Community Outreach

Community Outreach at NHMU - Bringing the State's Museum to Your Neighborhood

As the state’s official museum of natural history, we strive to bring our collections and our educators to the entire state of Utah (and beyond!). Our Community Outreach team is eager to travel the state, bringing the excitement of the natural world to your neighborhood. Our team provides free education and engagement programming to ignite curiosity in the world around you, and to help every Utahn develop a personal connection to science and nature.

Where in the State is the Community Outreach Team?

Check our calendar of scheduled events to see when we are coming to a town near you!

Want to See Us in Your Community?

We receive a large number of program requests and partnership opportunities. We will consider the following when reviewing your request:

  • Alignment with NHMU’s mission and goals
  • NHMU staff capacity and schedule availability
  • Event is free and open to the public, preferred
  • Event is accessible and welcoming to as many community members with different needs as possible, preferred
  • In an effort to share Museum resources equitably, we will prioritize our outreach programming for
    • Underserved and/or rural communities
    • Schools with Title 1 status
    • Events in locations that do not have easy access to NHMU’s home in the Rio Tinto Center

If you’d like to have us join your event with one of our prepared topics, please fill out the form at the bottom of this page.

Our Community Outreach team is prepared to share educational content on paleontology, anthropology/archaeology, gems and minerals, Utah mammals, insects and arachnids, the Great Salt Lake, and museum careers. Our educators will bring a kit with touchable objects, and we will set up a table and let participants come to us for informal educational interactions. Kits can be enhanced with activities and crafts, depending on the topic selected. This content works well at community festivals, STEM/STEAM events, or other events where NHMU will be one component of many.

(Looking for educators to come to your classroom during the school day? Check out our Museum on the Move program!)

Are you looking to establish a deeper partnership with NHMU and collaborate on programming that is tailored to meet the needs of your community?

We can also partner with you to create custom programs. This option is great if you have specific natural history topics you and your community want to learn about in more depth, or if you'd like your community to develop a deeper relationship with NHMU. Custom programs could include small-group after school programming, workshops or presentations, or recurring programs with a specific community. We are excited to build lasting and meaningful relationships with community partners, and would love the chance to co-create programming that meets your community’s needs.

Click here to learn about partnership opportunities.

Invite NHMU's Community Outreach team to your event!

Submitting this form is the first step in working with the NHMU Community Outreach team and you will be asked for general details about your program. We want to make sure that we are the right partner for you and that we can help make your program a success! Please allow our team at least 4 weeks’ notice so that we can prepare appropriately for your event.