Kudos Affiliates! for September 2017

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Great job Affiliates!

The National Endowment for the Humanities announced more than $39 million will be awarded to nonprofit organizations including the following Affiliate initiatives:

Portrait of Leonard Berstein, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

  • Denver Museum of Nature & Science (Denver, CO) $300,000
    To support a project to rehouse an archaeology collection of 72,000 objects that focuses on North America. The artifacts will be moved to the LEED-certified Avenir Collections Center and placed on custom-created storage mounts and in new cabinetry.
  • Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT) $154,811
    To support a four-week institute for twenty college and university faculty to study the social, cultural, and environmental history of American maritime regions.
  • Kentucky Historical Society (Lexington, KY) $300,000
    To prepare for digital publication of the papers of the governors of Kentucky during the Civil War.
  • Mississippi Department of Archives and History (Jackson, MS) $274,175
    To progress the Mississippi Digital Newspaper Project, Phase Three
  • National Museum of American Jewish History (Philadelphia, PA) $250,000
    To implement a traveling exhibition about American composer Leonard Bernstein on the centennial of his birth.
  • Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Cody, WY) $200,000
    To upgrade environmental controls and improve fire and security systems at the Cody Firearms Museum, which houses a collection of 7,000 firearms and more than 20,000 related objects chronicling the development of firearms from 1425 to the present.

Humanities Nebraska recently awarded a $5,500 grant to the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum (Ashland, NE) for the case and signage of a new exhibit on Astronaut Clayton Anderson.

Affiliates in the news! July edition

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Congratulations to these Affiliates making headlines this month! Do you have a Smithsonian collaboration in the news? Email Elizabeth Bugbee, BugbeeE@si.edu, and submit your clipping for review. Each month we compile our newsmakers and distribute in our Affiliate eNewsletter.

Uncrating an exhibition

Rene Rodgers, curator of exhibits and publications, uncrates a Suffolk push mower that is part of the new Smithsonian exhibit called “Things Come Apart” that opens this weekend at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. Photo-Earl Neikirk/BHC

Birthplace of Country Music Museum (Bristol, VA)
VIDEO- Birthplace of Country Music Museum hosting Smithsonian exhibit
“They will start looking around at some of the things that they use every day and really start to think about how they work and how theyve gotten to that point from where they started and actually just think about the way things are made,”Dr. René Rodgers, Museum Director and Head Curator for the Birthplace of Country Music Museum said.

Smithsonian exhibit opens Saturday at BCMM
“It’s one of those exhibits the Smithsonian Institution creates to travel around the country to various museums,” said René Rodgers, curator of exhibits and publications at the museum. “We are the third museum to have it. It’s just come to us from the Kansas City Public Library. The exhibit is based on the work of photographer and artist Todd McLellan. He has taken the idea of common, everyday objects to look at their functionality, their design, the change in technology, and he’s done that by taking them down to their component parts and creating artistic renditions of them.”

South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, SD)
Former Smithsonian director in Pierre on July 24
“As an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, we are delighted to bring Mr. Glass to South Dakota,” Jay Smith, director of the Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre, stated in a release. “He brings with him a message about the value of saving, preserving and visiting historic places which is an important aspect of the mission of the South Dakota State Historical Society. We will be discussing some of our future plans with him as well, so this is an exciting opportunity for our museum.”

Tellus Science Museum (Cartersville, GA)
SMITHSONIAN’S ‘ART OF THE AIRPORT TOWER’ CAPTURES THEIR UNIQUE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS
In the midst of a nationwide tour, the Tellus Science Museum near Atlanta is currently hosting the exhibit until September 17. The Smithsonian affiliate is home to many aviation and space flown hardware. “This is a fascinating exhibit – it combines photography, architecture, and aviation in unexpected ways,” Tellus Science Museum Executive Director Jose Santamaria said on Sunday. “It is very unique and the images are stunning.

Art of the Airport Tower exhibition

Carolyn Russo, National Air and Space Museum photographer, in front of her exhibit “Art of the Airport Tower.”

