T.A.C. Spot: Place of the Beginning

Monday, October 9, 2023

Place of the Beginning

This Saturday, #PapalotlProject travelled to Gawkawbeekong for the reopening of #MayaHiddenWorldsRevealed at the Science Museum of Minnesota. In stark contrast to the 2013 world premiere, there were no banners, no fanfare and no news crews. There had been a members preview the evening before, but this opening day was literally just that. After travelling to 10 cities across the country, about 2 million people have visited so far, hopefully inspired by the beauty, knowledge, traditions and dedication of our ancestral and contemporary Mesoamerican artists, scientists, statespeople and culture workers. There is so much to learn about being a good human relative both within the exhibition and beyond. Math, science, physics, poetry, chemistry, diplomacy, geography, family, relationships, time and space are all in there along with activites to try, videos to watch and touch screens to play with. We stayed for five hours, and for us, it was not enough time to go completely through everything.

Re-opening circle 10/07/23

Photo by Nedahness Greene

Science Museum of Minnesota is a forward thinking legacy science and natural history museum located on the bank of the Mississippi River in downtown Saint Paul. They have made community consultation and engagement an intregal part of the institution's strategic and operational policy. Still, as in any organization, there is always room for new ideas, testing, evaluation and improvement. Sometimes there is even more room than anyone even realizes.

Golden River Repair: Emergency Shawl

temporary site specific interaction

by Tara A. Chadwick 10/07/23

We arrived as eager and welcome guest visitors, excited to reconnect with our younger selves and our friends we haven't seen for so long. We were also eager to reconnect with the artifacts, some of which are also like old friends to us, while others are more like that one remaining photograph of the favorite grandmother your grandmother often talked about. These humans and artifacts are part of our extended family.

Together we all form a cohesive story of our present. Where we are, how we got here, what we remember, how we relate to one another, and our vision for the future. We learn who we are from our family and that knowledge propels us to learn about each other. Which is precisely what happened. As a result of our visit, we reconnected with friends and also made new ones.

Opening words

Photo by Nedahness Greene

The Science Museum accompanied us as we co-created a safe and trusting space to engage with each other as well as those behind the wall of plexiglass. It was a new model for collaboration unfurling organically between the visitors, artifacts, museum space, staff and the exhibition itself. We were able to exchange both information and emotion about what this space means for us. And hopefully, open a pathway to more intentional cross-generational, co-creation between communities and their museums.

Reconnecting

Photo by Nedahness Greene

Always grateful for the incredible support of my former coworkers and colleagues who continue to offer their friendship, feedback, collaboration and mentorship. Thanks for being there Lea & George, Lisa, Jake, Mike, John, Liza & Mark. And I am also thankful to my new friends Dave, Nedahness & Melissa.

Thanks to my fellow Cogenerate Social Innovation Fellow, Libby Stegger of Move for America (and a member of the Science Museum of Minnesota), we are so grateful that you and your crew came out to share part of our day!

Tara & Libby

And what can I say to the incredible young lady who grew up in the flash of two decades to become a leader in our industry, thank you Ilona, I am so glad to have met you again!!!