Entries by Jennifer Brundage

How do you define educational success?

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On Tuesday, several Smithsonian educators, and myself, attended a session of the Museum Education Roundtable.  (mer-online.org/)  The discussion focused on defining educational success in museums, and how differing educational approaches not only help to determine results, but differing definitions of success as well. The speaker was Margaret Lindauer, faculty member of Virginia Commonwealth University, and an experienced […]

Traveling exhibitions available from the National Museum of Dentistry

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The National Museum of Dentistry is pleased to announce the availability of two traveling exhibitions: The Future is Now! African Americans in Dentistry and Branches, Bristles and Batteries: Toothbrushes through Time. The Future is Now! African Americans in Dentistry pays tribute to the extraordinary men and women who paved the way for African Americans’ success as dental […]

Desperate Voyage

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Mark your calendars!  On November 19, the History Channel will debut a film called Desperate Voyage, about the crossing of the Mayflower in 1620.  Some of the film was shot at the replica of the ship, Mayflower II, owned and interpreted by affiliate Plimoth Plantation.  www.plimoth.org Plimoth Plantation will be holding premier screenings of the […]

An afternoon of Chinese Kunqu Theater

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On Friday, August 4, some Affiliations staff attended an explanatory demonstration of this fascinating art form, a precursor to a real Kunqu performance at the Freer/Sackler Gallery entitled ‘The Palace of Eternal Youth’.  https://www.asia.si.edu/events/performances.asp Named an ‘Intangible Heritage of Humanity’ by the United Nations, kunqu is classical Chinese musical theater.  We learned that a single performance may be made up of 50-200 scenes, so […]

Packaging sunlight from cucumbers

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On Friday, some of the Affiliations staff attended the first in a new lecture series by SI’s Under Secretary of Science, David L. Evans.  Deriving his title from a scientist in Gulliver’s Travels, his thesis in the lecture was to illuminate the values of pure scientific research, unfettered by a concern for its practical application.  (check it […]

My first two months at Affiliations

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What a time it’s been! All my friends at Cooper-Hewitt keep asking, how is it?! what is it like to work at the Smithsonian in Washington?! I anticipated the rewards of this job, and certainly have not been disappointed!  Things are quite different being on the Smithsonian “campus”.  I have really enjoyed gaining a macro view […]