The Learning Institute
We believe that a strengthened professional community will enrich the experience and value of arts, science, and culture for our audiences and communities.
Key Programs
Smith Leadership Symposium
Our foundation program, Smith Leadership Symposium, aims to empower professionals with specialized continuing education opportunities that build community, advance best practices, and encourage new thinking. Topic areas addressed include leadership, audience experience, evaluation, sustainability and other topics related to the cultural sector.
Collaborative Grants
Balboa Park is an ideal place to serve as a professional “learning laboratory,” given the number, diversity and geographic proximity of its resident cultural institutions.
Emerging Leader Groups
We support young leaders in the arts, science, and culture sector by connecting them with trainings and networking groups that can help advance their careers. Current groups we recommend are San Diego Emerging Museum Professionals and Rising Arts Leaders of San Diego.
Outreach and Partnerships
Our approach is to surface, share, and complement the expertise and resources of Balboa Park.
Partnership member institutions are the primary audience of the Learning Institute. However, many offerings are open to individuals from cultural organizations outside of Balboa Park. Whenever possible, the Learning Institute partners with related local and national groups/organizations to leverage high quality learning resources.
The Symposium is named in memory of Robert “Bob” Smith, a San Diego civic and business leader. Mr. Smith’s service to Balboa Park began when he was a young newsboy, selling daily papers at the California-Pacific International Exposition in 1935. In later years he provided strategic planning consulting for many Park institutions including: the San Diego Natural History Museum, Zoological Society of San Diego and the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership.
The Art of Science Learning is a national initiative that uses the arts to spark creativity in science education and foster the development of a skilled 21st Century STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) workforce. Its Phase 2 is a National Science Foundation-funded project designed to strengthen the creativity skills and innovative capabilities of STEM learners and professionals through arts-based learning. Harvey Seifter, Art of Science Learning founder/director, is the project’s director and principal investigator. 
The goals of the InforMath Collaborative are to investigate two research questions involving mathematics and informal education, and to contribute to the professional development of all its members. The research questions will be defined by the members of the collaborative using the ones specified in the original proposal as a basis. The Collaborative will meet every two weeks starting in September 2014 until May 2015. Each 3-hour session, which we call “lab”, will take place at the Balboa Park to be supplemented by 3-hours, by each participant, in between labs. Click here to learn more.
The mission of San Diego Emerging Museum Professionals is to facilitate career growth through networking and professional development opportunities. San Diego EMP welcomes members from all fields and is primarily composed of employees, volunteers, and students in their first ten years of a museum-related career. By offering regular meetups, workshops, tours, and other profession-related activities, San Diego EMP is a valuable resource for San Diego’s museum community.
Rising Arts Leaders San Diego is a program of The San Diego Foundation’s Arts & Culture Working Group, produced in partnership with the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and in affiliation with the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Network. RAL SD is part of an emergent network of up and coming arts leaders throughout California supported by the Center for Cultural Innovation, and funded through The James Irvine Foundation. RAL SD serves early and mid-career nonprofit arts and culture administrators with programs that support individual professional and leadership development.
Balboa Park Learning Institute and the San Diego Museum Council oversaw and co-hosted the San Diego Exhibit Evaluators Group (now the San Diego Experience Group). Founded by Stephanie Weaver of Experienceology in 1998, the purpose was to be a resource to professionals in San Diego County in the field of museum education, marketing, public programs, and exhibits by providing a regular forum for discussion and learning about effective exhibit design.
Balboa Park provided a unique landscape to students for the two-week, intensive seminar through Johns Hopkins University. It affords students the opportunity to network, collaborate and share ideas with museum professionals along with opportunities to observe and interact with museum visitors. This program worked closely with the Museum Studies Program to develop curriculum that is timely and informative to students pursuing a career in museums.