Volume 1, No. 1: January 7, 2004

Contents:

• Some good news about READ from the START
• An upcoming museum conference on Native American heritage
• The launch of a four-state "Lewis and Clark" project
• The next Read MOre statewide book discussion
• A link to an essay about Handel's Messiah

Just before Christmas, an anonymous benefactor renewed support for statewide service to new parents through the MHC READ from the START program.  The $66,000 grant will be matched by other private donations and public funds to underwrite 120 RFTS programs.  Each program serves twenty families.  When you consider the extended family that experiences the ripple effect from our training 2,400 people, the impact amounts to 38,400 people who will be permanently engaged in the foundation skills of critical thinking.

What's the big deal here? While many people know that reading to children is "good," most people have no idea how early they can start or how much conversation and play they can build around a story. Conversation and inventiveness build trust and pleasure in each other's company. READ from the START not only builds intelligence, it builds life-long relationships.

A teacher at Crestview Elementary School in Kansas City writes:

I view our success with the program as monumental when you look at the impact on one particular family. One of the moms who attended in December of 2002 asked me if she could attend this session also, and I told her that she could. She is the mother of eight children and her youngest two are in the first grade and kindergarten. She told me that this summer she took her kids to the library and that they brought home lots of books to read. In her words, "we read and read all summer long." What I think is so powerful about this is that out of her eight children, the last two are the only ones that she made it a point to read to. She did not recognize the importance of reading to her kids until she came to READ from the START. I know she is still reading to her kids.

We know from last year's experience that we have our work cut out for us to match this wonderful grant.  Won't you please help us match this grant and keep the momentum going? For more information about the program, please visit our RFTS Web Page at:
http://www.mohumanities.org/programs/readstart/index.htm

Staff and volunteers from museums in Missouri and Arkansas will meet with tribal representatives in a one-day conference on March 25 at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri.  The program is the second annual gathering to improve communication between museums and the Native communities who can help shape the interpretation of their history, customs, and current lives. 

Much of the conference will deal with understanding the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which provides a protocol for returning culturally sensitive items to the appropriate tribal authority.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra/

If you're involved with a museum and you'd like details about attending this conference please check the workshop web page at:
http://www.mohumanities.org/programs/cultural/museumwkshp.htm

Thanks to the Missouri Museum Association, the Missouri Arts Council, The College of the Ozarks, and the Arkansas Humanities Council for co-sponsoring the conference with MHC.

The four-state program on Lewis and Clark is now being scheduled by our associate, Dr. Kathleen Nigro.  We developed this initiative with help from our colleagues in three other states to serve rural venues in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa.  Tribal heritage representatives will be an integral part of each series.  We also will continue to explore the many stories and traditions that made up our world in the early nineteenth century. As soon as we have the first set of programs scheduled we'll send you the web link where you can check the dates and places.

Readers all across Missouri will have an opportunity to read and enjoy Eddy L. Harris's story, Mississippi Solo. Published in 1988 and brought back into print at the request of Missouri librarians, this wonderful book is a black man's account of a solo canoe trip down the entire length of the Mississippi River. At age 30, the St. Louisan set out "to find out what I was made of." Readers on the Amazon.com web site rank this a five-star classic!

Read MOre is an initiative undertaken by Missouri libraries and their readers to provide an annual opportunity for people everywhere in Missouri to read and discuss the same book. Launched in 2002, the project has received financial support and encouragement from the Missouri Humanities Council ever since.

Discussion programs will begin in the spring. A complete Read MOre schedule will be maintained on the MHC web site starting late January.

In one of my "other lives" I'm a baritone in the St. Louis Symphony chorus. Last month I had the privilege of singing Handel's Messiah under the direction of Itzhak Perlman. I wrote a little essay about that experience as a bonus for this e-News, so if you'd like to read it, follow this link to "Watching Perlman's Messiah" on the MHC web site:
http://www.mohumanities.org/E-News/PerlmanEssay.htm

--Michael Bouman

To Unsubscribe: Click "Reply" and write "Unsubscribe" in the subject field.

Published monthly by the Missouri Humanities Council, a tax-exempt, non-profit organization affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Federal agency.
http://www.mohumanities.org
Phone: (800) 357-0909
Fax: (314) 781-9681
543 Hanley Industrial Court
Suite 201
St. Louis, MO 63144