Uncharted Territory Educators Explore, and Excel, During Pandemic
When our museums and historic sites were suddenly shuttered after COVID-19 spread across the state last spring, silence settled into community spaces that bustled with school field trips and member tours just days before. This new normal was uncharted territory. The same questions ran through every museum and site educator’s mind. How do our cultural institutions matter now? What do our visitors need from us during these uncertain times? Immediately, educators throughout the Museum of New Mexico system found themselves busier than ever. They all hit the ground running with quickly but carefully crafted plans—and a few wild new ideas. Museum of International Folk Art director Khristaan Villela summed up their newly intensified role: “Our educators are more important than ever now in this pandemic crisis,” he says. “They are our bridge to the public.”
Bridging the COVID Divide In a matter of weeks, museums and historic sites were reaching underserved communities statewide, making noise with virtual concerts and lectures, and creating hands-on activities for students who were rapidly turning into Zoom zombies. In several cases, online initiatives that had sat on the back burner for months or even years were thrust into action. Through it all, museum professionals flexed technological skills and climbed steep learning curves. Despite the difficulties of working from home and collaborating from afar, educators across the board are
enthusiastic about the innovations that have resulted from the pandemic. For example: • Security guards at the New Mexico History Museum volunteered to assemble learning kits with word searches on notable New Mexico women and a model of a lunar polyhedron. • Museum of International Folk Art educators gathered materials and instructions for students to create beaded animals and necklaces. They also partnered with Santa Fe’s Southside Library to feature folk tales on YouTube recited in Spanish by bilingual educator Kemely Gomez. • The New Mexico Museum of Art posted Web-based lessons for elementary school kids on artistic techniques of color and line. • New Mexico Historic Sites staff devised a Virtual Summer Camp highlighting a different daily activity at a different site—including Thursday’s “Glimpse of Life on the Reservation” from Fort Sumner/Bosque Redondo Memorial and Monday’s lessons on plants of the Chihuahuan Desert from Fort Selden and TaylorMesilla sites. • At the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Zoom lectures addressed a range of subjects, including Chaco Canyon, San Ildefonso Pueblo’s role in the founding of the Museum of New Mexico, and the future of Bears Ears National Monument.
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