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.

Coming Up in Affiliateland in September 2018

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Let’s get back to school and back to collaborating!

NATIONWIDE
Over 100 Affiliates will take part in Smithsonian magazine Museum Day. Many of them will host screenings of original programs from the Smithsonian Channel as part of the day’s programming. Check here for participating Affiliates taking part on 9.22.

FLORIDA
The Museum of Arts and Sciences will host its annual Septembers with the Smithsonian programming. On 9.8, Dr. Valerie Paul from the Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft. Pierce will present two lectures on Smithsonian research in the Indian River lagoon. The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra will present two concerts on Jazz Sites: Regional Style and Evolution in Daytona Beach, 9.28-29.

George Catlin, Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie, 1832-1833, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., soon to be on view in Washington.

WASHINGTON
A painting by George Catlin, Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, will be part of the Endangered Species, Artists on the Front Line of Biodiversity exhibition opening at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, 9.8.

TENNESSEE
The International Storytelling Center will screen The True Story of Mary Celeste, the famous “ghost ship” mystery from the Smithsonian Channel, in Jonesborough, 9.17 and 9.22.

NEBRASKA
National Postal Museum Curator Lynn Heidelbaugh will present a lecture at the Durham Museum on Letters of Love, Longing and Loss in World War I, in Omaha, 9.18.

A presenter from the Smithsonian American Art Museum will lead a lively online discussion focusing on the representation of American Indians in artworks by both Native and non-Native artists at the University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History in Lincoln, 9.26.

VIRGINIA
Alison Cawood, citizen science coordinator at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, will give an overview of the Center’s research and citizen science projects at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens in Norfolk, 9.26.

PENNSYLVANIA
The Senator John Heinz History Center will open the Destination Moon exhibition organized by the National Air and Space Museum and Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. In addition to the artifacts in the exhibition, the Center will  feature an Apollo Lunar Surface Television Camera from the local Westinghouse Electric Corporation, also on loan from the National Air and Space Museum, in Pittsburgh, 8.29.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA). Photo courtesy of NASA.

Coming up in Affiliateland in August

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Bringing you all the Smithsonian happenings in your neighborhood!

CALIFORNIA

Soldier delivering mail

Corporal Erica Lila, delivering mail to service members in Afghanistan, gives a package to Petty Officer First Class Boyd Lewis, 2010. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Corporal Eugenio Montanez

The USS Hornet-Sea, Air and Space Museum hosts the exhibition Mail Call, created by the National Postal Museum and organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, in Alameda 8.4. 

MARYLAND 

The College Park Aviation Museum celebrates the 100th anniversary of airmail with a community day featuring staff from the National Postal Museum, in College Park 8.11. Matthew White, director of education at the Postal Museum answers questions and chats about airmail as a special guest bartender at the College Park Aviation Museum’s Windsock Arms Happy Hour, in College Park 8.15.

MASSACHUSETTS

The Springfield Museums, in Springfield, hosts live virtual visits with the Smithsonian National Zoo during a series of Facebook Live talks as part of its Wild Wednesdays at the museums. Scientists and keepers from the National Zoo introduce a variety of animals and talk about the work they do in caring for and protecting them. 8.1.18 features orangutans; 8.8.18 features seals, 8.15.18 features elephants.

PENNSYLVANIA

For the 150th anniversary of the discovery of anthracite, the National Museum of Industrial History will welcome Shari Stout, collections manager at the National Museum of American History for a talk about a photo collection commissioned by Frederic P. Dewey, the Smithsonian’s first mining curator, in Bethlehem 8.25.

TEXAS

Smithsonian Channel program

Wilt Chamberlain is perhaps the most dominant player in the history of the NBA. One night, he scored a remarkable 100 points, a feat that hasn’t been matched in half a century. But whatever happened to the ball that scored that 100th point? Follow sports host Lauren Gardner as she tries to find out. Then follow investigator Kevin Barrows on his journey to the Kentucky Derby Museum where he examines a trophy that could’ve been falsely identified.

