Our Mission

The Mission of the Rochester Museum & Science Center is to inspire a better future for all through curiosity, exploration, and participation in science, culture, and the natural world. 

A Message for the RMSC Community

The Rochester Museum & Science Center is committed to taking a stance against racism by teaching about and addressing racism through exhibits and community-based work and programs. In addition to engaging in anti-racist education, the RMSC is also committed to confronting the historic and contemporary impacts and prevalence of structural, institutional, and individual racism in our society by collaborating with organizations and individuals of diverse backgrounds, ages, communities of origin, and abilities on program and exhibit development. The RMSC is dedicated to becoming a diverse and inclusive community resource where authentic voices are valued and represented.

As part of this work, we have worked with Black, Latinx, Asian, Haudenosaunee, and other Indigenous communities to create several exhibitions and programs which highlight diverse stories and social issues. These include: Take it Down! Organizing Against Racism, Objectively Racist: How Objects and Images Perpetuate Racism… And What We Can Do To Change It, The Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World, Haudenosaunee Days, A Journey Through Time in African American History, and others.

The RMSC also continues to create and cultivate relationships with Native American communities through NAGPRA consultation and the repatriation of ancestors and cultural heritage objects back to those communities with which they belong. It is a priority for the RMSC to develop meaningful relationships with Native American communities based on respect and trust with the understanding and acknowledgment that as an institution we are founded upon the exclusions and erasures of many indigenous peoples, including the Seneca people whose land the institution is located. 

Internally, the staff and Trustees of the RMSC have created a Board and Staff Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee to ensure that our job posting, hiring, interviewing, and selection process is free of any bias. The RMSC is committed to taking an active role in seeking more Black, Indigenous, and other People of color to fill open job positions and serve as Trustees for our Board of Directors to ensure inclusion at all levels of operations.