The Bilingual Connection Museum Broadens Dual Language Outreach
Draw Your Favorite Ghost A Museum Activity Kit Orihon are accordion-style books, composed of a continuous folded sheet of paper enclosed between two covers. Compared to scrolls, accordion books are more practical and allow enough space for writing in a compact form. To make an accordion book and draw your favorite Yokai ghost, monster or demon, you’ll need: • 2 chalk pastels • Blank paper for covers (5.5” x 8.5”) • 2 paper strips for scroll (5.5” x 17”) • 2 cardboard pieces (5” x 7”) • A shallow tub • Popsicle stick or plastic knife • Scissors, ruler and glue stick
For Kemely Gomez, the Museum of International Folk Art’s bilingual educator, outreach begins with representation. “It’s so important just to be able to say to students, ‘I speak Spanish. I am from Guatemala,’” she says. Gomez, who has been with the Folk Art Museum since 2018, says that the educational programs she conducts with students in Santa Fe schools and libraries—as well as for kids and adults at Gerard’s House (a local center for grieving families)—begin with an open door and an invitation for participants to be themselves. “We live in a state where Spanish is almost a second language. It’s so important that we support a bilingual environment for families,” Gomez says. A museum environment can be intimidating, she adds, for people who did not grow up visiting such institutions. “Every space should feel like an inviting space where you can share both English and Spanish, because that’s who you are.” When Gomez began conducting folk art workshops at Santa Fe’s Southside Public Library, she was simply trying to connect the bilingual community to a place that houses many of the Spanish-speaking world’s cultural treasures.
Find directions and other online activities at: museumfoundation.org/education Activity kits for all Museum of New Mexico divisions are generously sponsored by $10,000 in private gifts through the Museum of New Mexico Foundation. The funds help create specialized activities for thousands of schoolchildren across New Mexico.
Museum of International Folk Art Bilingual Educator Kemely Gomez. Photo by Saro Calewarts.
10 museumfoundation.org
