28 29 enjoy professional development opportunities and access to the Perot Museum’s network of educators and vast resources. The program involves a formal application process for teachers to ensure they are invested and committed. Chosen teachers from across the Dallas-Fort Worth area attend a week-long Summer Academy, where they are grouped according to their level of comfort and expertise in sciences – pre- service teachers, novice teachers, advanced teachers, and mentor teachers – rather than by grade level. Instruction continues through the academic year with five professional development sessions held on weekends twice a month, for which they receive continuing education credits required for teachers by the Texas Education Agency. The teachers are also mentored throughout the academic year. Kosmos employees – engineers, geologists, and geophysicists – have served as guest speakers on science related topics, including the practical application of scientific principles in business. This has been a successful way to simultaneously build capacity of local educators while providing a way for our employees to engage in their community. The program reached about 4,800 students during the 2017-2018 school year, with participating teachers reporting increased confidence and creativity in teaching the STEM disciplines. Building Cross-Cultural Understanding In 2015, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) announced Kosmos as the presenting sponsor of the Keir Collection of Islamic Art for its inaugural years of exhibitions and installations. Assembled over the course of five decades by noted art collector Edmund de Unger (1918-2011), the Keir Collection is recognized by scholars as one of the world’s most geographically and historically comprehensive, encompassing almost 2,000 works in a range of media that span 13 centuries of Islamic art. Kosmos’ partnership with DMA is an extension of our desire to engage with the communities where we live and work, and foster appreciation for the art and culture of these communities. The partnership between the museum and the company provides $800,000 of support over five years for a series of special exhibitions, installations in the museum’s collection galleries, and a prospective touring exhibition. The sponsorship also includes resources to facilitate loans of items from the Keir Collection to other U.S. and international institutions. In 2017, the DMA opened The Keir Collection of Islamic Art Gallery in a newly redesigned gallery space that increased the number of works on view from the collection, as well as retained several important masterworks that were on view in the first exhibition. The 2015- 2016 exhibition, Spirit and Matter: Masterpieces from the Keir Collection of Islamic Art, showcased more than 50 masterworks from the collection marking the first time many of the featured works had been on display in North America. More than 115,000 people visited the exhibition. Although the process of bridging cultures begins with the preservation of historic artifacts, it develops most fully through the study of art and what it reveals, not just about the artists and the works themselves – their form, their style, and their content – but also the social, political, and cultural circumstances that shaped them. When this knowledge is shared, it becomes a catalyst for deeper understanding and greater trust among societies. The people of Dallas will enjoy the fruits of the scholarship now taking place at the DMA on the Keir Collection and will be able to view and learn from the collection for free. By supporting the display of the Keir Collection – and the scholarship and knowledge it has and will continue to generate – we are proud to play a role in increasing the understanding of people everywhere. In 2018, our work with DMA expanded to include sponsorship of a unique Ghana-focused exhibition. Spanning three centuries, The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana showcased more than 250 objects from a range of museums as well as the DMA’s own collection. It featured crowns, sword ornaments, furniture, textiles, jewelry made of wood, silk, brass, iron and gold, and other items. Importantly, The Power of Gold was the first exhibition on this subject matter at an American museum in more than 30 years. Kosmos underwrote the educational programming and community outreach associated with the exhibition. Employee-Driven Philanthropy In addition to working with large corporate partners like the DMA and Perot Museum, Kosmos supports smaller organizations and initiatives as a way to make the Dallas-Fort Worth area a better place to live and work. As there are more requests for donations than the company can fulfill, opportunities are reviewed and sanctioned by an employee- run philanthropy committee that evaluates each request in the context of company guidelines, corporate focus areas and priorities, geographic relevance, and available budget. In 2018, we donated more than $110,000 to a range of organizations serving the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, including: •  Buckner International, a nonprofit that provides support services to families in distress, vulnerable children, and aging adults. •  Literacy Achieves, an organization that works to equip non-English speaking adults and their young children with English literacy and life skills to promote self-sufficiency. Literacy Achieves serves Vickery Meadows, a neighborhood near our Dallas headquarters. •  Jill Stone Elementary School, a school in the Vickery Meadows neighborhood. Kosmos provided care boxes to families in need. •  Aberg Center for Literacy, an East Dallas organization which provides English literacy courses and prepares people for the General Education Development (GED) tests that provide certification of high school-level academic skills. •  Salvation Army Angel Tree Program, an initiative that provides clothing, toys, and daily essentials to children and aging adults in Dallas who usually go without Christmas gifts. Our employees serve as anonymous donors who adopt these children and aging adults in an expanding Christmas tradition that makes the season brighter for both the gift giver and receiver. •  Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that helps people in our community build or improve a place they can call home. The company supports Habitat for Humanity through both donations and in-kind contributions like a day of service in which our employees volunteer their time. Kosmos’ partnership with DMA is an extension of our desire to engage with the communities where we live and work, and foster appreciation for the art and culture of these communities. Are there any The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana photos available? Sword ornament in the form of a lion / Ghana, Nsuta, Asante peoples / c. mid-20th century / The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana on loan to the Dallas Museum of Art