The State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the American Alliance of Museums, is pleased to announce the selection of the 2012 Awardees for the Museums Connect cultural exchange. These 10 new projects will pair museums in the United States with museums from 13 countries abroad and involve local community members, particularly youth, in activities that reach beyond museum walls. Awardees include:

• Coral Reef Ambassadors:
  Birch Aquarium at Scripts in La Jolla, CA
  National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Checheng Pingtung, Taiwan
   
• Digital Skies Student Partnership:
  Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, CA
  Hong Kong Space Museum, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
   
• Girl Ambassadors for Human Rights:
  The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville, NY
  International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, New York, NY
  Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, Santiago, Chile
  Sri Lanka Plantation Workers’ Museum, Paradeka, Sri Lanka
   
• Muslim Women’s Art and Voices:
  International Museum of Women in San Francisco, CA
  The Women’s Museum, Ǻrhus, Denmark
  The Ayala Museum, Makati City, Philippines
  Museum of Islamic Civilization, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
   
• Next Stop: Brooklyn/Dakar
  Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn, NY
  ImagiNationAfrika, Dakar, Senegal
   
• North-South: Art as a Tool to Mediate Political and Social Conflict
  Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA
  Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Gyeonggi-Do, Korea
   
• Object Stories Exchange
  Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
  Museo Nacional de San Carlos, Mexico City, Mexico
   
• Past to Present: US-Sino Bridge of Connection
  Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, HI
  Jianchuan Museum Cluster, Chengdu Sichuan, China
   
• P.A.U.S.E: Pollinators/Art/Urban Agriculture/Society/and the Environment
  Tohono Chul Park, Tucson, AZ
  St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis, MO
  National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
   
• Written in Rock: Collaboration among Azerbaijani and Pueblo Indian Communities
  National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC
  Smithsonian Institution Office of Policy and Analysis, Washington, DC
  Gobustan National Historical Artistic Preserve, Baku, Azerbaijan