Designers at the White House

Lest we forget our friends in New York, the Cooper-Hewitt was in town recently, celebrating their 2007 National Design Award winners and finalists at the White House with the First Lady.  What an image of American accomplishment!  Congratulations to all. 

Lewis.Tsurmaki.Lewis, winners of the interior design award    The First Lady giving remarks   Treats!

Festivals everywhere!

I love hearing about all the festivals taking place at Affiliates – please send pictures!  Here’s some highlights I’ve been following recently:

Blueberry FestivalHistoric Bethlehem Partnership’s 22nd Annual Blueberry Festival took place last weekend… yum!  (Read the local review.)  This year’s Festival included colonial craft and  Moravian cooking demonstrations, and new this year, an antique auto show, and lots more performances and family activities.  Not to worry, all things blueberry were available too – local bakeries geared up to sell 1,200 pies, 200 blueberry strudels, 300 blueberry coffee cakes and hundreds of tarts.

Mayflower II Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Mayflower II last weekend too, with a brilliant sail into the bay with members of the original crew (from 1957, not 1620!!)  They even brewed a special beer for the occasion.  Visitors enjoyed  anniversary cake and 1950s music courtesy of the Plymouth Philharmonic Symphony’s Swing Band.

Mashantucket Powwow  A couple weekends ago, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum held its 2nd Annual Pow Wow Festival.  (Read the review.)  And the dancing isn’t over… in August, the Pequots will host Schemitzun, its annual Feast of Green Corn and Dance.   

Rock Steady Crew And summer’s not over!!  Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District in Newark NJ is gearing up for their blow-out this weekend, the 2nd Annual Music Festival.  From July 26-29, this year’s festival focuses on gospel, hip-hop and house music.  In addition to great music, there’s a skateboard camp for kids, and a Green Vendor Marketplace.

Lowell Folk FestivalAlso this coming weekend, the internationally-known Lowell Folk Festival not far from Boston will feature such nuggets as weaving, Chinese knot-tying and Oud making; Armenian to Thai food with everything in between; and performers such as the Django Reinhardt Festival All Star Band (gypsy jazz from France) and the New England School for Carnatic Music (carnatic = Hindu devotional songs accompanied by the veena, an Indian stringed instrument.)
  

Bet on it that Affiliations staff wish we could be in 10 places at once to experience all these great events.  Rock on!!

The Search for a New Secretary

Yesterday, Smithsonian staff were invited to a town hall meeting to share our views on the ideal qualities of the next Smithsonian Secretary.  The chairman of the search committee, Regent Alan Spoon, ran the meeting with Regent Roger Sant, and members of the executive search firm hired for the task.

The discussion was lively, as one might imagine.  A committment to scholarship, intellectual curiosity and a love of lifelong learning seemed to top the list as the most desirable qualities expressed by Smithsonian staff.  Most want someone who understands the breadth and depth of the Smithsonian and its uncomparable particularity. The scientific community in particular described our global reputation and urged that the next Secretary strive to maintain our international relations in regard to research.  Alan Spoon concurred that the next Secretary be committed to “liberating the talent” of the Smithsonian, recognizing that its value lie in staff as well as collections.  One of my favorite comments was about finding someone to wallow in “the delicious fulfillment of our great mission.”

Luckily, the search committee has set up a designated email account to collect more thoughts from SI staff, and plans to hold more listening sessions.  It’s important to know too that Regents’ names, committees, bylaws, reports, proceedings and more are all available to the public on our website.

But I’m curious about your thoughts as members of our “extended family.”  what do you think are the most salient qualities for the next Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution?!  

Mother Earth celebration

Mother Earth Celebration

I often find myself so proud to work at the Smithsonian.

That was especially true yesterday, when I joined the crowds at the National Museum of the American Indian’s Mother Earth celebration to see Al Gore kick off the Live Earth concert series in North America. As I listened to Mohawk and Cheyenne elders describing Native philosophies toward the earth before introducing Al Gore, I was reminded again of how important and relevant museums can be. When a Museum takes the knowledge embedded in the cultural heritage it’s preserving, and uses it to help us imagine our future… well, it doesn’t get much better than that.
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Summer at SI

On the education front, several recent gatherings have illuminated interesting research being done in the fields of online learning and museums’ fostering of critical thinking skills.  Check it out –
Goode lecture on Fostering Critical Thinking in Museums; 
Guggenheim’s research on literacy through the arts; and
EduWeb’s Learning Styles & Online Interactives.

Folklife Festival Who doesn’t LOVE the Smithsonian Folklife Festival?!  It’s in full swing on the Mall, and I do mean swing – when I was there on Sunday, there was a huge dance going on to Irish stage with a rocking group called Four Men and a Dog.  One of my favorite things (apart from being there) are the organizers’ videos.

And speaking of videos, Affiliations is cultivating friendships with our newest colleagues in Smithsonian Networks.  Which is to say, if you haven’t checked out their collection of videos and programming previews yet, please do – there are some gems there!  The Networks will be launching as a full-on television cable channel, commercial-free, this fall.  Some of you met Networks’ staff at the conference, but they are definitely an initiative to keep an eye on.

Hope your summer is going well too – what is going on in your neck of the woods?!