DRAFT - 8/8/00

Center for Great Lakes Culture Planning Meeting

April 2000

East Lansing, Michigan

In the afternoon session the regional and faculty advisors were placed in groups to discuss and bring forward their ideas on: "How the CGLC should map regional identity in the areas of 1) public programs; 2) collections; 3) scholarly work; 4) technology/education."

Ray

Kornbluh

Edwards

VanderStoep

Williams

Krouse

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

• Work with state humanities councils
• 10 key people in units:

ISSUES

• Relationships with performing arts to cultural literacy
• Understanding community within larger region
• Relations with people and natural environment

COLLECTIONS

• Labor History

• Maritime

• Folklore

• Dictionaries of language

• Oral history

• Art

• Diaries

• Artifacts

• Music

• Develop network of networks already in existence
• Inventory collections first and then establish links/systems

SCHOLARLY WORK

Issue:

• Relationship between CGLC and scholarly work

What can CGLC accomplish?

• Create popular versions of scholarly work
• Bibliographies
• Scholars database
• Conference proceedings

EDUCATION

• Purpose: Develop regional cultural literacy
• Develop innovative forms of professional development for K-12 teachers
• Think tank?

• Work with partners on content of "culture"

TECHNOLOGY

• CGLC should connect web/tech resources to each other

• Address technology literacy/access gap

OTHER ISSUES:

• Role of CGLC in advocacy = education, curriculum, policy-making, etc.

Berg

Watts

Bohm

Haddad

Schroeder

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

• Western Reserve Studies
• Michigan Regional History Conference
• Society for the Study of Midwestern Lit.
• Great Lakes Coast Guard Festival
• Underground Railroad
• Local-Regional Histories
• Merged Calendar of Public Organization
• Workshops for State Arts & Humanities Councils

COLLECTIONS

• Inventory and provide on-line accessibility
• Annotated bibliography on-line
• Web links to existing resources
• Center as resource for directions to existing collections

SCHOLARLY WORK

• K-12+ arts and humanities experiences and curriculum development
• Publishing — regional literature
• Center as clearinghouse for regional presses
• Fellowship programs with inter-institutional support

SCHOLARS

Bill Cronon

Phil Mason

Sidney Fine

Andrew Cayton

Jim Shortridge

LeRoy Barnett

TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION

• Emphasize on-line resources

Goldstein

Beck

Clark

Mann

Waltzer

Groop

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

• Use

• Inventory

• Growth management

• Resource allocation

ISSUES

• Calendars
• Tour maps
• Linking local/urban museums and programs
• Video tours/web presentations of information
• Distance learning — web casting of public programs
• Interactive exchanges

* What do people want to talk about?

* Programming for people who don’t know they care

COLLECTIONS

• Need: Not new, but links to what is already there
• What is there

• Use: Access constituency

Support stakeholders

• Link digital collections

• New collecting needed:

SCHOLARLY WORK

• Use:

• Need:

• Sponsor scholarly work in targeted areas

• Scholars

EDUCATION

• Use:

• Needs:

McConeghy

Rehberger

Kingsley

Moore

Lockwood

Rivera

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

• Chicano/Latino Oral History Project
• Armenian American
• Chicago Public Library

• Upper Peninsula Studies Center at Northern Michigan University
• Detroit 300

• Art Gallery of Ontario
• Royal Ontario Museum

• Museum of Civilization — Quebec
• Ontario Ministry of Citizenship

• Lexington, KY Underground RR
• AAA reps for future invitations
• Sojourner Truth Museum
• Gathering topics:

Knupfer

Fine

Carpenter

Nold

Drucker

Herrick

• Identify and evaluate existing strengths (resources)
• Many dialogues face to face — ongoing
• Linking role = public, academy, resources, dissemination
• Standardization of data/access/technology
• Expand audience and circulate products and programs
• Improve documentation process
• Increase non-traditional audiences
• Become a "go-to" interactive center
• Be regionally inclusive

THEMES

• (De)Industrialization in 20^th century
• Migration
• Agriculture to industry
• Race and ethnicity
• Map cultural geography
• C-Span bus to travel — engage

At the end of the session the advisors were also asked to comment on: "How can the CGLC serve as a regional resource?"

• University Presidents/Chancellors consortium
• Regional community foundation model
• Collect existing information on region’s culture/life
• Need to assess what are region’s strengths
• Strengths of existing institutions

• Link collection resources
• One stop shopping to provide schools with access to resources
• Diverse native cultures
• Challenges to native languages
• African-American language
• University presses
• Language and literature activity
• Maritime history
• Migration
• How do people identify with their region
• Canadian U.S. partnership (CUSP)
• Links to public policy and links
• Land information access — GIS mapping
• Engage K-12 community
• Place as a cultural expression
• Global focus
• Influence public policy
• Biography of important artists, scholars, humanists
• Build a public constituency
• Redefine culture
• Determine how people relate to the past
• How can we address the "who cares?"
• Need to connect CGLC to Ohio River Valley!

The advisors also made comments on gatherings, technology, and listservs. Besides these other general comments were placed in the "parking lot."

PARKING LOT — Kurt’s Notes

• Relationship to performing arts
• Challenge to inventory all programs
• Scale of partnerships — What is it?
• How to be inclusive
• Age involvement: young and old
• Ethnic identity
• Do not replicate institutional activities
• Do not reinstitutionalize past practices
• Identify a "product" for fund raising purposes
• Need for common vocabulary
• Facilitate links between researchers and research projects
• Is "inventory" the right word?

• Sunday mornings
• The lakes
• Curriculum
• Architecture
• Alteration of the earth and landscape
• Water/resource management
• What is our audience
• Survey the perception of region’s cultural activities
• Representation of rural/ethnic communities
• Community educators = technology with similar missions

TECHNOLOGY — What would be most useful

• Inventories

• Interactive Networks

• Content Delivery

• Priorities

• Listservs/Chatrooms

• Conference Planning