Departmental News

Posted:  Dec 21, 2020 - 12:00pm

When the pandemic shut down public places, the team at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at The University of New Mexico decided if people couldn’t come to the museum, they’d take the museum to the people. Virtually. The latest edition to the online lineup of features on the Maxwell website is a video called Ancestors, which takes the viewer through the museum and its depiction of early human history, from the first human ancestor to stand on two feet through the first stone tools, to social development and the first art.

Amy Grochowski is the curator of education at the Maxwell Museum. “I develop and implement educational programs for the museum. Mainly K-12 programs in the form of exhibition tours, traveling trunk programs, family days and a children's summer camp. I train and manage a team of docents who present our programs and I manage a large collection of teaching materials that include artifacts, models, posters, historical photographs and other resources.”  Grochowski and the Maxwell team produced this virtual tour in response to being closed due to the pandemic. Normally the museum would have hundreds, if not thousands, of visitors to the exhibition space, many of whom are school children.

“Our exhibit provides an important supplement to their classroom curriculum. The virtual tour provides a ‘field trip’ to keep students engaged while learning at home,” she explained. “Notification of and links to this tour found on our website and YouTube channel were sent to teachers, principals, communications associates, and the like to each public school system in the state.”  Read more