IMAS Accepted Into NSF-Funded National Cohort “Cambio”
McAllen, TX– The International Museum of Art & Science (IMAS) in McAllen, TX, has joined Cambio, a year-long professional development cohort, to build capacity for authentic and sustained collaborations with their community.
Cambio’s vision centers on encouraging organizations to shift their practices at all levels by examining the cultural dimensions and intersections of Hispanic/Latinx audiences, STEM and organizational change. Believing that leaders reside at all levels within organizations, the program helps museum practitioners to explore how they might spark change in their role as individuals, within organizations, and in relationship with communities.
The Cambio experience focuses on incremental change in organizational practice, building on strengths and improving what they do well, with a goal of long-term transformational change that includes examining assumptions and changing structures toward institution-wide change. The IMAS Cambio team (pictured below) participates in monthly virtual meetings with the other museums in their cohort – The New York Hall of Science, Queens Zoo-Wildlife Conservation Society, The Children’s Museum Tucson, AZ, and The Tech Interactive in San Jose, CA.
Cambio is a National Science Foundation-funded program for informal learning institutions—zoos, children’s museums, science centers, and other similar organizations—across the United States. It’s built on the premise that by developing cultural competence specific to Hispanic/Latinx communities and STEM—the fields known collectively as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—coupled with intentional changes in practice, museums can increase accessibility for and inclusion of their Hispanic/Latinx communities, cultures, and audiences.
Cambio is made possible through the generous support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and is a collaboration between the Exploratorium and CCLI (Cultural Competence Learning Institute). This material is based upon work supported by NSF under grant 1906595. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.
International Museum of Art & Science (IMAS) cross-departmental Cambio team includes (front row left to right) Ann Fortescue, President & Executive Director, Jessica Rodriguez, Visitor Services and Gift Shop Manager, (back row left to right) Aylaia Sifuentes, Development and Membership Coordinator, and Celina Michel, Exhibitions Coordinator.
