Cope Learning Center

 
 
 
 
In June of 2009, we were honored to accept a major donation from Mr. & Mrs. Johnny Cope to create a new educational center that allows us to use our status as an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution to create new distance learning programming that brings our visitors to the floor of the nation’s museum through live, real time interaction with Smithsonian scholars. This initiative will revolutionize education programming at the Hubbard Museum of the American West, while creating a cutting-edge meeting and social function area that will set the Hubbard Museum apart from other museums across the Southwest.
 The Johnny & Marty Cope Learning Center will also provide an extraordinary venue to host private and public meetings for area business and governmental leaders who will be proud to host their functions at the Hubbard Museum of the American West.The Johnny & Marty Cope Learning Center will benefit the entire population of Southeastern New Mexico and West Texas, especially those underserved populations that may never have the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. to see the great museums in the Smithsonian system. Smithsonian Education programming leaders have created a series of outreach vehicles that they can bring to the Museum at any time, and they have agreed to work with Hubbard Museum education staff to create special programs that speak directly to the curriculum of New Mexico students using Smithsonian educators as distance learning specialists.
  

The Johnny & Marty Cope Learning Center requires us to give the southwest corner of the Museum a dramatic facelift that includes the installation of new flooring, lighting, and the purchase of new technologies in order to bring the Smithsonian to the patrons of the Hubbard Museum. Mr. & Mrs. Cope’s support comes in the form of a multi-year donation. For the Center to open by the Spring of 2009 we need to raise additional funds. The R.D. & Joan Dale Hubbard Foundation recently offered their assistance in the form of a $12,500 Challenge Grant that must be met by May 1, 2009. Therefore, we respectfully request that you give consideration to helping us meet that challenge in order to make the extraordinary potential of the Johnny & Marty Cope Learning Center a reality as soon as possible.

“In today’s global information society, museums must be more than showcases of pretty and interesting objects. Visitors look to museums to help broaden their understanding of our world in ways that are both creative and authentic. The Johnny and Marty Cope Learning Center will enhance the already strong educational focus of the Hubbard Museum of the American West, by creating opportunities, through distance learning and online interactive programs, to bring scholars and educators from the Smithsonian and elsewhere, to audiences in Ruidoso. We look forward to exploring all possible avenues of learning and educational exchanges that will soon be possible through the capabilities established by this new center. -Harold A. Closter, Director Smithsonian Affiliation

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