Congrats to these Affiliates making news!  If you have a clipping highlighting a collaboration with the Smithsonian or with a fellow Affiliate you’d like to have considered for the Affiliate blog, please contact Elizabeth Bugbee.

Conner Prairie (Fishers, IN)
Women’s Volunteer Group Achieves $1 Million Milestone In Raising Funds To Support Conner Prairie
At its Annual Meeting today, the Conner Prairie Alliance announced it has raised $1,077,123 for the museum since the group was founded in 1984.

Oklahoma History Center (Oklahoma City, OK)
NASA heroes mark 50th anniversary of first manned rendezvous in space, speak at Oklahoma History Center
The mission was the first manned rendezvous of two spaceships. The capsule from the mission is displayed at the history center, where it is on long-term loan from the Smithsonian Institution.

Four NASA heroes to visit Oklahoma City on Wednesday
Former astronauts Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jim Lovell, Alan Bean and Tom Stafford will visit the Oklahoma History Center on Wednesday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Gemini 6 flight and rendezvous in space with Gemini 7. The mission represented the first manned rendezvous between two spaceships in space.

Greensboro Historical Museum (Greensboro, NC)
Travel Channel show to feature Greensboro museum, Dolley Madison dress
Hart said she is excited for the museum to once again get national exposure for the country’s best collection of Dolley Madison artifacts. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery had borrowed it in 2012 for its “1812: A Nation Emerges” exhibition.

Denver Museum of Art (Denver, Co.)
Original costumes from ‘Star Wars’ film series coming to Denver Art Museum
“So many of us have warm memories and a fascination associated with the Star Wars films, and it’s really the characters that maintain this longstanding connection,” said Stefania Van Dyke, interpretive specialist of the DAM. “Our unique presentation will give a look at the inspiration and nuanced creative processes of designers and artisans.

At The Denver Art Museum, Costumes See You Will
The Force is coming to Denver in the form of costumes and design as “Star Wars and the Power of Costume” exhibit comes to the Denver Art Museum.

‘Star Wars’ exhibit coming to Denver – with original Darth Vader, Leia costumes
The Denver Art Museum Wednesday morning announced it will present “Star Wars and the Power of Costume,” an exhibition of more than 60 costumes from all seven Star Wars films, from Nov. 13, 2016 to April 2, 2017.

‘Star Wars’ Is Coming To The Denver Art Museum
The film, due out on Dec. 18, marks the seventh in the blockbuster series. So the time seems right for the Denver Art Museum to announce an exhibition based on the franchise.

STAR WARSâ„¢ AND THE POWER OF COSTUME: COMING TO THE DENVER ART MUSEUM IN 2016
On the eve of what could be the most-awaited Star Wars film premiere of all time – Star Wars: The Force Awakens officially opens in theaters nationwide on December 18 – the Denver Art Museum just announced an out-of-this-world prize.  A showy Smithsonian-curated exhibit, Star Warsâ„¢ and the Power of Costume, will feature costumes and artifacts culled directly from the source of the Force: the archives of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

(Denver Art Museum website for the exhibition)

Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West (Scottsdale, AZ)
Scottsdale museum officially becomes Smithsonian Affiliate
Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian Institution’s Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, presented the Certification of Affiliation at a private event attended by numerous museum board members, Scottsdale Vice Mayor David Smith, Barbara Barrett, former U.S. ambassador to Finland, and Gay Wray, Smithsonian national board member.

Local Museum gets BIG Cred
Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West was recently certified a Smithsonian Affiliate museum, making it a recognized partner with the world’s largest museum and research complex. It is one of the youngest organizations ever to become a Smithsonian Affiliate.

Museum of American Finance (New York, NY)
Herzog honored with Lifetime Achievement Award in Beijing
John E. Herzog, vice president of the Fairfield Museum and History Center and founder of the Museum of American Finance, received the International Federation of Finance Museums (IFFM) Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the field of financial literacy on October 30.

Heard Museum (Phoenix, AZ)
A Long Overdue Retrospective for Kay WalkingStick Dispels Native Art Stereotypes
Her 1983-1985 Cardinal Points from the collection of Phoenix’s Heard Museum is in the exhibition and blends the four-directional cross, the compass directions, and the coloration of the male cardinal (the bird) and of Catholic cardinals. “There’s this double meaning to the title,” WalkingStick says.