The Carver Museum, part of the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department, closes its Smithsonian Spotlights on African American History with a screening of the Smithsonian Channel program Sports Detective: 100-Point Game Ball, in Austin 8.18.

Last Chance To See!

Things Come Apart at the South Florida Museum and Bishop Aquarium. Through more than 40 captivating photographs, videos and objects encased in acrylic, this traveling exhibition from SITES displays the complex parts that have spurred revolutions in product design and functionality across multiple industries and the staying power of classic designs, in Bradenton, Florida until 8.19.

Looking for more events and programs? Visit our Smithsonian Affiliate Calendar.

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.

Smithsonian Learning Lab Webinar: Creating National History Day Collections

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Learning lab elephant logoFor the past two years Smithsonian Learning Lab has been a tool for curating topic ideas for students participating in National History Day (NHD) research projects.

The Learning Lab team, along with educators from NHD and the National Endowment for the Humanities, will hold an online session on Thursday, August 9 at 4 pm ET around the 2019 NHD theme Triumph and Tragedy in History. Learn how to use Learning Lab to showcase your  collections and make them available to students around the country conducting research for their 2019 NHD projects. (See Learning Lab NHD collection examples here.)

In this session, designed for museum educators and other National History Day (NHD) content creators, participants will learn about the 2019 theme “Triumph and Tragedy” from NHD staff and hear from educators at the Smithsonian and National Endowment for the Humanities about their experiences in curating content for NHD students using the Smithsonian Learning Lab since 2017.

If you are new to NHD, read these two articles from Smithsonian staff in the 2019 NHD Theme Book to get a feel for how Learning Lab can help students spark ideas for their projects.

• Stories of Triumph and Tragedy found in the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery (pg. 22)
• Discover Digital Tools and Resources for Triumph and Tragedy in History (pg. 43)

RSVP for the webinar here! 

Part 3: Using Collections to Think About Immigration with the Smithsonian Learning Lab

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After visiting three Affiliate communities in 2018, the staff at the Smithsonian Learning Lab wrapped-up their Teacher Creativity Studios at the City of Austin Asian American Resource Center (AARC), a Smithsonian Affiliate in Austin, Texas. As mentioned in Part 1, the goal was to increase digital access to museum collections and inspire students to investigate the world around them using objects, documents, videos and more, all available for free online. In this final installment, Hanna Huang, culture and arts education coordinator and acting supervisor at the Asian American Resource Center, shares her project, Austin’s Asian American Pacific Islander Roots.

Smithsonian Learning Lab in AustinThe AARC partnered with the Austin History Center to define Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) programming. Huang sees each AAPI community as special and unique in its makeup, much like the many cultures, ethnicities, and languages that comprise what we know as AAPI. To share this with a wider audience, the partners worked with the Learning Lab to create a collection for teachers based on a revived exhibition that covers Asian Pacific American history in Austin from the late 1800s past the 1980s.

As you work your way through, you can not only see all the images and texts from our exhibit but also find learning tools to help you with teaching topics such as Asian Pacific American history, immigration, Texas history, primary/secondary sources, and more!

Read Huang’s full blog– Austin’s Asian American Pacific Islander Roots—here.

And don’t forget about Part 1 and Part 2 in our Learning Lab Series!

Want to see more Learning Lab in Affiliate neighborhoods? Check out these blogs from past workshops at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh: Supporting Digital Innovation in Education with the Learning Lab
Every Collection Tells a Story
Creative Introduction to Geography
Smithsonian’s Home in Pittsburgh
Creating with the Learning Lab
Teach Digital Curation with Depth

The Teacher Creativity Studio program received Federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

f you are interested in learning more about the Smithsonian Learning Lab and how it could help your museum support teachers and students in your community, contact your National Outreach Manager.