Girl Scouts “Go the Distance” for a Merit Badge with Smithsonian American Art

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Special thanks to Mike Irwin, Distance Learning Coordinator at the Durham Museum in Omaha, for this guest post.

 Girl Scouts meet the Smithsonian's American Art Museum in Omaha.

Group Programs Manager, Molly Gruber walked into the Distant Learning Coordinator’s office at the Durham Museum and asked, “Can we connect girl scouts with experts to talk about the security of rare and priceless art objects?”

Two months later on a chilly April morning there was a good bit of excitement as 74 Girl Scouts sat in The Durham Museum’s Stanley and Dorothy Truhlsen Lecture Hall waiting to be connected to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  Most of the girls had never been in a distant learning video conference and really didn’t know what to expect.  With a click of the button, Sara Rouse and Susan Nichols appeared on a 25 ft screen in front of a backdrop of the outside entrance to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  The girls, seeking some of the information that they needed to complete their merit badge in museum studies, were immediately at ease with this technology and engaged from the beginning.  In unison the girls shouted “hello” and the program was underway.  Susan introduced a great selection of slides showing very unique art pieces with background on the artist and format before security issues of each piece were discussed. 

When it came time for questions all was silent until one scout sheepishly raised her hand but when the microphone was passed to her she had forgotten her question.  She smiled and kept thinking.  The ice was broken and hands went up all over the lecture hall anxious to ask a question. The questions asked were thoughtful indicating that this group did, in fact, really pay attention. The girls were really impressed with being live and interactive and asked “when can we do this again!”

It was only natural to contact the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum to develop this video session. The Durham Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate, had already collaborated with SAAM for two very successful distant learning programs, finding the staff responsive and willing to create or modify a current program to meet specific needs.    With a broad range of pre-packaged programs attaching national standards and the ability provide specific content, The Durham Museum certainly intends to use this valuable distance learning resource well into the future.  

On their way to a badge!

Alexander Calder sculpture

Cross Collection searching

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Ever wish you could go to one place to search across the whole Smithsonian for objects?

We want that for you too! and we’re getting closer and closer. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden was just added to the Smithsonian’s Cross Searching Center, along with the great collections from the National Postal Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Our goal? Nothing short of a one-stop searching environment for SI collections!

For example: Check out this search on Alexander Calder.

In this search, we found objects from multiple SI units:
– Sculptures, paintings, drawings from American Art, Hirshhorn, and Portrait Gallery museums,
– Photographs from SI Archives, Juley Photo Archives and Archives of American Gardens,
– Interviews, sound recordings and letters from Archives of American Art,
– and Books from SI Libraries

We hope this makes it easier for the public to find what they need, and see more of what we have.  What do you think -useful?!  We’d love to hear about your searches and findings….

Collaborating in Pennsylvania

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I just got back from a road trip to Pennsylvania, and what struck me with all the Affiliates I visited there was the various and creative ways they are all collaborating, with each other and with their greater communities.

In Hershey…

Motorcycles and buses at the Antique Automobile Museum of America Museum
 

The Antique Automobile Club of America Museum partnered a while ago with the Museum of Bus Transportation that occupies their lower floor.  The Bus Museum has the largest collection of historic buses under one roof in the United States, including the Lakeland Bus Lines bus from the movie “Forrest Gump”. Recently, they’ve also partnered with the Antique Motorcycle Club of America to provide gallery space for some pretty amazing vehicles, including a 19th century steam “motorcycle.” Different collections, common mission – what better idea than to partner to present various views on the history of transportation in America?

In Pittsburgh…

Betty Siegel, Director of Accessibility at the Kennedy Center, with Pittsburgh's performing arts community

At the Heinz History Center, 60 professionals from the cultural and performing arts organizations in Pittsburgh came together for a training on incorporating the lessons of universal design for the benefit of their visitors. The training itself was a collaboration – between the accessibility directors of the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center. Not only was the discussion itself very informative and resource-rich, but the participants started discussing ways they could collaborate outside the session – theaters buying expensive LED readers together that they could share, or hiring audio descriptors to service several of their organizations’ exhibitions, so as to cut costs.

