With support from EPIC, a group of Maya has been working to create a Maya cultural center and museum in Antigua, Guatemala. The Center, called "Gifts and Choices," has a two part mission that resonates with its name: to detail the priceless contributions of the Maya to Guatemalan culture and identity, and to encourage an important discussion of the cultural and environmental choices confronting Mayas today - as well as the choices that will be made consciously or by default in the coming years. The Center will function as an educational resource whose purpose is three-fold:

• To preserve, esteem and promote all expressions of Maya culture including Maya dress, music, dance, art, weaving, agriculture, cuisine, and community, spiritual, and family values. The Center will work for Maya cultural survival in an environment awash with Western material values that threaten the maintenance of Maya identity and cultural traditions.

• To reach out to the non-indigenous (ladino) population of Guatemala with special programs and events. For school age children, Maya docents will provide interactive age-appropriate presentations for schools adapted from the experience of Kauffman Museum with these types of programs (see below). These educational programs will be designed to improve racial understanding and help ladino children develop pride in the contribution of Mayas to their own Guatemalan national identity.

• To serve as a place where Mayas will have the opportunity to present their own interpretation of Maya culture to Guatemala's international and national tourists. Many tourists are drawn to Guatemala because of the beauty of the country and its indigenous Maya people. However, Mayas for the most part have no institution through which they can express and explain who they perceive themselves to be and to present their understanding of their place in the world. The Gifts and Choices Maya Cultural Center will be located in Antigua, the most visited tourist destination in Guatemala.

Future home of the Maya Cultural Center: Gifts and Choices in Antigua, Guatemala

Kauffman Museum, a regional ethnographic and environmental museum in Kansas has been asked to share its creativity and technical resources with FUNDAMARCOS in the planning of the cultural center and the design of its exhibits. Kauffman Museum was chosen to give this assistance because of the staff's experience in cultural interpretation, including interpretation of Maya culture gained through the museum's special exhibition and educational project entitled "Threads of Life: Maya Clothing from Guatemala". This exhibition received a 1993 Award of Excellence from the Kansas Museum Association. Kauffman Museum also has extensive experience providing excellent educational experiences for children and youth, including school field trips, age-appropriate interactive children's exhibits, and summer camps for children of all ages.

Chuck Regier, Curator of Exhibits at the Kauffman Museum is serving as a facilities and exhibit design consultant. He has made two trips to Guatemala, spending several weeks doing on-site consultations and planning.

In addition to supporting the Kauffman Museum's design work, in January and February of 2003, EPIC helped with the construction of a new storage area at the facility and with the construction of an additional bathroom. The new accessible bathroom for the cultural center will help facilitate hosting diverse age groups.

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