A chat with Rosa Cabrera from the Field Museum

On June 29, 2009 I sat down with Rosa Cabrera, Public Involvement Manager at the Field Museum in their department of Environment, Cultural and Conservation (ECCo).

ECCo works on research and implementation projects with an aim to integrate environment, culture and conservation. This is done through collaboration with community organizations in the City of Chicago or the Chicagoland region and in South America. These two diverse geographies are included because two different departments within the Field Museum, the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC) and the Environment and Conservation Programs (ECP), merged in January 2009 to become officially ECCo. ECCo works primarily with the Chicago Cultural Alliance to address cultural aspects of their mission and with Chicago Wilderness to tackle the environmental areas of their mission.

The CCUC, now ECCo, and Field Museum are particularly significant partners for the Alliance, which grew out of a program called Cultural Connections managed by the CCUC. Cultural Connections ran from 1998 - 2009, with an emphasis of connecting heritage to contemporary issues by comparing "Common Concerns, Different Responses" among Chicago's ethnic communities. At the urging of Chicago's ethnic museums, centers, and historical societies, the CCUC hired a consultant in 2005, with the intention of separating the role of Cultural Connections from the Field Museum, and the Alliance was officiallyincorporated as an independent organization in 2006.

ECCo brings a new model of integration and cultural understanding through facilitating collaboration between small and large organizations who normally would not have a relationship. They also try to draw the larger organizations into work on environmental conservation. Many of ECCo's goals are similar to the Chicago Cultural Alliance because they were born of the same ideas. Working with community organizations is a significant part of the work that both ECCo and the Alliance do because these organizations truly understand the needs of their communities, who make up a major part of Chicago's population.

For Rosa personally, the most rewarding part of her work with ECCo and the Field Museum has been to see the growth of the Alliance and to see the Partner Institutions expand their missions to include work on environmental issues. Rosa's background in is cultural anthropology, she received her master's degree from the University of Illinois - Chicago and went straight into working at the Field Museum, first as an intern in 1999, and later as a paid staff member in CCUC in 2000. In 2009, she earned her Ph.D in Cultural Anthropology, with a dissertation that focuses on Chicago's ethnic museums.

The mission of the Chicago Cultural Alliance is "effecting social change and public understanding of cultural diversity", an idea that Rosa sees happening as the Alliance helps Core Members expand their notion of heritage through addressing notions of identity. This in turn allows these organizations address contemporary issues in their community and helps them to fulfill their missions.

A Chat with Jamie Bender from Center for International Studies at University of Chicago

Kicking off the CCA blog’s brand new interview series is a discussion with Jamie Bender, the Outreach Coordinator at the Alliance’s partner institution, the Center for International Studies (CIS) at the University of Chicago. As stated on their website, CIS “sponsors and coordinates a wide variety of activities related to research, teaching, curriculum, and public outreach on global and international topics” through a range of lectures, conferences, and events aimed not only at university audiences but also at the broader Chicago community. A key component of CIS’s mission is to work with Chicago-area schools, which involves coordinating classroom visits from distinguished experts on a wide range of international topics, implementing teacher education workshops, and helping to build curricula.

At the helm of these K-12 teacher outreach programs is Jamie Bender, who before joining CIS taught anthropology and biology for eight years. What she loved about teaching is similar to what she loves about her current position at CIS: as a teacher, she could show her students how exciting other cultures can be and inspire them to move, both literally and figuratively, outside of their own communities. Her desire for students to have increased opportunities to learn about world events, as well as her personal motivation to learn more about the world beyond Chicago, drew her to CIS initially. Among the many aspects of her job as Outreach Coordinator that she finds rewarding are the opportunities to bring international topics presented by first-rate academics to the broader public for free and to develop teacher workshops and enrich curricula in order to continue inspiring students as she once did in the classroom.

One of the major benefits of their partnership with the Alliance that Jamie has seen is the chance to bridge the gap between CIS and Chicago’s cultural centers and ethnic museums. Establishing these deeper connections has led to increased awareness of what Chicago’s various cultural groups, by way of the Alliance’s core members, have to offer. In practical terms, this translates to mutually beneficial opportunities for both. CIS aims to create events with Alliance members, work together with them to develop lesson plans, and perhaps even attract more diverse audiences to CIS lectures. They also look forward to working individually with member groups to help them better reflect their world communities in general, and specifically, to better understand the impact of events abroad on their communities here in Chicago.

In addition to the important work of linking together cultural communities, being an Alliance partner also represents a small but significant step toward the achievement of more profound goals. A key component of the Alliance’s mission is “to effect social change and public understanding of cultural diversity,” which echoes Jamie’s own ardent belief that greater mutual understanding of cultures not only strengthens communities, but is the first step toward peace between all cultures. It is crucial, in her view, for engaged citizens to be aware of one another and to remain informed about what is happening elsewhere in the world. When students are encouraged to learn more about other cultures, differences that may have at first seemed frightening or weird become exciting. In Jamie’s words, “Small steps together change the world.”

Chicago History Museum's Lincoln Treasures

I checked out the Chicago History Museum, one of our partner institutions, this week. There has been some talk in the press about their hand-written copy of the Gettysburg Address that is on display until May 3rd. This is part of the Lincoln Treasures exhibition in celebration of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The copy of the Gettysburg Address initially drew me to the museum (it is one of 5 that exists) but the museum was really worth it. Besides the Lincoln exhibit, though small but very impressive (reading the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln's handwriting is worth the trip on its own), the rest of the museum was surprisingly informative and fun. The big permanent exhibit is called Chicago: Crossroads of America and was a look at Chicago's history from the beginning to modern times. Unfortunately the museum closed before I got to see everything in this exhibit (it closes at 4:30 pm most days except Thursday). The good news is the museum offers free admission on Mondays (it is normally $14 for adults) so I can go back. The ground floor of the museum had an interesting section on immigration, and it showed photographs of all types of immigrants who came to Chicago from across the years. I think it was a really great piece since it illustrated how immigration hasn't changed across the years, just people's perception of immigrants has. It didn't matter if you came in 1870 or 1970, and I liked that message. The Chicago History Museum is one of our partner institutions, and after seeing what they had to offer it is clear that this is a valuable partnership. They have a lot more space and resources than our core members have access to, but they have managed to tie Chicago's history to contemporary issues and that is very important. Public housing and immigration are two issues that we are still struggling with, but it also showcased Chicago sports history, which is something every Chicagoan has strong feelings towards! Addressing these kinds of issues in such an interesting way is something that the CHM can maybe help us with. Overall, this institution is extremely interesting and I recommend a visit.

Please visit http://www.chicagohistory.org for more information.

New exhibit at the Field Museum

A new photography exhibit at the Field Museum called Sacred Waters: India's Great Kumbha Mela Pilgrimage opened on March 6 and is running until July 19, 2009. Photographer Jean-Marc Giboux followed Hindu pilgrims as they undertook the largest gathering of humans on earth. The Kumbha Mela Pilgramage happens four times every twelve years and rotates amongst four locations across India- Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nashik. The exhibit is located in the Marac Gallery on the upper level of the Field Museum and promises to be very interesting. Giboux is originally from Paris but currently resides in Chicago. Follow this link to see more of his work http://www.giboux.com/.