Schiele Museum of Natural History (Gastonia, NC)
‘Monster Snake’ slithers into The Schiele Museum of Natural History
A massive snake is now calling The Schiele Museum of Natural History in Gastonia home. Well, at least a life-size replica of the serpent is. The Titanoboa, a prehistoric snake from the South American rain forest, has been extinct for 60 million years

Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Cody, WY)
Center of the West Reopens Smithsonian Firearms Exhibit
Continuing the Center’s relationship with the Smithsonian, this is the second loan from the National Firearms Collection. The Center’s 2013 exhibit originally opened with 64 firearms; the new loan retains 42 arms from the original loan and adds 8 new objects.

Buffalo Bill Center of the West reopens Smithsonian firearms exhibit
The exhibit, titled “Journeying West: Distinctive Firearms from the Smithsonian,” is now on display. The exhibit features 50 objects, including a video of the Smithsonian’s gun vault.

Firearms exhibit re-opens in new spot at museum
“In 1876, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History established the National Firearms Collection – now grown to nearly 7,000 objects – in honor of the American Centennial,” Hlebinsky added. “From the Smithsonian Channel, this exhibit includes a video of the Smithsonian’s actual gun vault, which visitors are sure to find fascinating.

Virginia Museum of Natural History (Martinsville, VA)
Can you dig it? Hastings can
Hastings, the Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Virginia Museum of Natural History, was one of three researchers who discovered the Titanoboa.

Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach, CA)
Museum Of Latin American Art Receives AAM Accreditation
“Accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums is a great honor and an important milestone for MoLAA as the museum prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2016,” MoLAA president and CEO Stuart A. Ashman said in a release.

The Wolfsonian-Florida International University (Miami, Florida)
When “Danger” Is Art’s Middle Name: A new exhibit looks at the inspiration that comes from the clash of glory and catastrophe
The image is one of roughly 200 works in a new exhibit, “Margin of Error,” now open at Miami’s Wolfsonian museum at Florida International University in Miami Beach (the Wolfsonian is also a Smithsonian affiliate.) Through graphic and decorative art, photography, painting, sculpture, industrial artifacts and ephemera, the show explores cultural reactions–ranging from glorifying to terrifying–to major innovations in Europe and the U.S. between 1850 and 1950, including coal mines, steamships, airplanes, electricity, railways and factories.

Congrats to these Affiliates making news!  If you have a clipping highlighting a collaboration with the Smithsonian or with a fellow Affiliate you’d like to have considered for the Affiliate blog, please contact Elizabeth Bugbee.

Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West (Scottsdale, AZ)
Video: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West now a Smithsonian Affiliate
The video features the presentation of the official certificate of affiliation from Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture along with remarks from David N. Smith, Scottsdale’s vice mayor, Jim Bruner, chairman of the museum board, and Barbara Barrett, board member of the Smithsonian Institution.

Coastal Discovery Museum (Hilton Head, SC)
Coastal Discovery Museum becomes Smithsonian Affiliate — a new partnership that could help grow programs, improve visitor experience
“But I think more than increasing the number of visitors, (the affiliation) will increase the quality of the experience that people have when they come to the museum,” Garniewicz said

Coastal Discovery Museum named a Smithsonian affiliate
“The Coastal Discovery Museum’s recognition as a Smithsonian Affiliate will allow us to grow significantly in several areas related to our mission,” said Rex Garniewicz, director of the museum. “We are always seeking to improve our visitors’ understanding of how coastal wetlands will respond to a changing planet, and the Smithsonian’s Global Change Research Wetland is a great partner for improving our presentation of this science to the public.”

Tellus Science Museum (Cartersville, GA)
Tellus Science Museum’s Cartersville meteorite receives Smithsonian recognition
A four billion year-old meteorite which plunged into a house in metro Atlanta was officially recognized and named by the international Meteoritical Society with the assistance of the Smithsonian Institution during a ceremony on Wednesday at the Tellus Science Museum. 

The Rockwell Museum (Corning, NY)
Rockwell Museum becomes Smithsonian affiliate
It’s going to open up new things for the Rockwell and community; it will give people a reason to come back again and again,” Rockwell Museum Executive Director Kristin Swain said.

New Smithsonian partnership among highlights of Rockwell Museum’s 40th anniversary
Having the ability to access the Smithsonian’s collections, as well as those of the other 200 affiliates, will be an important element of creating that broader context, officials said.

