Kudos Affiliates! May 2021

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Congratulations to these Affiliates on their recent accomplishments! Do you have kudos to share? Please send potential entries to Aaron Glavas, GlavasC@si.edu.

FUNDING

The Minnesota Historical Society announced the newest recipients of 30 Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Small Grants including The Bakken Museum (Minneapolis, MN). The Museum received $9,994 to process the Earl Bakken Legacy Collection, allowing for greater public access to these resources. The Bakken Museum will also be a core research partner as part of a $1.5 million grant awarded to Binghamton University faculty. The grant will help improve makerspace learning for youth.

Frank Leta Honda has donated two new 2020 Honda Odyssey minivans to the Saint Louis Science Center (Saint Louis, MO) to transport Youth Exploring Science (YES) Program teens and Science Center educators to events during the summer as COVID-19 safety protocols allow. The YES Program was founded to help teens, particularly those from underserved communities, to recognize their potential in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) career fields.

Framingham State University (Framingham, MA) has been awarded a $62,250 grant from the Massachusetts Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) to coordinate a multi-day Racial Equity Policy Review Institute. Designed for up to 150 leaders within the campus community, participants will gain a better understanding of systemic racism in higher education and how it manifests on campus, be able to define what a racist policy is and how it shows up in student outcomes, and create an initial yearlong plan to undertake policy review.

History Colorado (Denver, CO), Hagley Museum (Wilmington, DE) and USS Constitution Museum  (Boston, MA) were among several Affiliates awarded humanity grants from The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Grant awards support the preservation of historic collections, humanities exhibitions and documentaries, scholarly research, and curriculum projects.

  • History Colorado was awarded a Media Projects Production grant for $310,536 to support the production of the Lost Highways Podcast series, an eight-episode offering focused on Colorado and Western history. History Colorado also received an Exhibitions-Implementation grant for $400,000 for The Sand Creek Massacre Exhibition. The permanent exhibition details the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal members.
  • Hagley Museum and Library ($194,400) and Center for Jewish History (New York, NY) ($153,292), each received a Fellowship Programs grant. The grants will support 12 months of stipend support for 1–3 fellowships per year for two to three years.
  • USS Constitution Museum will receive a Dialogues on the Experience of War grant for $96,264 to develop Sailors Speak: The Impact of War on Naval Veterans, their Families, and the Country. The award will be used for the training of facilitators to lead three discussion series for naval veterans and their families, based on historical documents and material culture from the War of 1812 and the post-9/11 wars.
  • City Lore (New York, NY) was awarded an Exhibitions-Planning grant for $75,000 to create a traveling exhibit about the 1970s Federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), that provided work for artists.
  • American Jewish Historical Society (New York City, NY), part of the Center for Jewish History, received $131,681 for a Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grant for The People’s Relief Committee Project to preserve and digitize materials that document the work of the People’s Relief Committee for Jewish War Sufferers (1915–1924), an American Jewish organization that sought to help Jewish communities and individuals in Europe during and after World War I.

The Rhode Island Historical Society (Providence, RI) received a donation of $50,000 from Walmart to pay for the creation of a curriculum to teach Black history and heritage in the local schools. The curriculum will include lesson plans, teacher training, and virtual learning tools.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

The Rockwell Museum (Corning, NY) announced Janelle Steiner, events coordinator, and Kate Swanson, interpretation and public engagement educator, have been selected to participate in The Museum Association of New York’s (MANY) “Building Capacity, Creating Sustainability, Growing Accessibility” program. The IMLS Cares Act grant project is designed to help museums impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic share their collections and reach audiences who cannot physically visit their museums. In this two-year program, museums will identify an event or project to deliver virtually to their audiences, focusing on developing programs from stories found in their collections that reveal cultural and racial diversity in their communities.

LEADERSHIP

Stephanie Haught Wade was named the new director of Historic Arkansas Museum (Little Rock, AR). Wade has been a historian with the Department of Arkansas Heritage since 2017, where she managed the Arkansas Historical Marker Program and was a member and administrator of the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemoration Committee. She began work on April 5.