 

Virginia Museum of Natural History (Martinsville, VA)
Prehistoric adventure headed to Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville
There will also be a Stegosaurus display from the Smithsonian and fossils collected by scientists in the field.

Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Cody, WY)
Firearms experts gather for Cody museum symposium
July 17 will feature speakers and session leaders from the following institutions: Cody Firearms Museum, National Rifle Association’s Museums Division, Autry Museum of the American West, Springfield Armory National Historic Site, United States Marshals Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian Institution National Firearms Collection, Colonial Williamsburg , Royal Armouries Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Pearl earrings from designer brenda smith

Southern Charm,” pearl earrings from designer Brenda Smith, are among the items on loan from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and included in a traveling exhibit that runs through next March at the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art in Elmhurst.
Courtesy of Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary art

Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art (Elmhurst, IL)
Smithsonian gems on display in Elmhurst
“Most of the pieces are either donated or gifted to the (Smithsonian) museum,” said Asher. “We’re a Smithsonian affiliate.” Asher said she worked with Smithsonian gem curator Russell Feather to select the pieces visitors will see in the “Smithsonian Gems” exhibit.

The Children’s Museum of the Upstate (Greenville, SC) (VIDEO)
Children’s Museum of the Upstate provides perfect atmosphere for solar eclipse
They will also have pinhole projectors, a live stream from NASA in the Smithsonian and activities in Spark!Lab focusing on women in astronomy. “We are an official viewing site of NASA, which means that we are able to have some NASA scientists come,” Halverson told WYFF News 4’s Allyson Powell Thursday.

Tellus Science Museum and Booth Western Art Museum (both in Cartersville, GA)
Travel: Consider Cartersville, Georgia
Despite traveling extensively, I’m still impressed when I discover big things in small places. Cartersville, Ga., a city of 20,000 residents about 40 minutes north of Atlanta, has major draws. It’s the smallest town in the U.S. with two Smithsonian Affiliate Museums. The Booth Western Art Museum houses the largest permanent exhibition space for Western art in the entire country — and what a fabulous place it is.

Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, PA)
Apollo 11 module will visit Pittsburgh next year — after a makeover
Before the Apollo 11 command module embarks on a cross-country tour of four museums — including the Senator John Heinz History Center in the Strip District — it’s getting a makeover for the first time since it arrived in 1976 at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, NPR reported Monday .

Affiliates in the news

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Congratulations to these Affiliates making headlines this month! Do you have a Smithsonian collaboration in the news? Email Elizabeth Bugbee, BugbeeE@si.edu, and submit your clipping for review. Each month we compile our newsmakers and distribute in our Affiliate eNewsletter.

Birthplace of Country Music Museum (Bristol, VA)
Bristol, Tenn. known as ‘Birthplace of Country Music’
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum opened in 2014 and is housed in a historic building in Bristol, Va., just a couple of blocks away from where Peer’s famous recordings were made. It’s a state-of-the-art museum that’s affiliated with the Smithsonian.

Rhino sculptures

Photo by Kent Warneke.

University of Nebraska State Museum (Lincoln, NE)
Rhino battle comes to life at Ashfall
“You’ve got this incredibly sweet mix of great scientists, great park managers, great philanthropists, great artists,” Johnson said. “And we’re really a long way away from any big population center, but this is a national treasure here in the northeast corner of Nebraska.”

Smithsonian director attends Ashfall event
Johnson said he was there because part of his job as the director of a national museum is to help other museums across the nation. It’s also appropriate because Ashfall is a Smithsonian affiliate.

National Civil War Museum (Harrisburg, PA) (VIDEO)
Civil War Museum allows visitors to take a step back in history
Civil War Museum CEO, Wayne Motts said, “So we’re a Smithsonian affiliated museum, right here in downtown Harrisburg. Right here in Dauphin County. We’re pleased with that. We’re pleased that the community has chosen to be with us today. We’re happy to have these offerings. And we hope it’s fun but that it’s also educational.”

Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science (Miami, FL) (RADIO INTERVIEW)
Phillip Frost Talks About Climate Change, The Science Museum And Doing Business In Sunshine Economy
Frost is the largest private benefactor of the new Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, which opened in May. The Frosts gave $45 million to the museum.

Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle (Doylestown, PA)
Bucks County Historical Society names new leader for Mercer Museum, Fonthill Castle
“I am excited about the opportunity to lead the Bucks County Historical Society and its two world-class museums,” said McKoy. “I am inspired by the organization’s commitment to educating its many audiences, and for the diversity of its exhibitions and programs. I look forward to working with the staff, trustees and volunteers to further the museums’ mission.”

California State Railroad Museum (Sacramento, CA)
Railroad Museum Now a Smithsonian Affiliate
In joining the Affiliation, Sacramento’s growing population will further receive the necessary help to build a bridge between the local experiences available in individual communities with the national heritage preserved and displayed at the Smithsonian.

California State Railroad Museum Becomes Smithsonian Affiliate (RADIO INTERVIEW)
Ty Smith, new Director for the California State Railroad Museum, talks to Kitty about the museum becoming a Smithsonian Affiliate.

Aquarium of the Bay (San Francisco, CA)
Aquarium of the Bay Receives Prestigious Smithsonian Affiliate Status
San Francisco’s only waterfront aquarium, Aquarium of the Bay, is proud to announce its new designation as a Smithsonian Affiliate. This prestigious designation makes it one of only three institutions in San Francisco and the only dedicated aquarium in the state of California to be honored as an affiliate.

Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (Easton, PA)
Easton sites share special connection to Smithsonian (VIDEO)
The museum had been a Smithsonian affiliate since 2002. Now, said Garofalo, the entire corridor is recognized as an affiliate. “We are the first heritage corridor affiliate and the only canal affiliate in the United States,” said Jim Birdsall, chairman of the park’s trails committee.

Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor partners with Smithsonian to bring history alive (VIDEO)
“The Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor will be the first of its kind in the Smithsonian Affiliate Network,” Director of Smithsonian Affiliations Harold A. Closter said. “Like the D&L Corridor, the Smithsonian cares deeply about the nation’s natural, cultural and historic resources.”

D&L corridor becomes the Smithsonian’s newest affiliate
Those who preserve the historic path used to transport coal and iron from Wilkes-Barre to Philadelphia will now be able to draw on the resources of the world’s largest museum and research complex.

USS Hornet ship

(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum (Alameda, CA)
Smithsonian Institution partners with USS Hornet
“We are extremely proud to be part of the Smithsonian affiliate network,” said Jill Knowland, the Hornet’s executive director. “Our selection to this program is a continuation of the museum’s ever expanding mission of connecting our nation’s ‘Greatest Generation’ with future generations and preserving the history and legacy of this national and state historical landmark.”

Shedd Aquarium (Chicago, IL)
Shedd Aquarium now affiliated with Smithsonian Institute
“We are honored to be affiliated with the Smithsonian in our shared goals of increasing discovery and inspiring lifelong learning. This partnership is an incredible collaborative resource that will help us deliver more mission moments to more people with greater impact, both onsite and in our communities,” said Shedd Aquarium President and CEO Bridget Coughlin.

Springfield Museums (Springfield, MA)
Springfield Museums plans John F. Kennedy centennial exhibit with items from Smithsonian, JFK Library
The Springfield Museums, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, will exhibit 27 photographs on loan from the National Museum of American History in Washington. The Richard Avedon photographs will anchor the Springfield Museums exhibition, providing a glimpse into the Kennedys’ personal life, while also documenting their public image.

 

kudos Affiliates! for June 2017

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Congrats to these Affiliates on their recent accomplishments.

FUNDING

The Pinhead Institute (Telluride, CO) won the first-ever Telluride Foundation Innovation Prize of $50,000 for its Climate Institute idea. The new institute will aim to reduce the area’s carbon footprint by focusing on emissions from the Galloping Goose buses, and eventually, the Telluride Regional Airport.

The Wisconsin Maritime Museum (Manitowoc, WI) has announced a $130,000 bequest from the estate of Robert and Grace Peppard, who were longtime supporters of the museum.