Rockwell Museum Becomes Smithsonian Partner: The Rockwell is the first Smithsonian Affiliate in upstate New York
You won’t have to travel to Washington, D.C. to see some of the amazing artifacts in the Smithsonian institute- soon you’ll be able to see some of them right here in the Twin Tiers

The Rockwell Museum Joins Forces With The Smithsonian
The Rockwell Museum now has 139 million more artifacts, artworks, and living collections at its fingertips. That’s because it has become a Smithsonian Affiliate 

Schiele Museum of Natural History (Gastonia, North Carolina)
On the way: largest snake ever
This gives us access to different artifacts and things that couldn’t be done without the Smithsonian’s resources,” McGinnis said

National Atomic Testing Museum (Las Vegas, Nevada)
New museum executive director selected
Hall replaces Jim Braun, who served as director for six months after former Executive Director Allan Palmer retired last year. In his last position as the head of a museum, Hall was executive director of the Roswell Museum and Art Center in New Mexico.

San Diego Air & Space Museum (San Diego, California)
NBC 7 SAN DIEGO AND NBCUNIVERSAL FOUNDATION AWARD $100,000 TO THREE LOCAL NONPROFITS IN SAN DIEGO AREA
The San Diego Air & Space Museum adheres preserves, interprets, educates and shares its rich aviation and space resources. BEAMPro cutting edge programs inspire an interest in science, technology, engineering, math and innovation with schools that lack transportation funding. (They were awarded $25K)

Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, Montana)
Famed paleontologist Jack Horner to retire from MSU
World-famous dinosaur scientist Jack Horner, whose discoveries about how dinosaurs lived changed paleontology, will retire next year from Montana State University and the Museum of the Rockies after 33 years. He said he intends to work with the Burke Museum in Seattle at the University of Washington, which is building a new museum 

Denver Art Museum (Denver, CO) [Exhibition includes a painting from the Smithsonian American Art Museum]
Denver Art Museum’s Wyeth show looks a little weird to Jamie
Strange to see your life flash before your eyes, he said, never knowing what curators will choose when they prepare a look back at his career. This one, titled “Wyeth: Andrew and Jamie in the Studio,” mixes, mingles and compares the paintings of the famous father and son artists. 

Denver Art Museum Strengthens Commitment to Native American Work
Early last month, the Denver Art Museum raised the curtain on “Super Indian: Fritz Scholder, 1967-1980,” an exhibition featuring about 40 colorful, rarely seen artworks by a controversial figure who died in 2005. 

Universidad del Turabo (Gurabo, Puerto Rico) and North Carolina Museum of History (Raleigh, NC)
UNC profs discuss Puerto Rican culture, literature in Smithsonian sessions
Scholars from the Smithsonian Institution and the Universidad del Turabo in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, discussed Puerto Rican culture and literature Thursday in a session available online at museums across the country, including the N.C. Museum of History. 

El Turabo y el Smithsonian discuten la diáspora puertorriqueña
“Este simposio es el resultado de la colaboración entre el Smithsonian Latino Center, las instituciones afiliadas al Smithsonian Affiliations y el doctor Félix Huertas, decano de Educación General de la Universidad del Turabo. 

Musical Instrument Museum (Phoenix, AZ)
A rare performance combining members of the world’s two leading Tex-Mex bands
GRAMMY winners Los Texmaniacs have been crisscrossing the world with music that incorporates rock and roll and jazz while honoring the roots of conjunto Tejano. They recently appeared at Austin City Limits with Flaco Jiménez and Dwight Yoakam. Max Baca, the founder of the band, has been a frequent guest with Los Lobos and won another GRAMMY Award a year ago for Flaco & Max: Legends & Legacies, his duo album on Smithsonian Folkways with Jiménez.

Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, PA)
Smithsonian Awarded Carnegie Grant To Advance Digital Learning Practices
Teacher training at the pilot sites will be conducted by SCLDA, the Senator John Heinz History Center and Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which serves the county’s 42 suburban school districts and Pittsburgh Public Schools, and is made possible by a Grable Foundation grant.

People on the move:
Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture (Baltimore, MD)
Reginald F. Lewis Museum appoints new chief curator
Charles E. Bethea, who grew up in Bladensburg, becomes one of the most public faces of the Baltimore museum. He’ll apply his quarter century of experience working for museums and cultural organizations in his new role as the Lewis’ chief curator and director of collections and exhibitions