Coming Up in Affiliateland in March 2020

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Spring is in full swing with so many great events nationwide. Happy Women’s History Month!

TEXAS
The John P. McGovern Museum of Health & Medical Science will feature a daily screening of the Smithsonian Channel film The Rise of the Killer Virus film as part of the Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World exhibition from the National Museum of Natural History, in Houston, 3.1-31.2020.

NORTH CAROLINA
The North Carolina Museum of History will screen the Smithsonian Channel film The Green Book: Guide to Freedom in Raleigh, 3.12.

National Museum of American History curator Barbara Clark Smith will give a talk on Reflections on American Democracy – in a Time of Political Uncertainty at the Greensboro History Museum, 3.18.

NEW MEXICO
The Hubbard Museum of the American West will screen the Smithsonian Channel film AERIAL AMERICA – The Wild West in Ruisdoso Downs, 3.14.

NATIONWIDE 
Twelve Affiliates will host Earth Optimism Teen Events in collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History on March 14. Participating Affiliates include the Anchorage Museum (Anchorage, AK); Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Cody, WY); Cape Fear Museum (Wilmington, NC); Frost Science Museum (Miami, FL); High Desert Museum (Bend, OR); Lowell National Historical Park (Lowell, MA); Mid-America Science Museum (Hot Springs, AR); New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (Albuquerque, NM); Pinhead Institute (Telluride, CO); Science Museum Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, OK); U.S. Space and Rocket Center (Huntsville, AL); Western Science Center (Hemet, CA).

RHODE ISLAND
The Rhode Island Historical Society in partnership with the Community College of Rhode Island will host Dr. Ariana Curtis, curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, to give a lecture on Deliberate and Afraid of Nothing: Diversifying Women’s Representation, in Providence, 3.19.

ARIZONA
The Desert Caballeros Western Museum will host Art and Advertising in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, a public lecture by Smithsonian scholar Dr. Michelle Delaney, in Wickenburg, 3.21.

Famous Pittsburgher Andy Warhol, one of the portraits soon to be on view at the Heinz History Center. By Hans Namuth, 1981. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution: this acquisition was made possible by a generous contribution from the James Smithson Society

PENNSYLVANIA
The Heinz History Center will open Smithsonian’s Portraits of Pittsburgh: Works from the National Portrait Gallery, an exhibition of nearly 60 works of art on loan from the Smithsonian, in Pittsburgh, 3.21.

NEW YORK
Dr. Dwan Reece, curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, will speak on What it Means to be Free: The Woman’s Revolution in American Entertainment as part of the Rockwell Museum’s Advancing Women lecture series, in Corning, 3.17.

Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden will screen the Smithsonian Channel film Blondie’s New York in Staten Island, 3.28.

Jennifer Brundage, National Outreach Manager will join the director and staff of the Rockwell Museum in the Silo Breakdown: Internal Collaboration and Activating A Smithsonian Affiliation session at the Museum Association of New York conference in Albany, 3.29-31.

coming up in Affiliateland in December 2018

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Happy holidays to all!

NORTH CAROLINA
The Cape Fear Museum of History and Science officially joins the Affiliations program with a public announcement in Wilmington, 12.3

MASSACHUSETTS
The third annual Smithsonian Week in Springfield focuses on the ways popular culture has played a major role in influencing and expressing the sentiments of generations of Americans. Pop! Icons of American Culture from the Smithsonian, an exhibition of 18 artifacts from four Smithsonian museums will be on view at the Springfield Museums and will be complemented by lectures from sports and entertainment curators from the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. A family workshop on making your own comic book is also included, in Springfield, 12.6-13.

PENNSYLVANIA
Michael Neufeld, curator at the National Air and Space Museum, will give a talk about the Apollo program and the development of the Destination Moon exhibition (currently on view from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service) at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, 12.9.

CONNECTICUT
Patios, Pools and the Invention of the American Backyard from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service opens at the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, 12.18.

