New York Hall of Science (NYSCI)
We have a renewed focus on creating an open, welcoming environment for all. Cambio gave us space to think critically, challenge our assumptions, engage, and learn from and with our Latinx audiences.
New York Hall of Science (NYSCI)
Annual operating budget: $10 million–$19.9 million
Total number of employees: 120
Annual visitorship: 400,000
**Numbers reported in 2021
Our plan: Learn from—don’t do for—the community
Our institutional mindset needed a reset: from doing for our community to learning from and with them. We aspired to have inclusive engagement practices baked into the culture of NYSCI so that staff and visitors saw themselves represented in STEAM. We needed to invite community members into the conversation, rather than seeing them as passive recipients. This required a shift in practice. We also needed to understand the historical and societal barriers to access and opportunity in our community engagement work and organizational development.
Our projects: Make room for different ways of knowing
Our internal reflection informed and drove shifts in our offerings for the public. We piloted a workshop called “Celebrating Our Culture: From Roots to STEM,” aimed at validating each staff member’s connection to STEM through personal experience. The workshop underscored for us that even staff at science institutions can feel disconnected from their STEM identity without culturally informed approaches. Making space for staff to explore their STEM identities was an instrumental organizational shift in how we think about our values and what is necessary for this work to be successful.
We also developed internal groups devoted to building relationships, power sharing, and collaborative decision making. Our Departmental Leadership Community Collaborative aims to establish cross-departmental strategies supporting the community’s needs and interests. The Programmatic Community Collaborative focuses on community events and initiatives. Our Family Advisory Committee advises on and/or co-plans family programs, serves as NYSCI advocates, and provides feedback on exhibit design and other new initiatives.
During our cohort year, we saw urgency and value in creating new, inclusive, and innovative offerings that make STEAM accessible to our Latino community by integrating Indigenous cultural and scientific practices. That year our Spring Community Celebration was co-developed with community partners and included STEAM activities that acknowledged and celebrated non-Western, Indigenous ways of knowing. Families had the opportunity to see their culture and traditions uplifted while discovering STEAM connections to their heritage. We also highlighted our staff’s diverse cultural traditions and experiences of STEAM. We offered these activities and resources at no additional cost, and families with children in our local schools received free admission. All flyers, programs, maps, and activity instructions were offered in English, Spanish and Chinese.
Our takeaways: Everyone has a role in this work
We have a renewed focus on creating an open, welcoming environment for all. Cambio gave us space to think critically, challenge our assumptions, engage, and learn from and with our Latinx audiences. The lessons we’ve taken with us:
- every role supports community engagement, not just one team or unit
- cultural programs help visitors feel welcome at NYSCI
- enter dialogue with ideas, not plans, then evolve ideas based on the conversations
We envision a world where STEM is relatable, relevant, and accessible to everyone, and where NYSCI can be a place where all visitors share in that vision and sense of belonging.
To read other museums’ stories of change, visit our Cambio Stories page.
