The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded the Michigan History Foundation $1 million over three years to improve community knowledge about Michigan's racial histories and confront issues of racial equity through museum exhibits, programs and educational materials. The Michigan History Foundation will use the funding to support the Michigan Historical Center's "Sharing Michigan's Untold Stories" project. The project is part of its current Exhibits for a New Century effort to refresh the Michigan Historical Museum's principal exhibits and provide additional online materials for educators and visitors.

"This grant will help us work with communities across the state whose stories are not always told," said Michigan Historical Center Director Sandra Clark. "It will advance our goal of ensuring that everyone who visits the Michigan Historical Museum sees themselves in our exhibits. It also will help us explore new ways of sharing all of Michigan's stories, both inside and outside our walls."

The Exhibits for a New Century goals are to:
Increase the diversity of voices and people represented in exhibits.
Provide more opportunities for children (65 percent of the museum's annual visitors) to literally touch and sense history.
Create exhibits that link to on-line resources for teachers, students and families.
Better use technology to enhance the visitor experience.
Use artifacts, focused text and dramatic images to tell memorable and more diverse stories.
"The Kellogg Foundation grant is a wonderful start to our fundraising goal of $3 million for this project," said Cindy Hales, executive director of the Michigan History Foundation. "Updating the exhibits in the museum is critical to its mission of telling the great stories of Michigan. Using the latest in technology will ensure that the visitor experience is fresh and relevant."

The first phase of the project will see major changes to the First People, Territorial Capitol and Settlement, and Civil War exhibits. The second phase will add Native American voices to the Growing Up in Michigan exhibit and complete story development for the lumbering, mining and late-19th-century exhibits. Changes, such as repainting the lumber baron's mansion to reflect research about the appropriate paint colors, are already under way. Others will be developed as staff and scholars work with communities to discover additional Michigan stories.

Organizations, corporations or individuals interested in making a gift or donation in support of the project can contact the Michigan History Foundation at 517-335-2796.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast pioneer Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, and New Orleans; and internationally, in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.

The Michigan Historical Center is part of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Its museum and archival programs help people discover, enjoy and find inspiration in their heritage. It includes the Michigan Historical Museum, 10 regional museums, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve, and the Archives of Michigan. Learn more at www.michigan.gov/michiganhistory.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is committed to the conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of the state's natural and cultural resources for current and future generations. For more information, go to www.michigan.gov/dnr.

Contact: Sandra Clark, 517-373-6362 or Cindy Hales, 517-335-2796