The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) works closely with many Smithsonian Affiliates to bring diverse exhibitions to local communities. Many Affiliates complement exhibitions by hosting speakers or creating innovative programming to engage their communities and serve their missions. Two new exhibitions, Roots of Wisdom: Native Knowledge. Shared Science. and Things Come Apart- explore the fascinating world of art and science. Find out how to bring them to your neighborhood!
Roots of Wisdom: Native Knowledge. Shared Science.
Cooking salmon traditionally on iron wood sticks over wood coals.
This brand new exhibition from the Smithsonian and The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry raises the question: How do Native communities handle the environmental challenges that threaten their way of life?
Roots of Wisdom focuses on four examples of successful restoration efforts in Native communities. For example, when modern construction, farming, and dams blocked streams important to Pacific Northwest tribes, the salmon – a sacred food – had trouble making it upstream to tribal lands. The tribes combined the ecological knowledge inherited from their ancestors with their own scientific studies and worked alongside government agencies and neighbors to address the problem. Today, the salmon are returning to the streams.
What environmental challenges face your community? Roots of Wisdom gives host venues an opportunity to customize three additional banners to highlight local content. Complementary educational resources include clever online games, demonstration guides, classroom activities, and more to reinforce exhibition themes.
Perfect for those Affiliates interested in Native American topics or natural history and environmental sciences, the exhibition was created in collaboration with the featured Native communities and is supported by a National Science Foundation grant. Learn more here.
Things Come Apart Did you know that there are over 216 components that make up a common power drill?
Through extraordinary photographs by Canadian photographer Todd McClellan, disassembled objects and fascinating videos, Things Come Apart reveals the inner workings of common, everyday possessions. The exhibition embraces key STEAM concepts and includes hands-on educational activities and supplies, aligned with Next Generation Science Standards. Learn more here.
“When taking objects apart, I organize the pieces in separate containers in the sequence in which they are removed. To arrange the objects, first, I position the main component, usually the exterior shell. After that, placing the parts in a beautiful shape is a bit of a puzzle, and I repeatedly rework the layout to make each piece fit in the space. Even the smallest objects can take three days or more. The full size of the disassembly, with every single object laid out, can be huge in relation to the original object. It is as if the true scale of the object is revealed only when it is taken apart.” – Todd McLellan
Installation from Upcountry History Museum, Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina. Not only did the Museum launch the national tour of Searching for the Seventies, they used the exhibition to celebrate their new Smithsonian Affiliation. Photo courtesy of the Museum.
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Upcountry-History-Museum_Documerica-installation-300x200.jpg200300Laura Hansenhttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgLaura Hansen2015-10-27 14:48:452017-03-10 17:50:58Highlight Your Affiliation with a SITES Exhibition
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.
Agua Caliente Cultural Museum (Palm Springs)
Agua Caliente exhibition selected for national spotlight We are so honored to be able to bring such an important exhibition about Agua Caliente to the National Museum of the American Indian,” said Hicks, a member of the Prairie Band of Potawatomie Indians. “We feel that Native communities tell their own stories best, and we are thrilled to partner.”
Section 14 exhibit heads to Washington We are a small, 1,600-square-foot museum, and we’ve got an exhibition that’s going to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian,” an exuberant Michael Hammond, executive director of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum gushed to the hundreds gathered Saturday night for the annual Dinner in the Canyons event.
Ohio History Center, Ohio History Connection (Columbus, Ohio)
Superman suit fitting for ’50s pop-culture exhibit at Ohio History Center (VIDEO)
“We thought it was an important cultural icon,” said Dwight Blocker Bowers, the curator of entertainment history for the national museum. “He was the first real superhero to have a huge effect on American culture.”
Lesley Poling, registrar of collections for the Ohio History Connection, fine-tunes the Superman costume worn by George Reeves. It will be on display through Jan. 3 at the Ohio History Center.
Iconic ‘Adventures Of Superman’ Suit Flies Into Ohio The iconic outfit is on a special loan from the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The super suit was worn by Reeves, who portrayed mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent and his heroic alter ego, Superman from 1952 to 1958. It is first time ever the suit has appeared in the Buckeye State.
George Reeves’ Superman suit flies into Columbus for Ohio History Center appearance It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman — his suit, anyway — and it’s headed to Columbus. George Reeves’ iconic red, blue and yellow outfit goes on display Saturday at the Ohio History Center, part of the museum’s ongoing exhibit on the 1950s. The super suit was worn by Reeves, an Iowa native, during the TV series “Adventures of Superman,” which aired nationally from 1952 to 1958. The suit has been at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History for the past 30 years, but hasn’t been on display since 2006. Its appearance in Columbus is the costume’s first public showing in nearly a decade.
Reeves’ Superman suit on display at Ohio History Connection On loan from the Smithsonian Institution, based in Washington, D.C., it is part of the facility’s “1950s: Building the American Dream” exhibit.
Anchorage Museum (Anchorage, Alaska)
Native wood carving makes a comeback at Anchorage Museum (VIDEO) Traditional Native wood carving is coming back to the Anchorage Museum. Three master carvers – John Hudson (Tsimshian), Norman Jackson (Tlingit) and Donald Varnell (Haida) – are taking part in a week-long residency at the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center. .“Organizing this project is about teaching and education and sharing, maybe some arts that aren’t very well known with the broader public and with young people who are really interested in learning,” said Aron Crowell, Alaska director for the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center.
