Outreach Activities

The Fairbank Center works to be part of the larger social and cultural community of New England. To that end, every year a number of outreach activities are conducted with nonprofit organizations that are active in our local and regional area. The Center assists them in the performance of their activities. We treat our cooperation with them as a partnership in which the Center, as part of Harvard, and the organization, a member of the larger community, work together toward worthwhile goals.

The current Fairbank Center outreach partners are listed below.

Primary Source — http://www.primarysource.org/default.php

Primary Source promotes history and humanities education by connecting educators to people and cultures throughout the world. In partnership with teachers, scholars, and the broader community, Primary Source provides learning opportunities and curriculum resources for K-12 educators. By introducing global content, Primary Source shapes the way teachers and students learn, so that their knowledge is deeper and their thinking is flexible and open to inquiry.

Children’s Museum of Boston — http://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/index.html 

Founded in 1913 by a group of teachers in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, the Boston Children's Museum began a "hands-on" tradition long before that phrase became commonplace.

As early as 1913, it meant engaging youth in identifying and marking nature walks, preparing specimens, making clay and wax models for exhibits, and even attempting a working model of the metropolitan water system.

The 1920's and 1930's began an era of Museum sponsored clubs that gave children the opportunity to explore the unfamiliar with naturalist hikes and bus trips.

In the 1960's, Michael Spock (museum director 1962-85) led the institution in revolutionizing the traditional museum experience, getting objects out of cases and into children's hands in exhibit areas where children could interact, experiment, and follow their own curiosity. Hands-on learning is now a part of American education and we are proud to have had a "hand" in it from the beginning.

Today, after 90 years, the Boston Children's Museum exists to help children understand and enjoy the world in which they live. As an early museum experience for children, our environment is informal, but our purpose is serious. We want children to grow up feeling secure and self-confident with respect for others and the natural world. We encourage imagination, curiosity, questioning, and realism. We provide opportunities for new insights, involvement with the world and understanding of human differences with world-class exhibits and programs.

The Blakemore Foundation — http://www.blakemorefoundation.org/

The Blakemore Foundation is a Section 501(c)(3) charitable trust established in 1990 by Thomas and Frances Blakemore. See our Founders page for biographical information on the Blakemores, two Americans from rural Oklahoma and Washington who spent over 50 years living and working in Asia.

Their legacy, the Blakemore Foundation, makes grants for the advanced study of East and Southeast Asian languages and to improve the understanding of Asian fine art in the United States. Located in Seattle, Washington, the Foundation is managed by a Trustee and a Board of Managers.

Since 1990, the Foundation has awarded over $10.4 million in language grants. Blakemore Freeman Fellowships and Blakemore Refresher Grants are awarded to graduate students and professionals whose careers would benefit from fluency in an East or Southeast Asian language. Blakemore Fellows spend up to a year abroad in full-time intensive language study in programs such as the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama and the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Frances Blakemore Asian Art Grants promote the understanding of Asian fine art. Since 1998, the Foundation has awarded over $2.6 million in grants to organizations such as the Asia Society, the Smithsonian, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, as well as the Seattle Art Museum, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and the University of California Press. Sample grants include awards to the China Institute in America for their exhibition Brilliant Artifacts from Shandong: Palaces of the Afterlife in the Western Han Dynasty to smaller projects such as travel funds for scholars from Southeast Asia to participate in a symposium of The Textile Society of America.

The Greater China Business Council of New England — http://www.gcbc-ne.org/

The Greater China Business Council of New England (GCBCNE) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the growth of business between organizations in Greater China and those in New England.

The mission of the Greater China Business Council of New England is to promote the growth of business between organizations in Greater China and those in New England through commercial, educational and cultural relationships. The Greater China Business Council of New England will achieve its objectives by sponsoring and providing platforms and venues for business introductions and referrals, meeting and networking opportunities, and the sharing of business intelligence.

China Exchange Initiative — http://www.thechinaexchangeinitiative.org/

The purpose of the China Exchange Initiative is to build and support educational exchange programs and administrator shadowing projects between schools in the United States and schools in China at the pre-college level.  Because the United States and China will be the world's leaders in the 21st century, it is essential that the people, especially the students of the two countries develop understanding and friendship.  The new global economy requires an international education.  Exchange programs provide opportunities for students, teachers, administrators, and families in school communities on both sides to become involved in the excitement of intercultural learning.

Cambridge Public Schools — http://www.cpsd.us

The Cambridge Public Schools now offer the teaching of Mandarin Chinese at all grade levels, from pre K through 12. Native speaker instructors carry out the teaching. A generous grant from the US Department of Education under the Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) has allowed this program to expand to the secondary level. The main purpose of the funding is to improve appropriate curriculum and authentic performance-based assessments. Enthusiastic parents are supportive of their children. Two groups of 8th grade students have visited China as well as some high school students who have particpated in a 3 week summer camp program with most funding provided by Hanban.