadership Development Projects 1) Museum and Cultural Heritage Professional Oral History Project: This project entails the gathering of digital

interviews with key figures in both the US and Africa museum and cultural heritage field that speak to best practices and current issues related to museum and cultural heritage with an emphasis on preservation, access, and use through digital strategies. Interviews would be converted into modules that could be used for onsite and virtual museum studies programs and museum professional development.

2) Digital Games and Digital Exhibitions Projects: Three projects pilot the collaborative development by U.S. and African museums and cultural heritage organizations working with MATRIX of digital games and exhibitions that would incorporate curriculum standards for both US and Africa K-12 education as well as guidelines for use in informal learning contexts of museums. The pilot projects would spring from these initiatives already underway: a.) Smithsonian Institution's Museum of African American History and Culture's Atlantic Slavery & Freedom exhibition project b.) Michigan State University Museum and the Nelson Mandela Museum's Dear Mr. Mandela, Dear Mrs. Parks: Children's Letters, Global Lessons exhibition, community engagement, and curriculum development project; c.) the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute 2013 project Youth, Activism and the Struggle for Human Rights.

3) Africa-US Museum Leadership Institute: This project would draw on successful elements of the museum institute models of the Getty, the Association of African American Museums, training workshops held in Africa, and others to create a model that would be appropriate for African museum and cultural heritage workers and those US cultural heritage workers who want to collaborate with African museum and cultural heritage workers. The Leadership Institute would address specific needs of both established professionals would need to keep current as well as the needs of emerging professionals. The institute would be envisioned as being delivered in both face-to-face contexts as well as virtually and elements of the institute would be designed so that they could be repurposed in museum studies programs and professional development training settings.