Students and families will have the opportunity to experience other cultures without booking a flight.
Today the Museum of Peoples and Cultures will have its second annual “Passports: A Cultural Discovery Day” from 4 - 7 p.m.
“We test-tried it out last year and it was a great success,” said Erika Riggs, the promotions manager at the museum.
The purpose of this event is to bring families together in the community through learning about other cultures.
“We are going to set up booths within and outside of our museum,” Riggs said. “We have everyone from Africa to Egypt, along with places in the United States.”
According to the Web site, “suitcases won’t be necessary, but passports will be provided.”
The museum will make passports for their “travelers.”
“After completing the booth [participants] will get a stamp in their passport,” Riggs said.
Riggs planned the event in collaboration with Kari Nelson, the curator of education.
“I thought … what kind of activity would I want to bring my family to?” Nelson said. “I brainstormed ideas and shared them with Erika and … she came up with a really great program.”
The event will have a booth featuring the culture of the Southwest inside the museum and booths featuring the cultures of Africa, Mesoamerica and Polynesia outside in the courtyard.
When asked how the museum chooses which cultures to feature at the event, Nelson explained the booths are based on the culture cases or kits the museum makes for education.
“What’s special about [the cases] is that they have objects that can be handled,” Nelson said. “You can open them up and pull something out of it. It provides a great hands-on opportunity.”
Nelson’s aim is to help educators bring subjects such as social studies, geography and history to life for their students.
Culture cases can be checked out by teachers, parents and scout leaders, Riggs said.
The museum doesn’t stop at trying to educate children, Nelson explained. Often professors will check things out from their museum for their students.
“A lot of people think that the two galleries they see are what we have,” Nelson said. “We actually have a huge collection that people can use for research and instruction. … Teachers can tap into our collection to enhance their teaching be it at a university level, an elementary level, or a scout level.”
Culture cases are often based on the research done by the anthropology department, but the African culture case was given by the Ouelessebougou Alliance.
This Utah-based group provides educational material about Mali which can be found on its Web site, LiftEachOther.org.
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