Bronx Children's Museum Dream Big Initiative
2010: To celebrate the homecoming of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Bronx Children’s Museum organized the Dream Big Initiative in 2010. The goal was to inspire children to dream big and work hard to accomplish their goals while commemorating their own family histories. The Dream Big Initiative highlighted Justice Sotomayor’s history-making journey from public housing in the South Bronx to the U.S. Supreme Court and also honored our own unique journeys.
2011: The theme of this summer’s Dream Big program is Health. The Museum worked with experts in the performing arts to continue the Dream Big Initiative summer classes geared to young children from K-3rd grade and their families. The purpose of the Dream Big Initiative this summer is to inspire children to “dream big,” take care of their bodies and their planet, and work hard to accomplish their goals.
In keeping with the Museum’s basic philosophy, the Museum engaged local community arts partners in the delivery of Dream Big programs. ˇRetumba!, Pregones and our museum instructors provided 5-week bi-weekly classes in voice, dance, drumming, drama and mural-making to 116 children from July through the first week in August. The Museum’s Program Manager worked with the arts instructors to ensure early childhood education best practices were used and that progress was measured. Children came from the following participating community-based organizations: BronxWorks, Abraham House, Supportive Children’s Advocacy Network (SCAN), and Freedom Community Center, all located in the South Bronx. Amerigroup provided health workshops to participating children at each community group to fortify the health lessons learned in Dream Big class.
A puppet show and workshops were held in the morning at Hostos Community College for the 116 Dream Big participants. The puppet show was presented by Society of the Educational Arts, Inc., (SEA). ˇRetumba conducted a dance class, and a Museum instructor taught drumming. In these workshops, the children also interacted with United States Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Sonia Manzano (“Maria” from Sesame Street). Children from BronxWorks, SCAN, and Freedom Community Center are performing demonstrations of what they learned during the summer program in the afternoon Dream Big celebration in the theater. A mural created by children from Abraham House is being displayed in the lobby.
Hostos Community College and The City University of New York have graciously provided our venue this summer for our culminating day, Dream Big Day, on August 6th. Dr. Benjamin, Justice Sotomayor and Sonia Manzano are our special guests.
