Wheel and Cog
Project, "It takes a Village", involves program development which would include community outreach development.
Myra Peffer (Bemidji, MN): Myra was the Executive Director of a children’s museum in Vermont, and has consulted with many museums (including the Children’s Discovery Museum) as a now-resident of Minnesota. She was recommended by the Children’s Discovery Museum, and recused herself of that scoring/discussion.
Bette Schmit (St Paul, MN): Bette Schmit is the Exhibit Developer at the Science Museum of Minnesota – recommended by Carol Aegerter, her expertise is in exhibit design and support.
Josh Ney (Minneapolis, MN): Josh Ney is a board member of the Minnesota Humanities Center, and also has experience working with the legislature and the Legacy Committee.
Laura Benson
Minnesota Humanities Center
laura@mnhum.org
651-772-4244
$625,000 each year is for grants to other children’s museums to pay for start-up costs or new exhibit and program development. Funds are to be distributed through a competitive grant process. The Minnesota Humanities Center must administer these funds using established grant mechanisms.
- Through improved community access and outreach, we will track outreach activities. We have a goal of 1 community-based activity each month starting May 2020. The outcomes we expect to see is an increase in requests for outreach across the state of Minnesota.
- Trailer, we expect that the trailer be utilized at least monthly starting May 2020.
- Signage/Video, we expect the video of exhibits and testimonial to be viewed 150 times each month after it is posted to website. We expect to receive positive feedback regarding cohesive signage throughout museum, updated brochures and sign along hwy 15.
- Cloud-based membership/donor tracking, we expect class registration to be easy, increase in donations and circle of membership donors, as well as ease of tracking and reporting capabilities.
Cohesive marketing:
a) We monitor our account using Google My Business. We have 3-5 star ratings, mostly 4's and 5's.
b) We are able to track several measures: 22,263 followers; in the last month 59 people used google for directions; 233 visited the website; 22 phone calls and we currently have a 4.7 star rating on Google.
c) Signs: The outdoor permeant signs and the billboard have been driving up awareness of our location.
Community Outreach:
a) Initially, during the summer, we were only reaching 20-25 kiddos each week with our Community Outreach program, "Art in the Park".
b) In August 2021 alone, with the Hands-on STREAM weekly activity, we increased kits to 75 per week and are seeing 70-75, kiddos each week participate in the activities, or take a take-and-make kit home.