A New Year of AmeriCorps Service

In September, the Museum welcomed its 21st AmeriCorps team – 12 enthusiastic members committed to a year of transformative service to kids and families from under-resourced communities. Collectively, the team will reach 1,000 Head Start preschoolers and hundreds of elementary school-age kids with playful interactive lessons during and after school, extend a warm welcome to children’s caregivers and siblings during free Museum family nights, and engage with thousands of other families both within and beyond the Museum’s walls.

The members hail from across the country and bring a wealth of different experiences. Three have previously served with other AmeriCorps programs. Others have studied and traveled around the United States, and the world. They share an eagerness to serve and learn this year.
 

Front row: Olivia, Ashley, Hannah, Lilia, Trinere, Casey  /  Back row: Jordan, Alexis, Anna, Amelia, Tristan, James

Meet our 2016-17 AmeriCorps team:

Alexis is from Riverside, CA and studied Earth Systems-Oceans at Stanford University. She drove 3,650 miles through 16 states and Canada by herself to arrive for AmeriCorps. She is excited to help kids discover how fun it is to be a nerd – and to experience winter!

Amelia is from Reading, MA and studied Early Childhood Development at North Shore Community College. She is a certified preschool teacher in Massachusetts. She looks forward to working with young children again after working with middle schoolers while she served with City Year last year.

Anna is from Hogansburg, NY and studied American Studies at Middlebury College. She grew up on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in northern NY and is a member of that tribe. She is excited to be working with a team to make learning and play more accessible to the surrounding community.

Ashley is from Hummelstown, PA and studied Anthropology & History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. She is most excited to facilitate learning and encourage creativity through play during her year of service.

Casey is from Concord, MA and studied History at Mount Holyoke College. She is excited to bring fun, enriching Museum experiences to the kids of Providence and to develop her skills in museum education.

Hannah is from Cambridge, MA and studied Studio Art and Politics at University of Virginia. She is most excited about finding creative ways to integrate art projects into the Museum’s STEM programming. 

James is from Gary, IN and studied Biology at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. He is most excited to educate children about the world around them.

Jordan is from Great Barrington, MA and studied Community Arts Education and Theater at Lesley University and Cultural Studies and Arts Education at Bard College. She looks forward to charting her course to becoming a culturally responsive educator.


Lilia is from North Kingstown, RI and studied Biology at Wheaton College. She recently spent 16 days living in the rainforest tracking monkey trips in Belize. She is excited to take time to serve her community.

Olivia is from Stillwater, OK but has been in the Providence area for the last several years studying Visual Art and Modern Culture at Brown University. She is excited to develop creative approaches to education and learning and to build relationships in the Providence community.

Trinere is from Worcester, MA and studied Architectural Design at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She is most excited about working with a new age group and growing her skills in youth development.

Tristan is from Baltimore, MD and studied English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He looks forward to getting to know Providence as deeply as possible.

To learn more about the Museum’s AmeriCorps program, please click here.

The Museum’s AmeriCorps program is made possible by the Corporation for National and Community Service and Serve Rhode Island, with support from additional sponsors for the Head Start and Learning Club programs.

Prototyping Coming to Rhode Island

This post was contributed by Museum Exhibits Director Robin Meisner and Research & Evaluation Specialist Suzy Letourneau.

This spring and summer – well before renovations even started – the exhibits team created and tested a range of prototypes to try out some ideas and get feedback on activities, labels and components for the new Coming to Rhode Island spaces. Such mockups – which are often made of scraps of wood, cardboard and tape – help the Museum’s design process by providing insight into how something might be used or interpreted by visitors, how it might look and feel, and how it might ultimately be made.

By prototyping, both in the Museum’s workshop and with visitors in the exhibits, the team is able to create a more thoughtfully developed experience for children and families. Some of the prototypes tested include:

A full-scale cardboard mockup of a section of the replica of Fort Adams!
Through this process, the team explored the layout of the new space, made adjustments for visitor flow and children’s play, and discovered tricks for fabrication of the final wooden fort structure.

A self-portrait drawing activity with prompts to help visitors reflect on what’s important about themselves that can’t be seen.
From this prototype, the team learned that visitors valued both sharing about themselves and reading others’ responses, so they added a portrait gallery to the exhibit. Most visitors wanted to leave their portraits behind for others to see, and one group said that looking at all the portraits was “like seeing the whole community.” Both children and adults thought carefully about what to write about themselves. One parent said, “It took me a minute to think of what was really important about myself, and that was surprising to me.”

A series of labels to help caregivers connect children’s pretend play with their developing social-emotional skills.
Initial prototypes drew on interviews with caregivers about the role of pretend play in children’s ability to empathize and take others’ perspectives. By testing multiple versions of the labels, the team was able to adjust the language and add concrete examples, ultimately helping caregivers find personal connections within the messages. Many caregivers said the labels made them think about how their own children like to pretend in the Museum (and at home), and how children learn to relate to other people, even those who live in a different time or place. One caregiver described the benefits of pretending by saying, “When kids put on those costumes, they really feel how people felt when they wore those clothes and did those jobs.”

Coming to Rhode Island is supported by The Children's Workshop Foundation; CollegeBound Saver; June Rockwell Levy Foundation; Murray Family Charitable Foundation; Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities; The Ryan Family Foundation; and Nancy Smith Worthen, in memory of Margaret L. Worthen (as of September 30). The Irish gallery was developed in collaboration with The Museum of Newport Irish History and the Fort Adams Trust.

Coming to RI: Renovations are Underway!

