Causes: Arts and Culture, Children and Youth, Education
The El Paso Museum of History exists for the educational benefit of the borderland community. Its primary function is to promote the understanding and significance of the rich, multicultural, and multinational history of the region. The Museum welcomes over 100,000 visitors per year to its 44,000+sqft building complete with five large gallery spaces, seminar rooms, classrooms, and a theater.
The El Paso Museum of History embraces its Borderland identity—its site is located at the literal intersection of multifaceted cultures, identities, and nationalities less than a mile from Mexico. It does so by uplifting the region’s history—beyond borders—through exhibitions, educational programs, and multidisciplinary public programs. By adopting a culture that invites co-curation with community-members, exemplified in exhibitions such as Low and Slow: Lowrider Culture on the Border, Lucha Libre: Stories from the Ring, Chicano Power! A Force for Change and Progress in El Paso, and Still We Rise: El Paso’s Black Experience the Museum has nurtured an interdisciplinary culture by centering artists, neighbors, and culture bearers to give context and catalyze conversation to engage new audiences.
* FREE COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING
Every year, the El Paso Museum of History welcomes close to 100,000 visitors through our doors. As a major cultural institution in the city’s Downtown Arts District, the Museum invites audiences to reflect on our region’s unique past while exploring their own place in history through one-of-a-kind exhibitions, public programs, and educational workshops. When you support the El Paso Museum of History Foundation, you are helping the Museum offer programming that is relevant, thought-provoking, and reflective of the unique Border region. Best of all, your gift helps the Museum remain accessible to all, regardless of one’s ability to pay, eliminating barriers to participation for the entire community.
* COMMUNITY-CURATED EXHIBITIONS
Over the past few years, the El Paso Museum of History has evolved tremendously to not only present exhibitions and public programs that are reflective of the unique communities it serves, but also to invite community members in as co-curators and collaborators. The El Paso Museum of History believes the traditional model of an elite museum culture is not only exclusionary but also lackluster. As a shared cultural space a stone’s throw away from the U.S.-Mexico border, the Museum is addressing the urgent need to expand the range of voices centered and celebrated in public spaces to advance its mission. Your support helps the Museum to pay community members, scholars, activists, culture bearers, and artists for their invaluable contributions to exhibitions and programs.
* ACCESSIBILITY AND EQUITY
The El Paso Museum of History sees itself as a part of this shared experience of living on la frontera—its role is to not only present culturally relevant exhibitions and programs, but also to serve as an essential partner in addressing the needs of the El Paso community. The Museum does so by leveraging the knowledge, physical space, collections, technology, and other resources available at the institution to amplify the histories of marginalized communities with members of these communities as the most vital stakeholders. The El Paso Museum of History has made tremendous strides in becoming a trusted community space for visitors of all ages, abilities, sexual orientations, races, etc. to engage in learning, debate, and dialogue. Your support will help us to continue offering critical services needed such as ASL interpretation and translation services and will help to underwrite support and collaborations with community partners and organizations dedicated to these shared values.
* GROUNDBREAKING TECHNOLOGY
One of only four in the entire world, DIGIE (Digital Information Gateway In El Paso) is an enormous digital wall constructed at the entrance to the El Paso Museum of History that invites the public to interact with history through a vast collection of images. This extensive community archive allows users to upload images, histories, and stories which then get geographically mapped via DIGIE’s interface. The embodiment of community curation, to date DIGIE has more than 15 million digital touches and more than 16,000 images that have been uploaded by the community. Your support will help to maintain this important and innovative technology, enabling El Pasoans to document their own place in history.
The El Paso Museum of History Foundation believes that our vibrant community shapes its future by understanding its past. Our mission is to mobilize resources for acquisition, conservation, and education in order to support the El Paso Museum of History tell the story of the borderland.
Visit our website or contact the Museum at (915) 212-0320.
