see for yourself: a conference adventure
Many thanks to Natalie DeRiso, Community Programs Manager at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for this guest blog post. As I sat down to write this blog post about attending my first annual Smithsonian Affiliations Conference, I tried to take mental stock of all the amazing things I wanted to talk […]
Folk Festivals: Showcasing Cultures Throughout the Country
“Well, surely I knew what Folklife was, in fact, I was Folklife”!- O. T. Baker, Texas Folklife Festival Founder, 1976 oral history interview with the Institute of Texan Cultures
conference road trip to focus on community museums
Yes, there are Smithsonian museums off the National Mall! Most Affiliates know about the ones in New York City, but the Institution has another gem of a museum across the river in the Anacostia Community Museum. Affiliations’ conference participants will be able to experience this resource on a special road trip designed to explore issues […]
NMAI colleague couriers artifacts cross-country to Affiliates
Thanks to Raj Solanki of the National Museum of the American Indian for the guest blog post. The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) received a loan request from Smithsonian Affiliate Riverside Metropolitan Museum in California for their exhibition Beyond Craft: American Indian Women Artists. Curated by Dr. Brenda Focht, this exhibition includes four contemporary […]
Coming Up in Affiliateland in June 2011
Summer is in full swing with great events at Affiliates! NATIONWIDE: The Smithsonian’s Latino Center hosts its Latino Young Ambassadors in June, which brings students to Washington, DC for a week of cultural enrichment programs. Following their Washington week, the Ambassadors will return to Affiliate sites for month-long internships in their home communities. Participating Affiliates include: Museum of […]
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Warriors at the Smithsonian Affiliations Conference
In 2006, Michelle Delaney, the director of the Smithsonian’s new Consortium for Understanding the American Experience and a curator of photography at the National Museum of American History, first visited the Buffalo Bill Historical Center (BBHC). She traveled to this Smithsonian Affiliate in Cody, Wyoming, to research her book, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Warriors: A […]
50th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides
Special thanks for this guest post to Allyson Nakamoto, Teacher Programs Manager at the Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, California). I often take for granted how easy it is to follow breaking news. To find out what happened during a raid on a compound in Pakistan, I can turn on a 24-hours news channel or […]
Think Globally
Smithsonian Affiliations staff recently met with Heather Berry, manager of International Programs at the American Association of Museums to learn more about their Museums and Community Collaborations Abroad (MCCA.) MCCA is a program that connects US communities with people abroad using museums as the catalysts and facilitators for connections and collaborations. The projects are proposed by […]
what’s the big [education] idea?
In keeping with this year’s education theme at the annual Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference, we’ll be hosting a series of roundtable discussions in a session titled “What’s the Big Idea: Revitalizing Education Through Partnership and Collaboration.” This dynamic session will follow a format well-known to most museum professionals. Smithsonian colleagues from across the Institution will present at […]
coming up in Affiliateland, May 2011
Sliding into summer with lots of activity! FLORIDA: The South Florida Museum opens SITES’ Hidden Life of Ants in Bradenton, 5/7. PENNSYLVANIA: Smithsonian researcher Warren Perry presents a lecture on “William E. Doster’s Defense of the Lincoln Conspirators” at the Historic Bethlehem Partnership in Bethlehem, 5/8. MONTANA: Dr. Rick Potts, Director of the Human Origins Program […]
affiliates collaborate to Spark! imaginations
Despite being the world’s largest museum complex, one of the challenges at the Smithsonian Institution remains taking the unique offerings away from the invisible walls of the National Mall and “encourage inventive creativity in young people” who may never visit Washington D.C. The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation has met this […]
kudos Affiliates! May 2011
Bravo to the five Affiliates awarded IMLS’ 2011 American Heritage Preservation grants! National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium (Dubuque, Iowa) Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth, Massachusetts) Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Wing Luke Asian Museum (Seattle, Washington) and Wisconsin Maritime Museum (Manitowoc, Wisconsin) were five of 54 museums nationally to receive the grants from the Institute […]
NASA + Smithsonian + Smithsonian Affiliates = Blissful retirement for space artifacts
On April 12, 2011 NASA announced new homes for three space shuttles soon to be retired from the space program at the end of this summer. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center will receive the Discovery and the California Science Center a Smithsonian Affiliate in Los Angeles, California, will receive the Endeavour. But […]
Inspiring a Revival in San Antonio
“Above all, cultural organizations affirm the power and potency of art and culture to re-envision possibilities for a decent life and a common dream.” -Dr. Tomás Ybarra Frausto Nowhere is this statement more relevant than at The Museo Alameda, a Smithsonian Affiliate in San Antonio, where curatorial advisor Dr. Ybarra-Frausto and colleagues have assembled a collection of […]
coming up in Affiliateland in April 2011
Hello spring! Like the cherry blossoms in D.C., activities at Affiliates are budding all over the country in April. MARYLAND: The Smithsonian Associates presents a public tour, “The Birthplace of American Railroading,” at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museumin Baltimore, 4/2. The B & O Museum will also open The War Came by Train, an exhibition commemorating the […]
Make the Smithsonian YOUR classroom.
In November 2010, the Sonoma County Museum (Santa Rosa, CA) opened the SITES exhibition Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964 and was ecstatic with the positive response within the local community. The museum was able to share the bracero story so well in part due to curator Eric Stanley’s participation in the Affiliations Visiting Professionals […]