In Easton… the director of the National Canal Museum shared the various ways he’s working with nearby Historic Bethlehem Partnership.  For example, together they are meeting with officials in the state government to make a regional case for support instead of just an individual one, and brainstorming ways to attract incoming casino patrons (a Sands Casino opens in Bethlehem in June) to visit both museums to experience the bigger picture of the rich industrial heritage of the Lehigh Valley.

I may be looking too hard for silver lining in this economic crisis, but the ways that it is encouraging cultural organizations to come together in innovative ways gives me hope for the future – for these museums and the communities they continue to impact.

Collaboration is Key

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Thanks to Nancy Crane, Director of Education, Culture & Heritage Museums, for this guest post.  

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After hearing Lonnie Bunch, Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), speak on the topic of collaboration at the 2007 Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference, we knew that we would like to work and collaborate with this new and forward-looking Smithsonian museum in the future.  I mentally filed away many of Mr. Bunch’s comments and ideas as well as the overall vision of the NMAAHC, which specifically addresses collaboration as a core value of the institution.  Indeed, on the homepage of the NMAACH’s website, “collaboration” is one of the main tabs along with collections, education, etc.   The opportunity to work with NMAAHC and our fellow Carolinas’ Smithsonian Affiliates presented itself this spring as part of a joint state museum conference between North and South Carolina.   Working with the staff at NMAAHC and the Affiliations Office, we were able to bring Dr. Rex Ellis to the Carolinas on March 4-5, to present both an afternoon workshop and to deliver the keynote address for the conference.  Dr. Ellis presented an outstanding program focusing on the challenges of interpreting slavery.  His presentation provided his audience of museum staff and volunteers with much food for thought – challenging us to consider different perspectives.  His keynote address was equally stimulating as he wove song, personal stories, and professional experience into an elegant vision for the future of museums. 

Not only was the conference a collaboration between states, but in order to bring Dr. Ellis, we reached out to our Smithsonian Affiliates in the Carolinas for their support.  The Carolinas’ Smithsonian Affiliates came forward and helped to support this initiative both monetarily as well as through staff attendance.  We hope that this may be the beginning of more inter-Affiliate collaborations.

In these difficult economic times, collaborations are one tool which we can utilize to better serve our communities.  Reflect on your institution’s current collaborations as potential partnerships for the future

To put it plainly, you can never have too many friends.

stimulus funding

Do you qualify for stimulus funding?

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Searching for research funding? Grant opportunities are available! The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has budgeted for numerous grant funding opportunities representing agencies government wide. Each agency has been allocated varying amounts of money to support research in all different fields of studies.

For the latest information regarding Recovery Act grant announcements please visit their website at Grants.gov then click on ‘Recovery Act Opportunities’ which provides a listing of every agency’s recovery act website.

and good luck!

Museum Transparency

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Indianapolis Museum of Art Dashboard

SI Staff were treated last week to a lecture by Max Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  He kicked off his lecture with a “memo” by President Obama urging transparency not only in  government, but across all organizations.  Anderson then made quite a cogent argument for greater transparency in the museum world. 

He argued, for example, that the statistics often cited for success by museums – attendance, membership – are often misleading and meaningless to society as a whole.  So what matters then?  Anderson suggested that issues like:  how we steward the environment and teach others to do so; how well we remain vigilant about Nazi-era and Antiquities provenance research; even, how is what we serve in our museum cafes improving or exacerbating visitors’ health?

Anderson addressed this issue at his museum with a dashboard.  This device provides lots of statistics to a range of museums metrics – where visitors come from, the size of the Museum’s endowment, new works on view, among other stats. 

Why do this?  Another question may be, why not?!  As he said, making this kind of information readily available forces the staff to engage in constant vigilance and performance improvement, and lets visitors know what the Museum cares about.  It builds trust both inside and outside the organization.

The final nail to this argument came when Anderson reminded the audience that in the first round of the recent stimulus bill, museums were lumped in with casinos as being exempt from receiving stimulus funds.  Luckily, museums were taken off the list, but the obvious question was, what are we doing (or not doing) to have lost such a critical societal distinction?

The Smithsonian was forced to become more transparent recently as the press well documented, and we all agree we are better for it.  You can now watch Regent Meetings for example, and read our Governance Scorecard, among other improvements.  And, you can watch all of Anderson’s talk here.

Has your museum taken any recent steps in regard to transparency?