IHE: What’s Happening in 2023

These are busy days at the Institute for Heritage Education. Here is a snapshot of what we are doing in 2023. 

* Funding and working with the three Project Archaeology Network Coordinators who are reviving and expanding the national network of educators, archaeologists, museum professionals, and descendant community representatives who support and implement the program. We are also funding an IHE intern who is working on special projects, some of them with the three network coordinators. 

* Helping organize the new National Project Archaeology office at Southern Utah State University and collaborating on the division of labor among the principals of the new Project Archaeology partnership team. The university, IHE, the Project Archaeology Leadership Team, and frequent funder USDI-Bureau of Land Management (BLM) make up the new partnership. IHE is now the program’s official national nonprofit partner. 

* Planning and carrying out the Great Basin Archaeology Teacher Workshop in Elko, Nevada in mid-June, with funding and operational assistance from BLM-Nevada and Nevada Gold Mines, Native American Affairs in Elko. 

* Creating a new Project Archaeology rock art curriculum in south-central Colorado under a cooperative agreement with BLM-Colorado. Later in the year, we will begin planning for two teacher workshops in that area of the state in 2024. These events will feature the existing umbrella curriculum “Project Archaeology: Investigating Rock Art” and the new curriculum. 

* Actively seeking funding for new Project Archaeology work in 2024 and beyond in Oregon, Nevada, and Idaho. 

* Scoping possible new initiatives in North Carolina and Oklahoma. 

* Working with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to provide archaeology education workshops for teachers in the TVA service area over the next five years. 

* Awarded grants for professional development for cultural heritage educators to five organizations in states around the country.  

It has been so rewarding this year to find new colleagues and supporters almost everywhere we turn!