Affiliates in the news!

sixtiesCongrats to these Affiliates making news! Each month we highlight Affiliate-Smithsonian and Affiliate-Affiliate collaborations making headlines.  If you have a clipping highlighting a collaboration with the Smithsonian or with a fellow Affiliate you’d like to have considered for the Affiliate blog, please contact Elizabeth Bugbee.

Multiple Affiliates
CNN, Smithsonian Affiliates Announce in New York’s Grand Central Terminal
11 Smithsonian Affiliates, additional world-class institutions, and private collections, including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, bring the 1960s to life with artifacts from the Cold War, Civil Rights Movement, Woodstock, and more.

Polk Museum of Art (Lakeland, Fla.)
Ollie up for All Decked Out at Polk Museum of Art: Skateboarding art and more celebrate the sport in Lakeland this summer.
This summer, the city of Lakeland kicks off a local version of the event, Innoskate Lakeland, which will feature a similar lineup of attractions – from a skateboard obstacle course to panel discussions – at the newly constructed Lakeland SkatePark on Lake Bonny. The Polk Museum of Art, an affiliate of the Smithsonian, also anchors the celebration with an exhibition of skateboard inspired art, already on view, called All Decked Out!

Skateboarding As Art at New ‘All Decked Out’ Exhibit at Polk Museum
The museum’s show is part of Innoskate 2014, a festival sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute to share skateboard culture’s creative spirit with public audiences. Innoskate Lakeland, the local, affiliated event sponsored by the city of Lakeland, will be celebrated June 21, Go Skateboarding Day.

Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Japanese American National Museum offers free, family-fun day themed around baseball
May 10 is also photo and video capture day for “A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America,” a crowd-sourced online exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and Flickr. The museum encourages people to upload their photos and videos to the #LifeAPA Flickr group.

The Museum of Flight (Seattle, Wash.)
Alaska Airlines Announces $2.5 Million Gift to Build Aerospace Education Center at The Museum of Flight
The Alaska Airlines Aerospace Education Center, to be located in the Museum’s T.A. Wilson Great Gallery, will be a resource center where teachers, parents, and students will be able to explore the many K-12 education programs offered at the Museum.

New Mexico Museum of Space History (Alamogordo, NM)
New Exhibit At Alamogordo Space Museum
Andrew Johnston, geographer and curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, collaborated with other organizations to create the travelling exhibit Earth from Space, featuring 40 beautifully detailed satellite images of the planet…Now on temporary display inside the Clyde W. Tombaugh Theater at the New Mexico Museum of Space History, Earth from Space explains in stunning detail how satellite imagery is gathered, explores the remote sensing technology used to gather the images, and discusses the individual satellites whose images are on display.

Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, MT)
Freight and Logistics Operation Treats a National Treasure as Carefully as if it Were Alive
Sometimes however something comes along that is truly deserving of a rapturous round applause when a subsidiary of an international logistics behemoth, FedEx Custom Critical, safely transported the remains of a rare Tyrannosaurus Rex from the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana way east to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Virginia Museum of Natural History (Martinsville, VA)
VMNH gets antsy with newest exhibit
Farmers, Builders, Warriors: The Hidden Life of Ants” debuted Thursday at the museum on Starling Avenue in Martinsville during a reception for invited guests. The exhibit includes close-up photos taken by Dr. Mark Moffett, a research associate in the entomology department at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, of ants in their natural habitats.

Image courtesy Smithsonian Institution.

Image courtesy Smithsonian Institution.

South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, SD)
Object lesson: Smithsonian tells nation’s history in 101 ways
Kurin will be in Pierre on Monday, May 5, to talk about his latest book, “The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects.” His list includes everything from fossils and archaeological objects from 500 million years ago to a fragment of Plymouth Rock and Kermit the Frog.

Smithsonian brings presentation of 101 pieces of Americana to Pierre
The stop in South Dakota’s capital, arranged by the South Dakota State Historical Society Museum, which is a Smithsonian associate, is part of a series of presentations Kurin is giving across the country about select items from the institute’s collection.

The Charles W. Morgan, shown here at its home, the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, is the only wooden whaling ship still in existence, and–after a five-year-long restoration–is embarking on a voyage to historic ports of New England. (Courtesy of Mystic Seaport)

The Charles W. Morgan, shown here at its home, the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, is the only wooden whaling ship still in existence, and–after a five-year-long restoration–is embarking on a voyage to historic ports of New England. (Courtesy of Mystic Seaport)

Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, Connecticut)
For the First Time in 93 Years, a 19th-Century Whaling Ship Sets Sail
And now, the Charles W. Morgan–the last remaining wooden whaling ship in existence, and the most treasured possession of the Mystic Seaport Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate–will set out on her 38th voyage.

Museum Center at 5ive Points (Cleveland, Tennessee)
Center of Growing Change
Najjar said the first museum that made an impact on him was the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. “Being able to walk in there and see Apollo 11. I remember my jaw just dropped, and I’ve had a love for museums ever since,” he said. The Smithsonian has now made the Museum Center at Five Points an affiliate member which means in the near future the center will have access to artifacts from what is known as “the nation’s attic.”

