Jewish Museum “Steels” Spotlight
Thanks to Ilana Blumenthal, Public Relations Associate at NMAJH for this guest blog post. With the sun in our eyes, frostbite nearly setting in, and huge grins on our faces, the staff and board members of the National Museum of American Jewish History watched as the final 31-foot steel beam was placed on the northwest corner of […]
American Indian launches its “4th Museum”
This week, the National Museum of the American Indian launched a new site for searching its collections. This new resource includes over 5000 objects from its 800,000-plus collection, and will continue to grow. Eventually, it will be one of the largest Native American collections online. You can visit this site at www.AmericanIndian.si.edu/searchcollections. The launch is a milestone in the […]
2.0 and you
As the Washington Post put it this morning, “The subject: dragging the world’s greatest museum complex into the current century.” And of particular interest: “Of the Smithsonian’s 137 million artifacts, however, not only is less than 1 percent on display, but most of that is in Washington. You have to come to the Smithsonian. It doesn’t […]
new funding opportunity
The Vodafone Americas Foundation has launched the Wireless Innovation Challenge to promote innovation and increase implementation of advanced wireless related technology for a better world. To that end, the Wireless Innovation Challenge will provide up to $600,000 in total awards to support projects of exceptional promise using wireless-related technology to address critical social issues around […]
Rainforest survival
On Monday, January 12, the Smithsonian will be hosting some of the world’s leading scientists to discuss and debate the differing perspectives on the changes in tropical landscapes, and their impacts. The event will be webcast live from 1 – 6:30pm – at www.si.edu/tec. The symposium’s 8 specialists will discuss topics related to tropical extinction including deforestation, […]
New digs
Congratulations to our friends and colleagues at the Office of Exhibits Central, who just hosted us all for an open house in their new, absolutely fantastic new facility, the Pennsy Collections and Support Center! The renovated 360,000 square foot facility features specialized space and equipment for exhibit design and fabrication and conservation. It also serves as […]
thoughts on new media strategy
We’ve been thinking about new media as a possible session at the Affiliations annual conference, and also wondering, what does this even mean? there is alot of talk in museum circles about digitization, web 2.0, social networking, etc., but how do you make sense of it and actually make it meaningful for your museum or organization? […]
Countdown to November 21st: National Museum of American History reopens
For the past 2+ years we here in Washington, DC have been awaiting not only the election results of the U.S. Presidential campaign, but the reopening of the Smithsonian’s American History Museum. The museum will finally reopen its doors once again to the public on Friday November 21, 2008. The opening celebration will include a “festival” – a weekend chock full of family programming. As very clearly […]
SI Channel wins its first Emmy
On September 24, the Smithsonian Channel’s ‘The Magic of Motion’ won the network its first emmy for outstanding achievement in cinematography in nature documentary. At only just over a year old, SI Channel is the youngest network to win such a prize. The show is part of Nature Tech – a series that explains […]
the Freer Sackler’s new cutting-edge bluetooth technology
From their press release: The digital marketing industry is growing rapidly and the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery are taking advantage of its momentum. The museums are launching a marketing campaign using Bluetooth technology for the opening of “Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur,” Oct. 11 through Jan. 4, […]
Secretary Clough’s first town hall meeting
On July 22, to a standing- room only crowd of SI staff packed into the Baird auditorium at Natural History, Secretary Clough held his first town hall meeting, and outlined his immediate priorities in short order. With only three weeks on the job, Secretary Clough had been busy visiting as many units and offices as possible, […]
Smithsonian on Flickr
Just last month, the Smithsonian made its debut on Flickr – the free photo sharing website. Hundreds of images from our collections have been uploaded. Be a virtual curator – tell us your thoughts about the photographs and your comments will enrich the collection. Tag them and see how they relate to other viewers’ choices […]
Interview with Brent Glass
Dr. Brent Glass, Director of the National Museum of American History, updates Affiliates on the renovation of the Museum, new features and exhibitions to be unveiled at their reopening later this year, and what it was like to be on the Colbert Report. Check out the timeline below (or read the transcript). Click here […]
The Future of Exhibitions
Kathleen McLean was at the Smithsonian last week, and provided a provocative discussion about the future of museum exhibitions. If you haven’t read her work or heard her speak, I would highly recommend it. Kathleen is the president of the Visitor Services Association, and the author/editor of several pivotal works on the topic, including Visitor […]
Turning visitor surveys into a marketing campaign
Just saw this interesting article about the Hirshhorn in the New York Times. In recent studies, they found out that over half of their visitors stumble in to the Museum accidentally, looking for planes that are actually housed next door at the National Air and Space Museum. Add to that the imposing nature of […]
thoughts from Denver
Whew! What a whirlwind these meetings are! We invite you to share your favorite moments, ideas you heard, or aspects of the conference that were particularly useful. Here’s a few of mine: the Affiliations reception at our Colorado affiliate, the Littleton Historical Museum, was a blast. The Museum is terrific; we got a view of SITES’ […]
