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How to Develop a Literacy Project The Reading The Museum, program awarded grants to six museums in its 1996 national competition for literacy demonstration projects. The recipients are: Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith Northwest Territories, Matsqui-Sumas-Abbotsford Museum Society in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina Saskatchewan, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor Ontario, Musée du Fjord in Ville de la Baie Québec and the York-Sunbury Historical Society Museum in Fredericton, New Brunswick. All projects are in progress and reports will appear in future newsletters. For a brief description of each and for the names of the participating literacy organizations please see the adjacent sidebar. Meanwhile, this is an opportune time to review the aims and work of the Reading the Museum program thus far and to provide information and suggestions about how to undertake a demonstration project. HOW THE PROGRAM BEGAN The Reading The Museum program began in 1993 as a response to the symposium "literacy and the Museum: Making The Connections" which was organized by the Canadian Museums Association (CMA) and supported by the National Literacy Secretariat. For several days a group of 40 people from museums and literacy organizations across Canada explored how museums could promote literacy. What emerged were a set of guiding principles that have the aims of the program. 1) to make museums more accessible to literacy learners, especially adults, as an educational and cultural resource 2) to promote the use of clear and plain language in museums display's and programs 3) to explore how all visitors, regardless of age or fluency, make
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