 

Kudos Affiliates! September 2018

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Congratulations to these Affiliates on their recent accomplishments! Do you have kudos to share? Please send potential entries to Aaron Glavas, GlavasC@si.edu.

FUNDING

In the final round of fiscal year 2018 funding, nine Affiliates received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of a $43.1 million award to 218 projects across the U.S. Grants support research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities:

University of Arizona-Arizona State Museum (Tucson, AZ): $350,000
Project Title: Creating a Sustainable Environment for the Preservation of ASM’s Anthropological Photographs
Project Description: An implementation project to create a secure and controlled, multi-climate suite for the Arizona State Museum’s anthropological photographic collection, which contains over 525,000 prints, negatives, and transparencies providing visual documentation of the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and technologies of the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest.

Juanita Ahill gathers saguaro fruit. Photographer, Helga Teiwes. One of the over half a million anthropological photographs in the Arizona State Museum’s collection.

Colorado Historical Society-History Colorado (Denver, CO)-$224,000
Project Title: Colorado Digital Newspaper Project
Project Description: Digitization of 100,000 pages of Colorado’s historic newspapers published between 1859 and 1922, as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP)

Dubuque County Historical Society-National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium (Dubuque, IA): $500,000
Project Title: Preservation & Restoration through Campus Improvements
Project Description: The renovation of climate control systems along with the restoration of several associated historic structures, which together document the history of the Mississippi River and of the people who lived on its banks.

Montana Historical Society (Helena, MT) : $267,000
Project Title: Montana Digital Newspaper Project
Project Description: Digitization of 100,000 pages of Montana newspapers dating from 1864 to 1963, as part of the state’s continuing participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Ohio History Connection (Columbus, OH): $246,798
Project Title: Ohio Digital Newspaper Project
Project Description: Digitization of 100,000 pages of Ohio newspapers published between 1920 and 1960, as part of the state’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, SD): $280,200
Project Title: South Dakota Digital Newspaper Project
Project Description: The digitization of 100,000 pages of historic South Dakota newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 as part of the state’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture (Knoxville, TN)
Project Title: NEH on the Road: For All the World to See
Project Description: Ancillary public programs to accompany NEH on the Road: For All the World to See traveling exhibition.

Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (Seattle, WA): $450,000
Project Title: New Burke Museum Construction of Long-Term Cultural Exhibits
Project Description: The construction of three, long-term cultural exhibit spaces as part of the new facility for the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. The grant will support building out the Ethnology Gallery, the Archaeology Gallery, and the Northwest Native Art Gallery, including casework, graphic panels, physical interactives, models, dioramas, lighting, and electrical elements.

Wing Luke Museum (Seattle, WA): $168,532
Project Title: From Immigrants to Citizens: Asian-Pacific Americans in the Northwest
Project Description: Two, one-week workshops for 72 school teachers to explore the histories and cultures of Asian immigrants in the Pacific Northwest and their significance to the nation.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded new Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) grants to support collaborations across the U.S. aimed at fostering cutting-edge materials research while increasing diversity. NSF will give $1,288,750.00 to the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus for collaborative work with the Metropolitan University, the Universidad del Turabo (Gurabo, PR), part of the Hispanic-Serving Institution program, and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source. This educational effort of collaborative research of materials seeks to gather and develop a diverse and talented interdisciplinary scientific community with experience operating synchrotron X-ray techniques, to improve energy storage and conversion devices.

The Dubuque Historical Society (Dubuque, IA) received two grants from the Historical Resource Development and one grant from the Iowa Arts Council’s Cultural Heritage, totaling $81,675 to help fund programs and continue preservation efforts. Some of the award will be used for an innovative exhibit highlighting local businesses at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium.

Awards and Recognition

The New England Museum Association (NEMA) announced that Plimoth Plantation won Best in Show in the NEMA Publication Award Competition for Plimoth Life. The publication won first place in the Newsletters and Magazines category.

EDsmart, a nationally recognized publisher of college resources and rankings, has revealed its 2018 edition of the Most Astounding College Museums in the United States including the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (Seattle, WA) and the University of Nebraska State Museum (Lincoln, NE).

Leadership

Montana State University has hired Christopher Dobbs to serve as the next executive director of the Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, MT). Dobbs will begin on September 1, 2018. He succeeds Shelley McKamey, who announced her retirement in January.

The president and CEO of the Saint Louis Science Center (Saint Louis, MO), Bert Vescolani, will step down from his position to take a post at the Denver Zoo. Bert will work through the end of August and help with transition through mid-September. Barbara Boyle, the center’s chief operating and financial officer, will serve as interim president and CEO, effective September 1. Board and other community leaders will conduct a national search for Vescolani’s successor.

Kudos Affiliates! August 2018

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Congratulations to these Affiliates on their recent accomplishments! Do you have a kudos to share? Please send potential kudos to Aaron Glavas, GlavasC@si.edu.

Funding

Global Fridays logoThe Nissan Foundation awarded $730,000 in grants to 29 nonprofit organizations for its 2018 grant cycle including a $10,000 award to the Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, MI) for its Global Fridays series. Since 2005, the multicultural performance series has offered high-quality presentations for fans of traditional and modern global performing arts and those with adventurous cultural appetites.

Framingham State University (Framingham, MA) will launch a five-year project to help students from underrepresented backgrounds succeed in high-tech fields using a major grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The 64-year-old nonprofit, dedicated to advancing biomedical research and science education, will provide $1 million to the University to help the school redevelop its science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs. The University will use the money to fund a long-term effort aimed at increasing the academic success and persistence of first-generation and underrepresented students in STEM fields.

Snug Harbor Cultural Center’s Connie Gretz Secret Garden (Staten Island, NY) is getting some much needed repairs, thanks to New York Building Foundation’s first-ever community grant of $10,000. The money will be used to stabilize and beautify the entrance of the garden, provide the area with a cleaned-up interior with new plantings and interpretive signage, and improve the pathways in the hedge maze.

Carlo A. Scissura, President of New York Building Foundation; Aileen Fuchs, President and CEO of Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden and Joe Ferrara, Principal of BFC Partners and Snug Harbor Board Member outside the Connie Gretz Secret Garden. (Courtesy of Michael Papagianakis)

The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (Dubuque, IA) has been given a $5,000 donation from the American Protein Corporation, an LGI Company, to support its Wyoming Toad conservation efforts. The money will be used to buy a brumation chamber for the toads that the Museum & Aquarium has been propagating since 2007. The Museum & Aquarium expects the chamber to improve their success rates in the future.

The Michigan State University Museum (East Lansing, MI) was awarded $150,000 from the MSU Federal Credit Union, to be the first university to house a Science on a Sphere. Developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Science on a Sphere, or SOS, displays the earth’s four quadrants in 3D and enables visitors to experience atmospheric events on earth. Additionally, SOS shows the galaxy’s other planets and moons in real-time. MSU Museum aims to open the SOS gallery in October 2019.

Battelle awarded $607,500 to fund 14 out-of-classroom learning activities in Central Ohio including The Works STEM After School Initiative, a project of The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art & Technology (Newark, OH). Partnering with middle schools in Licking County, The Works will build on activities from previous years, supporting teachers through professional learning and cross-district mentorship and collaboration while expanding student access to creative out-of-school learning opportunities to explore STEM concepts and careers.

Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT) announced that it has received a $735,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. The funding will allow the museum to curate and develop three new art installations from its extensive collections and related public programming. The art installations and associated research and public programs are designed to encourage new scholarship around the themes of The Sea as Muse, a window into the world of immigrant craftsmanship and decorative arts; The Sea as Studio for folk art such as scrimshaw; and The Sea as Commons, through a curatorial investigation by contemporary artist Mary Mattingly.