The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art & Technology (Newark, OH) received a $2,625 grant from the Granville Community Foundation in support of the ArtWorks! for Life program. ArtWorks! for Life is designed to expand creativity and enhance the quality of life for seniors in the Granville and Newark communities by offering exceptional engaging art programs.

Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent will be the presenting sponsor of Conner Prairie’s (Fishers, IN) newest outdoor nature experience, Treetop Outpost; its series of summer day camps for youth ages 8-12; and Headless Horseman. As presenting sponsor, the hospital will financially support the three museum initiatives for one year and have multiple opportunities to interact with and engage Conner Prairie visitors throughout the year.

Pew Charitable Trusts awarded the Hagley Museum and Library (Wilmington, DE)$500,000 over three years to expand services for businesses and trade associations. The initiative will advance research and public knowledge of American invention and entrepreneurship.

 

LEADERSHIP and STAFF CHANGES 

The Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach, CA) has selected Dr. Lourdes I. Ramos to serve as President and CEO.

Mark Auslander, a sociocultural anthropologist, has been appointed director of the Michigan State University Museum (East Lansing, MI).

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas, TX) announced that Linda Abraham-Silver will serve as the museum’s new CEO.

The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission has promoted the education chief, Patrick C. Morrison to historic site administrator at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania (Strasburg, PA) to oversee the 42-year-old railroading site.

The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (Dubuque, IA) announced Kurt Strand as the next President & CEO of the organization.

 

AWARDS

Conner Prairie (Fishers, IN) has received national recognition for the revitalization and reinterpretation of the museum’s longest-running exhibit. The American Alliance of Museums honored the museum with an Excellence in Exhibition award. The award recognizes the design, development and implementation of William Conner House, which reopened to the public last year after new interactive and media experiences were installed.

The Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach, CA) announced that their exhibition Transformations, curated by Curator of Collections, Carlos Ortega, has received a 2017 Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement for “A Museum Exhibit on a Limited Budget” from the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA).

Read all about it! Affiliate’s making headlines this month

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Genomics, special Smithsonian speakers on the road, famous horse skeletons, and air mail…April was a busy month in Affiliateland! Check out the Affiliates making headlines across the network:

A soldier in Vietnam writes a letter.

A soldier in Vietnam writes a letter. (Photo: National Archives)

Yankee Air Museum (Belleville, MI)
Smithsonian’s Mail Call heading to Yankee Air Museum
“We are very pleased to bring Mail Call to southeastern Michigan,’’ said Kevin Walsh, Executive Director of the Yankee Air Museum in a news release. “This is the natural encore to our recent project that assembled and mailed nearly 100 care packages to our troops in the Middle East. Yankee Air Museum proudly joins the past with the present as we look to the future.’’

North Carolina Museum of History (Raleigh, NC)
Historical immersion
The N.C. Museum of History, which is a Smithsonian affiliate, has a uniform worn by North Carolina aviator Kiffin Rockwell on loan from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Rockwell grew up in Asheville and was the first American pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft in WWI.

International Museum of the Horse (Lexington, KY)
Beyond The Derby, Meet Lexington Kentucky’s Great Thoroughbreds — Past And Present
Making a name for himself not only through his racing but also as the most successful sire of the second half of the 19th century, Lexington’s remains were kept at the Smithsonian for decades before finally coming back to his namesake. You can now find his bones on display at the International Museum of the Horse.

Numerous Wild West Personnel with Deadwood stagecoach, ca. 1889. Buffalo Bill stands in front of the smaller wagon wheel with Major Burke behind his right shoulder. (Photo: Buffalo Bill Center of the West)

Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Cody, WY)
Wild West PR man mounts comeback, 100 years after death
In suitably Burke-like promotion, historians and descendants of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West P.R. man, a rotund fellow dubbed “Major,” gather at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 12, at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, DC, to “right a historical wrong,” according to event organizers. … Haynes, Fuqua and his sister and cousin, along with their families, plan to attend the Wednesday ceremony. Guest speakers include Dr. Jeremy Johnston, Curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, and Managing Editor of the Papers of William F. Cody; Steve Friesen, Director of the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave in Golden, Colorado; and Dr. Michelle Delaney, Senior Program Officer for History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution, whose forthcoming book, Art and Advertising in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, is scheduled for release in 2019.

