This thesis explores the unique opportunity of bringing together local heritage communities and museum representation of their worlds in the creation of appropriate and meaningful exhibits that both teach and promote their contemporary value. The research outcome is based on a project that synthesized education with the community through curricular programming for fifth grade students in a highly diverse and low income area. The students and their families shared their knowledge and cultural traditions through an exhibit inside the San Diego Museum of Man (MoM) that was then opened to the public. This allowed the larger San Diego community to better understand the diverse communities that are normally obscured through essentialized representations of the past, created opportunity for local communities to see themselves as living and dynamic people, and provided the museum the opportunity to be seen as a local resource.
