NMMNHS, Department of Cultural Affairs and UNM Sign MOU to Share Resources, Develop Public Programs

An agree­ment signed recently between the Uni­ver­sity of New Mexico’s Museum of South­west­ern Biol­ogy (MSB), the New Mex­ico Museum of Nat­ural His­tory and Sci­ence (NMMNHS), and the State of New Mex­ico, Depart­ment of Cul­tural Affairs (DCA), has led to the cre­ation of the New Mex­ico Bio­di­ver­sity Research and Edu­ca­tion Col­lab­o­ra­tive, a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary effort designed to max­i­mize the effec­tive­ness and mis­sion of each organization.

The Memo of Under­stand­ing (MOU) signed will help to:
• build capac­ity within the state to con­duct impor­tant sci­en­tific research that will help pre­serve our state’s nat­ural her­itage
• pro­vide greater pub­lic under­stand­ing of impor­tant issues fac­ing the state related to the preser­va­tion of species
• sup­port the work of stu­dents and teach­ers by pro­vid­ing rich learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and resources that sys­tem­i­cally sup­port sci­ence learn­ing in class­rooms across the state.

The MOU was signed at the NMMNHS in Albu­querque between Veron­ica Gon­za­les, sec­re­tary, Depart­ment of Cul­tural Affairs, State of New Mex­ico; Charles H. Wal­ter, direc­tor, New Mex­ico Museum of Nat­ural His­tory and Sci­ence; David J. Schmidly, pres­i­dent, UNM; and Joseph Cook, pro­fes­sor and direc­tor, UNM Museum of South­west­ern Biology.

“New Mexico’s rich nat­ural her­itage is one of our state’s most pre­cious resources,” said Charles H. Wal­ter, direc­tor, New Mex­ico Museum of Nat­ural His­tory and Sci­ence. “This part­ner­ship will gen­er­ate new research and edu­ca­tional pro­grams that will ulti­mately lead to a greater aware­ness, under­stand­ing and stew­ard­ship of our nat­ural world.”

UNM’s MSB is one of the top-three muse­ums of its type build­ing and con­serv­ing a glob­ally sig­nif­i­cant bio­science col­lec­tion used pri­mar­ily for research and in achiev­ing its aca­d­e­mic mis­sion. The NMMNHS and DCA con­serves a New Mex­ico focused bio­science col­lec­tion used pri­mar­ily for research and in achiev­ing its mis­sion of devel­op­ing exhibits, increas­ing edu­ca­tional pro­grams and focus­ing on the under­stand­ing of sci­ence to the gen­eral pub­lic and the cit­i­zens of New Mexico.

“This MOU lever­ages the strengths of both muse­ums. While UNM has the largest research col­lec­tions in the South­west, New Mex­ico Museum of Nat­ural His­tory has an excel­lent his­tory of devel­op­ing pub­lic exhibits to inform the pub­lic about sci­ence,” said Joseph Cook, direc­tor, UNM Museum of South­west­ern Biology.

Work­ing together, the col­lab­o­ra­tive will pro­vide each part­ner greater access to the university’s and museum’s col­lec­tions to sup­port research and edu­ca­tion pro­grams. The col­lab­o­ra­tive envi­sions cre­at­ing a state-wide trav­el­ing museum exhi­bi­tion focus­ing on the state’s rich bio­di­ver­sity. Intern­ships will sup­port rich learn­ing expe­ri­ences related to pub­lic out­reach and infor­mal learning.

“UNM’s exper­tise and nat­ural his­tory col­lec­tions span con­tem­po­rary bio­di­ver­sity: birds, insects, par­a­sitic worms, mam­mals, amphib­ians, rep­tiles, plants, and fish, but we have had a lim­ited abil­ity to tell our research story directly to New Mex­i­cans and vis­i­tors to our state because we don’t have a pub­lic exhibit facility.

“The New Mex­ico Museum of Nat­ural His­tory has great exper­tise in devel­op­ing pub­lic pro­grams that allow folks to learn about the nat­ural his­tory of our incom­pa­ra­ble fauna and flora, as well as the chal­lenges we now face with rapidly chang­ing envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions. There also now are great oppor­tu­ni­ties to jointly train UNM stu­dents in bio­di­ver­sity stud­ies,” added Cook.
One of the focus areas of the col­lab­o­ra­tion is for the NMMNHS and MSB to share fac­ulty and staff, cre­ate adjunct and guest lec­ture rela­tion­ships, and man­age col­lec­tions that com­ple­ment and strengthen each insti­tu­tion. The col­lab­o­ra­tion is intended to make it eas­ier to develop, share and inform the state’s cit­i­zens through the efforts of these organizations.

“The MOU offers a unique oppor­tu­nity to develop a part­ner­ship between the State of New Mex­ico, New Mex­ico Museum of Nat­ural His­tory and Sci­ence, and the Museum of South­west­ern Biol­ogy,” said UNM Pres­i­dent David J. Schmidly. “The Uni­ver­sity is excited to be a part of this agree­ment that makes it eas­ier for the orga­ni­za­tions involved to work together and to share resources to ben­e­fit the cit­i­zens of the State of New Mexico.”

Media Con­tact: Steve Carr (505) 277‑1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu