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Museums Connect formally is a partnership between two museums but that doesn't really
capture what it is. What Museums Connect does is allow people who work and are engaged with
by museums, allowed them to have extended dialogue about a serious topic that helps
promote cultural diplomacy.
I think the advice I'd give anyone that was participating in this program is to expect
the unexpected. One of the biggest gifts of the program is the opportunity to work with
a partner in another part of the world and anything can happen and thats actually what
makes it most exciting. The learning opportunities are endless.
I think sharing those kinds of ideas cross-culturally is really valuable because you seen a whole
completely different way of approaching things if you talk to people in another culture.
So that is really valuable and its going to be really exciting having two coastal communities,
New York and in Samoa, both of whom have been subject to major storms. Cyclone Evan in Samoa
and Hurricane Sandy in New York.
Samoans believe in God and so it also believes in the other, the other people rather than
its not an individualistic community its all about others. We are sharing our culture,
we are sharing our skills, yeah, that's how I relate it to the museums.
It really is a grassroots approach. Museums Connect is a grassroots approach to people
to people diplomacy. And its one that lasts because friendships are built and sustained
and because these questions and issues really matter.