Bio:

Silva Raker, Managing Director of Exploratorium Global Studios, has spent the past 25 years developing partnerships, programs, and talented teams in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Since joining the Exploratorium in 2010, Silva and the Global Studios team have collaborated with a diverse array of partners to learn, share expertise, and advance the Exploratorium vision of a world where people ask questions, question answers and think for themselves.

Abstract:

World renowned as a premier interactive museum exploring science, art, and human perception, the Exploratorium is a 21st-century learning laboratory that produces phenomenal teaching tools, interactive exhibits, and innovative programs. Since its founding, the Exploratorium has helped create, or participated in, a variety of international networks.

The A.M. Qattan Foundation partnered with the Exploratorium to launch a hands-on Science Studio in Ramallah and to train its staff in all aspects of exhibit creation; thus providing a rich science learning resource for Palestinians of all ages. We learned from each other over the course of two years through a series of Ramallah-based workshops and extended staff residencies at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Residents worked closely with exhibit developers, program professionals, and educators to learn and advance their own projects. Ramallah workshops focused first on master-planning and stakeholder engagement, then on exhibit ideation, rapid prototyping, studio design and set-up, shop training and tool use, and finally help with the opening of the Science Studio.

This partnership exemplifies our commitment to global impact through collaboration, to the critical importance of being rooted in the local community, and to building generative capacity—including our own—by sharing expertise and learning together.