San Jose Childrens Discovery Museum

Educational programsthe museum provides on-site and outreach programs which complement its exhibits and support visitor interactions and learning opportunities. During the year, cdm saw an increase in group visits to the museum, with 22,532 served, which represents 27% increase in group attendance over the prior year and an additional 4,318 served through on-site or outreach programs. The museum's mission continues to support a three-pronged approach to the arts: engagement with and viewing the work of professional artists, exploring other children's art, and creating individual works of art in various formats. (continued on schedule o)the artist-in-residence program, housed in the leroy neiman arts studio, continues to showcase local professional visual artists over a three-month residency, leading children in art-making activities and sharing their professional talents. Through various cultural festivals, such as mid-autumn festival, dia de los muertos, diwali, menorahs and miracles, dia de los tres reyes magos, lunar new year, children of the dragon, and proud of my family, and juneteenth, cdm continues to offer its local community the opportunity to celebrate the region's diverse ethnic composition. Cdm's event specifically designed for families with children on the autism spectrum, play your way, was offered on three evenings in the 2024 fy. Adventure. Cdm's outreach partnership with somos mayfair, a non-profit organization which offers early learning programs in the mayfair family resource centers, which engage the whole family to ensure school readiness, was underwriten by the pnc foundation.cdm's cultural competence learning institute (ccli), working with its national partners: the association of children's museums and the association of science and technology centers and the garibay group, completed its funding of two national leadership grants from imls. With generous support from adobe of its captivate and adobe learning manager software, cdm created ten individual self-directed on-line courses based on content gleaned from the previous professional development institutes and testimonial videos from museum professionals around the country. Future plans to steward the ccli program and its intellectual property are in discussion with the potential national partners. As a result of the ccli initiative, in part, cdm's director of strategic initiatives jenni martin was recognized for her leadership and excellence on diversity and inclusion practices in the museum field by the american alliance of museums, the only organization that represents the full museum field. The award recognizes individuals for their career-long commitment and exceptional impact on the field and the role they plan in building strong museums, thriving communities, and a better world.cdm completed year 5 of a 6-year collaboration (1 year extension approved by the national science foundation) with the exploratorium to improve stem participation by latinx audiences, leveraging cdm's decade long ccli planning and implementation with the exploratorium's work to reach latinx audiences. Cohort 4, the final cohort, was comprised of kid museum (bethesda, md); children's museum of indianapolis (indianapolis, in); scott family amazeum (bentonville, ar), science center of minnesota (st. Paul, mn); museum of life and science (durham, nc); and louisiana children's museum (new orleans, la.)cdm continuously strives to understand and to improve its service to its visitors. Senior staff participated in the bridgespan adaptive capacity program, underwritten by the david and lucile packard foundation, which resulted in a 2-year capacity-building plan with deliverables, and was shared with the board of directors at the annual strategic planning offsite. With visitor surveys tabulated by coves (collaboration for ongoing visitor engagement surveys), led by the museum of science, boston, cdm receives systematic visitor information about their museum experience and demographic information. Additionally, cdm has contracted with alexander babbage for its trutrade software and consulting services, which uses esri to provide mapping and advanced data analytics of cdm's visitors, to understand better the museum's reach and the impact of its programs. Moving into the 2024-2025 year, cdm has secured two pro-bono partnerships with adobe systems and pricewaterhouse coopers (pwc) to understand better its visitors. The adobe project will focus on creating personas for the "fence-sitters" (those persons who fit the propensity to visit profile, but do not visit cdm, and crafting potential marketing messages to reach these persons. The pro-bono team from pwc will employ analytical analyses of cdm visitors and members to identify microsegments in terms of their propensity to visit; propensity to become a member; and propensity to donate, and their geographic locations. Both of these projects will allow cdm to develop more targeted marketing messages. In fall 2023, the museum's senior management team will begin the creating an adaptive plan program through bridgespan, a non-profit consultant which was possible by tuition underwriting from the david and lucile packard foundation. The result is to develop a 2-year vision, the priorities and actions needed to achieve the vision.