Cool Culture, Inc.

Cool Culture will provide professionals from smaller or culturally specific New York City-based museums and historic sites with hands-on-training and professional development support to increase their capacity to respond to the needs of non-traditional family audiences. Children raised in poverty are at an increased risk of negative educational outcomes. museums' sensory-rich environments can play a critical role in closing our nation's early learning gap. However, research shows that Americans living in poverty are far less likely to visit museums than their more affluent counterparts. This program will create partnerships between museums and early childhood centers to develop and test culturally responsive program models, marketing collateral, and educational materials. It will also host a forum where museum professionals will use design thinking techniques to create new culturally responsive program models and strategies. To extend the Program's impact, Cool Culture will create a best practices guide for community and family engagement and disseminate it nationally, including on-line and through conference presentations.