The Deadwood City Commission approved awarding eight grants to entities with historic preservation project goals from across the state in round two of the Outside of Deadwood Grant program for 2018. South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, SD) received $15,000 for the digitization of maps in collection, which include highway maps, cemetery maps, quadrangle maps, land survey maps, county, city, railroad, water and irrigation maps and many others.

Leadership

Children’s Museum of the Upstate (Greenville, SC) announced Nancy Halverson has resigned from her position as CEO. Halverson is moving to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, following the retirement of her husband, Dr. Bruce Halverson. Her new position will be as executive director of Levitt Shell Sioux Falls. Halverson’s successor has not yet been named, and she will continue advising the museum in a consultant role until the position is filled.

Kris Hoellen headshot

Kris Hoellen, B&O Railroad Museum

David Myers, the president and CEO of Center for Jewish History (New York, NY) has decided to step down from his position at the end of August in order to move back to Los Angeles, where he teaches at UCLA.

The B&O Railroad Museum (Baltimore, MD) announced the selection of Kris Hoellen as its new Executive Director.  Ms. Hoellen, a Senior Vice President at the National Aquarium, will assume her new position in September 2018.

Kudos Affiliates! for February 2018

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Congratulations Affiliates on these recent accomplishments!

FUNDING

Citizens Bank and the African American Museum in Philadelphia (PA) have partnered for the 12th year to celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Citizens Bank has contributed $25,000 to support the museum’s King Weekend Celebration. The celebration includes four days of events and special activities, culminating in a free and discounted day at the museum on MLK Day 2018.

Telluride Foundation has awarded a grant of $18,000 to assist the Pinhead Institute (Telluride, CO) to pay for its programs in Norwood, the West End, Ridgway and Ouray. In addition, Pinhead Institute has been awarded a $30,000 general operating grant from the Daniels Fund to support K-12 STEM education and internships throughout rural, Southwest Colorado.

Lincoln Financial Foundation awarded the Durham Museum (Omaha, NE) an education grant to provide early childhood education programming.

The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (Dubuque, IA) announced the receipt of four grants for various Museum & Aquarium initiatives:

Congrats to the National Mississippi River Museum on their recent funding awards!

– The Iowa Department of Natural Resources: Resource Enhancement and Protection – Conservation Education Program has awarded the Museum & Aquarium funds to support the institution’s Citizen Science Research: Mussel Propagation Project.

– Alliant Energy Foundation has awarded the Museum & Aquarium funds to support its current Rivers to the Sea 2.0 Expansion. Through a biological, environmental, and conservation focus, this project includes a robust educational outreach program and supports the recently opened Conservation Lab.

– Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area (SSNHA) has awarded the Museum & Aquarium funding to support its Student Ocean Conference, September 20-21, 2018. The annual conference hosted at the Museum & Aquarium explores the Mississippi River’s impact and interconnectivity to oceans, seas, and subsequent watersheds through a biological, environmental, and conservation focus.

– The Iowa Economic Development Authority, through an Iowa Tourism Grant, has awarded the Museum & Aquarium funds toward a new, custom-built, mobile-first website.

 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Ann Fortescue, Executive Director of the Springfield Museum of Art (Springfield, OH) has been selected to serve on a select state arts group. She will join the Ohio Citizens for the Arts Board, a nonprofit, grassroots arts advocacy organization to promote excellence in the arts, advocate directly with legislators, government leaders and other influential leaders and to build membership.

Union Station, Kansas City (MO) was honored with the Heart of Kansas City Award for “Attraction of the Year”. This prestigious recognition was given by the Greater Kansas City Attraction Association. Union Station was specifically recognized as Attraction of the Year “for its exemplary yearly attendance of over 1.8 million, its internationally-awarded Science City, world-class touring exhibitions, seasonal celebrations and events like the annual Maker Faire and more.”


STAFF CHANGES 

Dion Brown, new director of the Underground Railroad Freedom Center

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati, OH)  has named Dion Brown as the center’s new president. Mr. Brown will begin his tenure on February 26.