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Ask about what the Museum of African Culture has to offer, or schedule a program today. Call (207) 871-7188.

Types of Programs and Workshops

Teacher Workshops

Museum educators offer lesson planning for African arts and culture as well as diversity awareness training.

Social Service Workshops and Programming

MofAC works with such institutions as the Center for Grieving Children, Maine Youth Center, Sweetser, YMCA, Cumberland County Jail, Portland West, as well as various group homes for at-risk teens. Social Service professionals should contact the Museum for details.

School Programs

MofAC offers programs in both public and private schools grades K-12 and to home schooled students. Our outreach and on-site programs are designed to meet the needs of area educators, to help enrich curriculum and benefit students through experiential learning.

Adult Programs

The MofAC offers college and university lectures and courses, presentations for other museums, public lectures and performances with African masks.

Senior Groups

MofAC explores how different traditions value the importance of elders in the community with various senior groups including the Woodfords Club, Portland Club, and Seventy-Five State Street Resident Home.

Museum Programming

MofAC offers different kinds of programs and workshops, both in the museum and in the community, locally, nationally and internationally. Most programs are tailored to suit the occasion and purpose of the gathering. The Museum reaches a variety of audiences: elementary to university students, teachers, business owners, healthcare professionals, artists, children at risk, elders, and more.

Tours

Visitors to the Museum are invited to ask questions about the collection, its history, and the diverse cultures which are housed within. Private or structured tours may be scheduled in advance with the Museum for groups of up to 15 people.

Museum In-House Programs

The Museum offers a wide range of exciting, informative and interactive public programs that give unique insights into African Art and Culture. We have a Contemporary Art Gallery, home of the Black Artist Forum, offering exhibits, workshops, discussions and performances by contemporary black artists living in Maine, as well as other artists inspired by the African Diaspora. The museum has a rotating exhibit in the Heritage Gallery with Exhibit Discussions, and a Permanent Traditional Gallery with discussions about Spirit Masks. Below are descriptions of our regularly scheduled programs.

Friends of Africa: a bi-monthly program at the museum when someone from the community shares their travel story, humanitarian work, academic work, medical research, or perspective on historic, political, and cultural issues. Our intention is to create a community from these talks that will bridge the museum to a humanitarian project in Africa.

The Artists Story: an evening with the current artist in the Contemporary Art Gallery, listening to their story in relation to their exhibit, the history of their art, their process as an artist, their biography and its influence on their art.

Discussion and Spirit Mask Performance: an evening with Director Oscar Mokeme when he shares his knowledge and understanding of a particular Spirit Mask, as an opening for discussions related to the teachings of the mask and issues that arise. Then a Spirit Mask will awaken and enter the gathering offering blessings and healing for those present.

Educational Programs

In support of the Museum mission and our value for education, the Museum offers very dynamic, experiential and informative educational programs in the Museum and at other locations all over Northern New England. These programs meet the needs of both large and small groups, of all ages, through presentations of traditional and contemporary African art, dance, and music as well as demonstrations, storytelling, and hands-on workshops utilizing the living art included in the Museum's extensive collection.

The educational programs make a sustainable difference in the lives of participants and create positive change in our communities by leading people to a better understanding of themselves and other cultures through art. Through the Museum programming, participants learn to appreciate the ways in which we are both different and alike. The participants will develop skills and attitudes essential to achieving success in spite of societal peer pressure. This cultural competence and interpersonal literacy assists us to live and work more productively and reciprocally in Maine's increasingly diverse society.

In a world that is so technologically oriented, the museum program offers a very interactive experience of sights, smells, sounds and thought provoking discussion that engage the audience, bringing them into a world where art is culture, art is language and art is wisdom. Museum director, Oscar Mokeme, is particularly gifted in translating into western terms the African concepts embodied in the art, applying these concepts to our daily lives, and explaining the complex and dynamic role of art in African societies. For instance, with students, in addition to issues of diversity, he uses the art to speak directly about responsibility, family values, self-respect and service. With the elderly he address issues of health and aging, with war veterans he addresses issues of reintegration back into civilian life.

We also welcome the opportunity to co-create a program specifically designed to support the curriculum of your school. If teachers have specific interests, we can arrange a meeting to discuss their educational needs and see how we can best use the resources of the Museum to enhance their curriculum. We also collaborate with teachers to enrich their own lesson plans and encourage teachers to seek what they might need to share the cultural richness of Africa with their students.

History of Educational Outreach Program

Since the inception of the Museum, education has been a primary focus. Over the years, schools and organizations have had to fund the programs in entirety, transporting school children to the museum. The distance and cuts in funding for field trips has limited accessibility to children outside of the Portland area.

In 2008, the museum received $35,000 in grant money from Fairpoint Communications, the Davis Family Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation. These funds paid for travel expenses and half of the program fee allowing for equal accessibility through out Northern New England.

By June 1st 2009, the Museum has used over $30,000 of the grant money, having presented 74 programs in 53 schools and organizations, reaching almost 8000 participants directly (24,000 indirectly assuming each participant impacted at least 2-3 others). Since September, 6761 miles have been traveled to north of Baxter State Park, west to Richford Vermont and south into New Hampshire. Programs continue to be scheduled through the summer.

For the 2009-10 school year, the Museum's goal is to raise $70,000 through grants and private sponsorships, to reach 25,000 participants directly by increasing the number of schools and organizations visited, consolidating programs by visiting several schools in one district at a time, coordinating school programs with community programs and presenting to larger audiences through assemblies.

Touch Kits

In addition to its educational programming, the Museum encourages schools to use our lending library of resources, which includes books, videos and experiential "Touch Kits."

"Touch Kits" are collected sets of related objects intended to provide educators with "hands-on" materials that enrich lesson plans in the classroom. For example, kits currently available at the Museum of African Culture may contain both traditional and contemporary objects from a particular region or people such as the "Kenyan Child" kit with used school books, uniforms, toys and daily objects. This kit comes with 3 picture books that can enhance the learning process and experience of the objects.

Other Touch Kits are dedicated to African Masks; African Musical items: drums, gourds, rattles and harps; the Nigerian Culture with games, bronze objects and dolls; and the Somalia Culture with sandals, hair picks, carved animals and headdresses. Future kits the museum would like to develop will include electronic audio-visual components and sample education units.