Smithsonian Institution
Project Title
For project support to expand the Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange Program
Date
Jun. 05, 2025
Duration
18 months
Description
As the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2026, the Smithsonian Institution will engage communities across the country with an invitation to celebrate, commemorate, and contemplate the founding of the nation and the tenets of our democracy. Unfortunately, many U.S. education systems currently lack comprehensive civics instruction, leaving a critical gap in educating students about the nation’s founding ideals and the rights and responsibilities of all citizens. Currently in its pilot phase, The Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange Program (DiDVE) run by the Smithsonian empowers young people ages thirteen to eighteenby connecting local stories to national narratives through civic engagement and community storytelling. By combining place-based pedagogy with Smithsonian resources, DiDVE fosters meaningful dialogue among students from diverse backgrounds while providing educators with the tools and training to lead these exchanges. With the Corporation’s support, the Smithsonian aims to establish the program as a signature educational offering, expanding its reach from just over 1,000 students served as of spring 2025 to 5,000 studentsnationwide by the end of 2026.
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Project Title
As a one-time only grant for support of an initiative to establish an international network for the protection of cultural heritage and cultural workers
Date
Mar. 10, 2022
Duration
29 months
Description
The Freer Gallery of Art, founded in 1923, and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, founded in 1987, are collectively, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA). The museum is committed to preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting exemplary works of art. With Corporation support, the NMAA proposes to examine laying the foundations for an international consortium of art museums, cultural institutions, universities, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, and government agenciesthat would raise consciousness about the vulnerability of tangible cultural heritage and collections, an irreplaceable record of our human existenceand the workers that preserve it. It would also identify possible measures to mitigate risks and respond more effectively and expeditiously to protect both moveable objects and museum staff in Asia and the Middle East imperiled by political or military crises with humanitarian dimensions.
Website
Project Title
As a final grant in support of education programming
Date
Mar. 07, 2019
Duration
12 months
Description
The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s mission is to educate, inspire, and empower people through design and is achieved through exhibitions and innovative education programs, publications, and online resources that demonstrate the impact of design on daily life. Their education programs provide dynamic learning experiences that explore design concepts while engaging the public with the museum’s vast resources. With Carnegie Corporation support, Cooper Hewitt’s DesignAccess project will advance its goal to embed the ideals of accessibility and inclusion throughout the institution, including direct design education programming that supports the diverse learning styles of visitors across abilities; improve access services offered during education programs; broaden access to the museum’s exhibitions for audiences with disabilities; and provide training for Cooper Hewitt staff, across all departments, to ensure a positive, welcoming experience for all visitors.
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Project Title
For the National Museum of African American History & Culture's Audience Engagement Program
Date
Mar. 08, 2018
Duration
40 months
Description
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC, or the Museum) was established by Act of Congress in 2003 and, after a successful fundraising campaign, opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the nineteenth and newest museum of the Smithsonian Institution. The mission is to provide for the collection, study, and to curate programs and exhibitions relating to African American life, art, history, and culture. With Corporation support, the Museum will launch the initiative, the Audience Engagement Program, which will exam audience interests in order to design and develop collections-based, educational programming for visitors who come to the museum directly or experience its objects, stories, lectures, and other content digitally.
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Project Title
For a one-time grant in support of education programming
Date
Sep. 07, 2017
Duration
12 months
Description
The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is the nation’s only museum focused on design and is a leader in introducing design thinking across all ages and settings. Design thinking promotes the use of a variety of mathematical concepts and skills; requires communication about one’s work, which in turn develops written and oral presentation skills; and is easily integrated in teaching thereby promoting STEM and 21st century skills in an organic and effective way. With Corporation support, Cooper Hewitt will continue to offer students an opportunity to participate in their DesignPrep, pre-college career program and will also support the integration of a new “thesis” project for DesignPrep Scholars using the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access’s Learning Lab to create unique student-curated content that can be shared with students and educators across the world.
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Project Title
For a public education and engagement campaign related to the influence of immigration and democracy on the American identity
Date
Jun. 09, 2016
Duration
31 months
Description
From the beginning of the nation’s history, social questions of migration, mobility, and acculturation have been inextricably intertwined with political questions around the machinery of democracy, citizenship, and the law. Today, myriad current challenges to American democracy—political intransigence, the influence of special interests, voter dissatisfaction, and changing demographics—are diminishing the public’s faith in the American democratic system. With renewed Corporation support, the National Museum of American History, in collaboration with Zócalo Public Square, will continue a national, multi-platform public education campaign that brings together leading thinkers, public figures, and Americans from all walks of life to explore big, visceral questions about how America’s history of migration and democratic traditions have made it the nation it is today.
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Project Title
As a one-time only grant for support of its K-12 education and enrichment programming to students in the New York metropolitan area
Date
Sep. 17, 2015
Duration
17 months
Website
Project Title
For a public education and engagement campaign related to the influence of immigration and democracy on the American identity
Date
Mar. 06, 2014
Duration
18 months
Website
Project Title
For a project to enhance Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection
Date
Sep. 12, 2013
Duration
12 months
Website
Project Title
For a project to digitize items from Cooper-Hewitt's archives and national design library.
Date
Jun. 09, 2011
Duration
17 months
Website
Project Title
One-time only grant toward its education programs in the schools
Date
Sep. 10, 2009
Duration
12 months