Since 1997, the Maya Mobile has provided a unique hands-on learning experience for nearly 99,000 middle school students across Los Angeles County. The program includes a 48-foot truck designed as an archeological site, teaching students about trade and cultural development of the Maya, Aztec, and Inka. Since its inception, the Maya Mobile has only visited schools located within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). With Supervisor Hilda Solis’s initiative in local District 1, this year marked a special occasion for the program—we celebrated the very first visit to a school outside of LAUSD with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
On Monday, March 11, 2019, the ribbon-cutting took place at Bell Gardens Intermediate School in the Montebello Unified School District. The event included a welcome video and Maya dance performance by the students in front of a crowd of 400 seventh graders and their teachers. After the ribbon-cutting, special guests from the school district, Hilda Solis’s office, the Max H. Gluck Foundation, and students were able to explore the Maya Mobile and engage with actual artifacts from LACMA’s Art of the Ancient Americas collection.
After the event, the Maya Mobile stayed in residence at Bell Gardens Intermediate for three weeks working with the entire seventh grade. All 400 students were able to participate in the two components of the program—alternating so half of each class visited the Maya Mobile as the other half examined real works of art through hands-on experiences with the objects.
We are thankful for the generous support of the Max H. Gluck Foundation for their many years of support of the Maya Mobile and Ancient World Mobile programs.
.jpg "Photograph of the Maya Mobile Outreach program")
Interested in having the Maya Mobile visit your school?
We are now accepting online applications for the 2019–20 school year! The Maya Mobile serves seventh grade classes at elementary and middle schools across Los Angeles County and is aligned with seventh grade history and social studies curriculum.
.jpg "Photograph of the Ancient World Mobile Outreach program")
Did you know LACMA also has an Ancient World Mobile?
In addition to the Maya Mobile, we also offer the Ancient World Mobile, which serves sixth grade students. This program is aligned with sixth grade history and social studies curriculum and examines objects from LACMA’s Ancient Egyptian collection! We are currently accepting online applications for the 2019–20 school year.
For more information about both the Maya Mobile and Ancient World Mobile, please visit LACMA’s school partnership website.