The Innovation Project Will Help Create The Next Generation of Innovators, Entrepreneurs and Inventors .
(Dearborn, MI., October 17, 2018) – The Henry Ford launched a $150 million comprehensive campaign to help launch the workforce of tomorrow. This campaign, The Innovation Project, will help The Henry Ford build digital and experiential learning tools, programs and initiatives to advance innovation, invention and entrepreneurship, it was announced today by Patricia Mooradian, President and CEO of The Henry Ford.
“We have an obligation to seize this moment in The Henry Ford’s history by focusing our efforts, far and wide, on high-impact youth learning and development,” said Mooradian. “At The Henry Ford, we believe that access to the ideas and innovations that have shaped our country should be available to everyone, regardless of backgrounds and barriers. We want to aggressively and intentionally leverage our unique assets, both physically and digitally, to educate, influence and inspire tomorrow’s leaders.”
To date, The Henry Ford has raised more than $89 million. The campaign has already changed the way visitors experience The Henry Ford with upgrades and enhancements made to Heroes of the Sky in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation courtesy of Delta Airlines and the new Davidson-Gerson Gallery of Glass in Greenfield Village and the Davidson-Gerson Modern Glass Gallery in the museum.
In addition, The Henry Ford, this past September, acquired The STEMIE Coalition, a nonprofit global consortium of invention education stakeholders and education change agents best known for its National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo, NICEE. The institution hosted its first Michigan Invention Convention in March and was the site for this year’s NICEE in June in which more than 400 students from 20 states and two countries qualified to attend. This acquisition allows The Henry Ford to expand the pipeline of products available to address all age groups preK-12 and to increase the accessibility of invention education for students of all backgrounds.
Highlights of this comprehensive campaign include:
- The development and deployment of Innovation and Invention Curriculum to students preK-12 in schools across the nation.
- New digital experiences on the floor of Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation that redefine how visitors use a museum. These experiences will be placed throughout the institution’s six connected areas of innovation including mobility, energy and power, social transformation, agriculture and the environment, communications and technology, and design and making.
- New, immersive and engaging exhibitions in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation including the future Racing in America exhibition
- Connected learning platforms in Greenfield Village and across The Henry Ford’s campus such as providing a future home for the Detroit Central Farmers Market
- The Henry Ford’s two national television series, The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation and Did I Mention Invention?
- Speaker series, town halls and “In Residence” programs that offer one-on-one access to the nation’s leading entrepreneurs, innovators and experts
- Unconventional innovation and entrepreneurial public workspaces on the floor of Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation
- The growth and stewardship of The Henry Ford’s 26 million artifacts that include the Archive of American Innovation