Connected Institutions
Working with anchor institutions to tell fuller histories, build meaningful relationships, and strengthen people’s ability to work together
Educational institutions, museums, historic preservation and cultural organizations are where people can learn the full story of a place, and where people who see the world differently can meet, listen, and get to know one another.
Featured Approach
Shared Challenges, Shared Solutions
Our grantmaking is organized around three ideas: investing in the “Mind,” the “Heart,” and the “Place.” In each area, we are funding a group of organizations doing similar work, paired with an expert who helps them learn from each other along the way, and who can pull together those learnings to help inform the national conversations about these topics.
We aim to capture and share how organizations are learning to tell a fuller story their places, build the individual and collective skills to engage across differences, and create experiential learning that develops students’ and visitors’ sense of responsibility and contribution to the common good.
Featured Approach
The “Mind”
The “Mind” work is about telling the full story. These organizations are rethinking how they tell the stories of historically significant places, expanding those histories to include people and perspectives that have been left out. Helping more people see themselves in these stories is central to building a feeling of belonging, and it also expands the base of support for organizations doing this work.
Facilitated by:
Featured Approach
The “Heart”
The “Heart” work is about learning to work more deeply with people who are different from us. These organizations are teaching people–students, leaders and visitors–the skills to listen, collaborate, and problem solve alongside people whose experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives differ from their own. These are skills that employers say they need most and that students are asking to learn. They are also integrating more varied perspectives into their organization’s work.
Facilitated by:
Featured Approach
The “Place”
The “Place” work is about practicing being a good neighbor. These organizations see history and place not simply as subjects to study, but as opportunities to practice curiosity, respect, responsibility, and service to something larger than oneself. This work helps people become better neighbors and better leaders.
Facilitated by:
Featured Approach
Learning Capture
The College of William and Mary Strategic Cultural Partnerships office catalyzes cultural and historic resources generate new knowledge and advance understanding. SCP will work across all three cohorts to listen and learn alongside the group, and to identify themes, promising practices, and practical resources that could be useful to other organizations engaging in this work.