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture (Baltimore, MD)
Lewis Museum Expects Bright Future Under New Management
As the museum continues to reorganize and redevelop, their partnership with the Smithsonian [Institution]’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., has had a positive influence on their progress. Draper said that the Lewis Museum has had a long history with the Smithsonian and the museum is also a Smithsonian affiliate. “We do things with them now,” Draper said. “We premiere their movies in this market, Smithsonian channel movies, and we’re looking at sharing some objects.”

seated guests

Guests at the Rockwell Museum for Smithsonian Speakers Series.

The Rockwell Museum (Corning, NY)
Rockwell Wraps Up Smithsonian Speaker Series This Week
“Eduardo is going to bring his area of expertise which is working in the Latino community,” Rockwell Programs and Events Manager Brett Smith said. “In particular for this program he’s going to be discussing how the Smithsonian is actively insuring that the Latino voice is maintaining a presence throughout the Smithsonian network.”

Peoria Riverfront Museum (Peoria, IL)
Smithsonian’s ‘Genome’ exhibit at the Peoria Riverfront Museum
The “Genome” exhibition will reveal the revolutionary nature of genomic science and unravel the mystery behind it. … The exhibit was developed and produced by the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the National Institutes for Health’s National Human Genome Research Institute in association with Science North.

Did we miss something? Or do you have a clipping you’d like to submit? Email Elizabeth Bugbee (BugbeeE@si.edu). All clippings must have a Smithsonian connection, cover significant research or staff changes. 

Coming Up in Affiliateland in May 2017

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Flowers (and programs) are sprouting up all over the Affiliate network in May. Welcome spring!

CONNECTICUT

Visitors enjoy The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s at Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.

The Decorative Arts Society of the Connecticut Historical Society will be touring The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s exhibition and touring behind the scenes at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, 5.2.17.

Connecticut Historical Society will host a lecture by Damion Thomas, curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, on the Museum’s sports galleries, in Hartford, 5.22.17.

NEW YORK

The Long Island Museum opens Midnight Rum: Long Island and Prohibition, an exhibition that will feature a loan from the Hirshhorn Museum, John Sloane’s McSorley’s Saturday Night, in Stony Brook, 5.5.17.

MICHIGAN

The Yankee Air Museum will open SITES’ Mail Call exhibition in Belleville, 5.6.17.

OREGON

The Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals will host a lecture by Jeff Post, curator from the National Museum of Natural History in Hillsboro, 5.6.17.

FLORIDA

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A science program in collaboration with the Smithsonian Latino Center helps to open the Frost Museum of Science in Miami.

The Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science will host their grand opening, including 5 objects on loan from the National Air and Space Museum in Miami, 5.8.17. The will also host Descubra! Meet the Science Expert, a program focusing on Latino achievement in science in collaboration with the Smithsonian Latino Center, in Miami, 5.13.17.

HAWAII

John Troutman, curator of music at the National Museum of American History, will give a talk and booksigning at the Lyman Museum in Hilo, 5.8.17 and at the Kona Historical Society in Kona, 5.9.17.

MASSACHUSETTS

Framingham State University will host a community-based Latinos and Baseball event, with participation by curator Margaret Salazar-Porzio of the National Museum of American History in Framingham, 5.13.17.

Jeweler Sidney Mobell will give a talk on objects he created that are part of the Jeweled Objects of Desire exhibition, currently on loan from the National Museum of Natural History at the Springfield Museums, 5.21.17.

RHODE ISLAND

Affiliations director Harold Closter will give remarks at the ceremony announcing the Smithsonian’s new affiliation with the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, 5.17.17.

NORTH CAROLINA

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences will sign a formal collaboration agreement with the Smithsonian Science Education Center at an event in Raleigh, 5.17.17.

OHIO

SITES’ Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen: Star Wars™ and the Power of Costume exhibition opens at the Cincinnati Museum Center, 5.25.17.

Star Wars Coming Soon