Last week we began long-awaited renovations to our time-traveling Coming to Rhode Island exhibit, which will reopen in November. The updates will include:

• A totally transformed “time tunnel” to guide visitors’ adventure through the story galleries. 
• A new interactive gallery that shares the story of an Irish immigrant who worked on the construction of Fort Adams. 
• And a completely reinvented “Story Center” with an array of intriguing new hands-on activities that explore culture and diversity.

While there are a lot of changes in store, the new Irish gallery will replace only the French Canadian mill gallery – so no worries, the beloved English farmhouse, Cape Verdean packet ship and Dominican bodega will return in their current forms!

Before we could begin to install the new exhibit elements, the first step was demolition of the departing time tunnel, Story Center and gallery. Take a look at some scenes from the process!

BEFORE: Members of the exhibits team (Exhibit Developer Jessica Neuwirth, Exhibit Designer & Fabricator Chris Sancomb, Director of Exhibits Robin Meisner) looking like they mean business at the beginning of demo.

Taking apart the Story Center and time tunnel.

Crew members James and Mark disassemble the mill...

...and then the mill house.

The time tunnel and mill, almost fully dismantled.

AFTER: The entryway, nearing the end of demolition. It looks quite different, doesn’t it?!

Stay tuned for more stories and photos of reinventing Coming to Rhode Island.

Celebrating a Year of Service

The Museum reached a major milestone as its 20th AmeriCorps team completed a year of committed service in mid-August.  The 2015-16 AmeriCorps members served 19,000 hours as they:

• Facilitated engaging problem-solving activities for 1,100 Head Start preschoolers
• Engaged 200 elementary school-aged children with inspiring play-based math and science activities during after-school “Learning Clubs”
• Welcomed 1,400 low-income children and family members to free Museum family nights
• Engaged thousands Museum visitors in hands-on exhibits and developed interactive public programs
• And much more! 

Tremendous thanks to our graduating AmeriCorps members for their year of dedicated service to children and families in need.

To learn more about the Museum’s AmeriCorps program, please click here.

The Museum’s AmeriCorps program is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service and Serve Rhode Island, with support from additional sponsors for the Head Start and Learning Club programs.

Mythical Creatures

Peek into the atrium walkway window boxes to discover imaginative scenes showcasing the whimsical world of mythical creatures – artfully felted dragons, fairies, gnomes, mermaids and more, created by AmeriCorps members Filipa Estrela and Rachel Storey.

Filipa and Rachel gave a glimpse of how the delightful display came to be:

Rachel: “We wanted the boxes to be fun and imaginative. To do this, we combined my love of making tiny household objects with Filipa's fascination with mythology. Our inspiration was our mutual love of all things tiny and adorable. We wanted to create a theme that would engage all children and inspire play, and we decided that fairy tales were the best way.”

Filipa: “My fascination for mythical things is really more of a childhood obsession. I grew up reading folklore from various cultures.”

Rachel: “Filipa was in charge of the creatures and I made most of the scenery. Filipa used wool roving, polyester filling and pipe cleaners to create the creatures. The scenery pieces were made from a variety of materials – there was a lot of felt and fabric, papier mache (with paper towels), household odds and ends, tape and plastic drinking straws. One of the most interesting materials used for our design was the bamboo. I made them by placing strips of masking tape on a drinking straw and then covering them with green paint.”

Filipa: “My top five boxes are maybe the swamp, the gnome house, the desert, the bamboo forest, and the rainforest... and the castle. Wait that's six...”

Rachel: “I am especially proud of the Viking ship, canyon and tundra boxes. They are all so colorful and all of these boxes involved several hours of carving with an Exacto knife."

Take a look and discover which is your favorite!

Puppets at Play!

Mischievous marionettes from the Museum’s historic Betty Huestis collection emerge from the pages of a storybook to frolic, play games and have other after-hours adventures at the library in a spirited scene recently created by AmeriCorps members Leigh Holmes and Hayley Munn.

Hayley shared some details about their inspiration and process:

“The idea for the new marionettes case display came from the Inkheart Trilogy, where characters can be read out of the story into real life. Leigh and I liked the idea of a library scene with mischievous animals escaping from a book. We choose the puppets based on their appearance and how they might engage in playful, unlibrary-like behavior. The monkey was a given, the camel worked well with the open desert scene, the spotted pony added fun color and pattern, and so on and so forth.

As for the bookshelf background, Leigh wanted to do a painting and we thought it would be fun to integrate real books. She also added in a sleeping kitty because she loves cats. The additional toys strewn about the books help set up the scene where the animals climb up the shelves, play Chinese Checkers and just make a mess.

The process of hanging the marionettes was very intricate and time-consuming. The puppets have very long strings that get easily tangled and must be handled carefully with gloves. It took a good deal of communication between who was hanging the string and who was holding the puppet in place to make the necessary adjustments.” 

Take a peek at these playful puppets on your next stroll through Strings Attached!

Coming Soon!

BIG NEWS! This fall, the Museum will unveil some major updates to our Coming to Rhode Island exhibit, a time-traveling adventure through the state’s immigration history:

• Explore an imaginative interactive gallery that highlights the story of an Irish immigrant who worked on the construction of Fort Adams. 

• Discover a reinvented Story Center with an array of intriguing hands-on activities that explore culture and diversity. 

• And navigate a reconstructed “time tunnel” that guides visitors’ adventure through the story galleries. 

The Museum will be closed September 6-8 to begin these renovations, and the exhibit will remain closed until construction is completed in November. Check back for stories and photos of the intriguing process!

Exhibit concept images by Museum Graphic Designer Valerie Haggerty-Silva.