CONNECTING CULTURES: Mobile Museum Brings the World to Kids

On a recent visit to my neighborhood middle school (Palms Middle School, Los Angeles, CA) I walked into the library and was amazed to discover that it had been temporarily converted to a multi-cultural museum.  Instead of books, the long tables were filled with bowls, drums, bells, masks, puppets, clothing, musical instruments, and hundreds of other objects from all over the world, each with a label describing its use and where it came from.  Vertical panels displayed more items. I love to go to museums, and here was a mini-museum right in my neighborhood. What a perfect way for students to learn about the diverse world we live in!

Valerie Lezin, Director, Connecting Cultures Mobile Museum

Connecting Cultures Mobile Museum (CCMM) offers students a unique hands-on experience with a comprehensive collection of more than 2,000 artifacts from more than 70 countries...right in their own schools. Students need only walk down the hall to a museum-quality exhibition representing every human endeavor across ancient and modern times. No buses. No lost days of instruction. With three discrete, thematic exhibitions and presentations, CCMM encourages students to become familiar with both the historic and current customs of their own families, their classmates, and those of the world.

Because no picture in a textbook can substitute for the experience of handling an object or viewing it in three dimensions, CCMM gives students an opportunity to hold a piece of history and world culture in their hands, serving to personalize and vivify what they have read in their textbooks.

In the 2011-2012 school year, the CCMM visited fourteen schools in the LAUSD.  In 2012-2013, it is expanding its program to reach even more schools.  Kids love it.  Teachers love it. For everyone, a visit to the CCMM is a virtual trip around the world.  For a wonderful article about CCMM's visit to a school in Ventura in the fall of 2012, click here.