American Textile History Museum (Lowell, Massachusetts)
American Textile museum out ‘to make noise’
The textile museum will be one of only six museums across the country, all Smithsonian affiliates, to contribute to an exhibit next year called “Places of Invention,” which will range from today’s Silicon Valley to yesterday’s Lowell, which was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. Unger has been working on assembling three videos of about five minutes each to tell Lowell’s story, and is basing that portion of the Smithsonian exhibit on the textile museum’s former “Inventing Lowell” exhibit.

Smithsonian Resource Fair at the 2014 Affiliations National Conference

2014RF1We’ve gathered nearly 30 Smithsonian offices, programs and museums to give Affiliate conference attendees the opportunity to meet staff one-on-one during the Smithsonian Resource Fair on Tuesday, June 24.

Many offices have new programs looking for partners, new exhibitions looking to travel, new digital learning programs to share online and new resources to share with the Affiliate network. All registered 2014 Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference attendees are invited to start their day with breakfast at the Holiday Inn-Capitol and then meet with Smithsonian representatives at the Resource Fair.

And don’t forget to stop by the CrowdTorch by Cvent table and learn more about our new Smithsonian Affiliations Conference app! Mobile app provided by CrowdTorch by Cvent.

Kick-off the 2014 National Conference with a networking opportunity unlike any other at the Smithsonian! Register today.  Below is the current list of Smithsonian programs and museums attending the Resource Fair:

Anacostia Community Museum

Archives of American Art

Asian Pacific American Center

Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

CrowdTorch byCvent

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

National Air and Space Museum

National Museum of African American History and Culture

National Museum of African Art

National Museum of American History

National Museum of Natural History

National Museum of the American Indian

National Portrait Gallery

National Postal Museum

National Zoological Park

Office of Exhibits Central

Smithsonian Accessibility Program

Smithsonian Affiliate Membership (Log in to the Affiliations-only section of our website for information on this program for Affiliates)

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Smithsonian Books

Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access

Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center

Smithsonian Folkways

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

Smithsonian Latino Center

The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation

The Smithsonian Associates

2014RF2The Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference is for current Affiliates only. If you are interested in becoming an Affiliate, or have an application in progress and would like to attend the Conference, please contact Elizabeth Bugbee for more information.

Affiliations has gone mobile!

app_previewNew for the 2014 Affiliations National Conference is a mobile app to keep all conference activities at your fingertips. Access all the information you need during the conference on your smartphones and devices.  This new feature is generously provided by CrowdTorch from Cvent.

The app will include an online agenda and a note section that allows attendees to take notes inside the app and email the document to save or share with colleagues.

Speaker bios are linked to conference sessions for easier planning during the event.

Meeting locations  have been formatted in a google map so users can easily get directions from any location around the National Mall.

The app is loaded with time saving information and tools right at your fingertips!

Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference app will be available from the App Store in mid June.

Stay tuned for updates so you can download the App before the Conference.

Questions? Contact Christina DiMeglio Lopez dimeglioc@si.edu

 

The Evolution of a Dino Hall

Photo courtesy Donald E. Hurlbert / Smithsonian Institution.

Photo courtesy Donald E. Hurlbert / Smithsonian Institution.

On April 28, 2014, the National Museum of Natural History’s Fossil Hall closed to the public to begin a 5-year renovation. The Hall will undergo the largest and most complex renovation in the Museum’s history. The new exhibition will showcase the Museum’s unrivaled fossil collection and present the most current scientific research.

New fossil displays and scientific stories, informed by the most current research, will give fresh meaning to ancient life. And new techniques for fossil display and collections management enable researchers to tell new stories with historic specimens. Visitors to the new hall will explore how life, environments, and ecosystems have interacted to form and change our planet over billions of years.

Many museums are in similar situations when determining how to upgrade a popular exhibition space. Meeting 21st-century technology demands, presenting the most current scientific research as well as incorporate the latest educational programs in an inviting and accessible way are all things to consider when reinvigorating an exhibition space.

At the 2014 Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference, Affiliate attendees will have the opportunity to learn from the NMNH staff organizing and executing the Fossil Hall renovation. Those in attendance will share their own experiences and take away ideas for reshaping a new story in old exhibits.

The session, The Evolution of a Fossil Hall: Bringing a Modern Lens to an Ancient Story, takes place at the National Museum of Natural History on Wednesday, June 25. All registered Affiliate attendees are welcome to join.

The panel consists of:
Kara Blond, Director of Exhibitions, National Museum of Natural History
Kathy Hollis, Paleobiology Collections Manager, National Museum of Natural History
Steve Jabo, Fossil Preparator, National Museum of Natural History

There’s still time to register to attend the Affiliations National Conference and discover something new!

The Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference is for current Affiliates only. If you are interested in becoming an Affiliate, or have an application in progress and would like to attend the Conference, please contact Elizabeth Bugbee for more information.

This exhibit sketch featuring a Triceratops and soaring pterosaur brings the world in which the T. rex lived to life, and is just one possibility of what visitors could see after the museum’s largest, most extensive exhibition renovation is complete. The Nation’s T. rex arrived at the National Museum of Natural History on April 15, and will be the centerpiece of the museum’s new 31,000-square-foot dinosaur and fossil hall, which is slated to open in 2019. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution)

This exhibit sketch featuring a Triceratops and soaring pterosaur brings the world in which the T. rex lived to life, and is just one possibility of what visitors could see after the museum’s largest, most extensive exhibition renovation is complete. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution)