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.

 

Coming up in Affiliateland in February 2018

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Happy new year! We may still feel cold, but events are heating up at Affiliates across the country.

NATIONWIDE
Five Affiliates will host (via videoconference) the Smithsonian Secretary’s Youth Advisory Council meeting. Thank you to the Arab American National Museum, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the Upcountry History Museum and the Rockwell Museum for sharing their students and spaces for this important dialogue happening in Washington, 2.7.

Eight Affiliates will host screenings of The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X , a new film from the Smithsonian Channel as part of their Black History Month programming. Thanks to the following Affiliates for sharing the film with your audiences!
2.1 – Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, MD
2.6 – Museum of History & Industry in Seattle, WA
2.7 – Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, PA
2.8 – African American Museum in Philadelphia, PA
2.12 – History Colorado in Denver, CO
2.22 – California African American Museum in Los Angeles
2.23 – Mennello Museum of American Art/Orlando Museum of Art, FL
2.26 – Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, TX

CALIFORNIA
The Riverside Metropolitan Museum presents the Uncovering Ancient Mexico: The Mystery of Tlatilco exhibition, exploring an ancient society in central Mexico that flourished 3000 years ago. The exhibition features 9 artifacts from the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian and opens in Riverside, 2.3

WASHINGTON
The Whatcom Museum opens Jeweled Objects of Desire featuring over 50 artifacts on loan from the National Museum of Natural History’s gem and mineral collection in Bellingham, 2.3.

FLORIDA
The Orange County Regional History Center opens the SITES’ exhibition Things Come Apart in Orlando, 2.10.

Take it Apart! A fun contest in Orlando for the Things Come Apart exhibition.

PENNSYLVANIA
A ‘rum runner’ ship model on loan from the National Museum of American History will be on view at the Heinz History Center as part of their American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition exhibition in Pittsburgh, 2.10.

OHIO
With a grant from the Ohio Arts Council, educators from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Accessibility Program will lead three workshops for teachers in collaboration with the Springfield Museum of Art on strategies for using art to reach students with multiple disabilities, in Springfield, 2.15-16.

MARYLAND
Annmarie Garden opens Big Fun Art, an exhibition of local and national artists juried by Jennifer Brundage, Smithsonian Affiliations National Outreach Manager, that explores playfulness, dynamism and joy, in Solomons, 2.16.

ARIZONA
Dr. Richard Kurin will be speaking on and signing his book The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, 2.20.

TEXAS
The Asian American Resource Center will host a teacher workshop in collaboration with the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access entitled Teacher Creativity Studios: Asian Pacific America Cultural Presence in the Classroom in Austin, 2.21.

NEBRASKA
The Durham Museum will host a lecture by Dr. Krewasky Salter, Guest Associate Curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Double Victory: The African American Military Experience in Omaha, 2.27.

 

  

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.