UAA students work on cedar whistles at the Anchorage Museum’s Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center.
Photos: Student carvers learn to make Alaska Native musical instruments The Smithsonian’s artist residency program is focused on “material traditions,” with cedar being this particular program’s focus. Not only do master craftsmen get to pass on their skills, but museum conservators use the knowledge to better enable them to care for the artifacts in their custody.
South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, SD)
Museum curators, government officials welcome back horse effigy Kevin Gover, a Pawnee and director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, said the Smithsonian can do what it does only because of its partnerships with smaller museums, such as the Cultural Heritage Center. The Smithsonian has a collection of about 800,000 American Indian items, and only 1 percent of these are on display in its two locations at any given moment.
Bounding home: Masterpiece of Plains Indian sculpture returns to South Dakota And this weekend that sculpture returns to South Dakota, where for the next two years, visitors to the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center will have the chance to compare it to two other horse effigies known to have been made by No Two Horns. One is on loan from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian.
Historical Society Adds New Smithsonian Affiliation Benefits To Membership Program Beginning in October, the society is launching its new membership program which features the addition of Smithsonian Affiliate Member benefits for all new or renewing members at the Heritage Circle level.
Arielle Parsons is eMammal Project Coordinator for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, NC)
Inside NC Science: Help capture wildlife on camera Rather than stay up all night stalking wildlife, you can use camera traps – motion-triggered cameras – to record animals that live in a particular area. Biologists in the Biodiversity Lab at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences are using these cameras to document what species occur along urban-to-rural areas around Raleigh and Charlotte. This project, called eMammal, is a partnership between the museum and the Smithsonian Institution.
Denver Art Museum (Denver, CO) (a painting from SAAM is in this exhibition)
Artsplainer: Fritz Scholder’s Indian Paintings at the Denver Art Museum In 2008, the National Museum of the American Indian mounted a retrospective of the work of the 20th-century Figurative artist Fritz Scholder. It titled the show “Indian/Not Indian,” referring to the identity question at the heart of Scholder’s work. Scholder, who died in 2005, was a quarter Luiseño, a registered member of the tribe, with a father who worked at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But at points in his career Scholder denied the significance of that Native American heritage.
Frontiers of Flight Museum (Dallas, TX)
Google Expeditions Pioneer Program Launched For Students To Take Virtual Trips; What Could This Mean For The Future?
. The Android maker’s partners in the Expeditions Pioneer Program are the American Museum of Natural History, Alchemy VR, Frontiers of Flight Museum, The Smithsonian,.
US Space and Rocket Center (Huntsville, AL) Alabama’s U.S. Space and Rocket Center sets one-day attendance record with new exhibit The U.S. Space and Rocket Center Saturday set a one-day attendance record while hosting Museum Day Live, an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine which includes participating museums across the country. During the free event, almost 5,500 people visited the Rocket City hotspot to enjoy and explore the state’s largest tourist attraction.
Paleontologists Louis Jacobs, SMU, and Anthony Fiorillo, Perot Museum, have identified a new species of marine mammal from bones recovered from the Aleutian island Unalaska in the North Pacific. (Hillsman Jackson, SMU)
Perot Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas, TX)
New fossils intensify mystery of short-lived, toothy mammals unique to ancient North Pacific Paleontologists Louis Jacobs, SMU, and Anthony Fiorillo, Perot Museum, have identified a new species of marine mammal from bones recovered from the Aleutian island Unalaska in the North Pacific.
Sullivan Museum and History Center (Northfield, VT) Smithsonian official to speak at Norwich Kurin will talk about American history as reflected in iconic objects, as outlined in his most book “The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects.”
St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum (St. Augustine, FL)
New name and a renewed focus on maritime history But under the new moniker of St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, the Smithsonian Affiliate organization aims to enhance its reputation in the field of maritime history and research as well.
Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA)
Museum of the African Diaspora Names New Deputy Director The Museum of the African Diaspora announced the appointment of Michael Warr as its new deputy director. Warr will lead the museum’s operations and planning
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Louis-Tony-300x214-300x214.jpg214300Elizabeth Bugbeehttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgElizabeth Bugbee2015-10-26 19:15:462024-04-18 15:59:34Affiliates in the news! November enewsletter edition
Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center (Solomons, MD) received a $15,000 grant from the Dominion Foundation, in support of the Children’s Discovery Garden & Nature Trail. The Children’s Garden will be natural play space and outdoor classroom where young guests will explore the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay with a particular focus on strategies to protect the Critical Area.
Through an approximately $7,000 Wisconsin Humanities Council grant, the Wisconsin Maritime Museum (Manitowoc, WI) created a Facing the River program. Facing the River features activities to teach kids about river history and ecology, including a now-and-then photo comparison, songs and storytelling from childrens performer David H.B. Drake, a travel brochure art project and samplings of local food.
Through a generous $1.13 million grant over three years from Dell, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas, TX) has created a mobile innovation truck that will bring science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) learning to a broader and more diverse audience in the Dallas/Fort Worth region and beyond. The Perot Museum TECH Truck, powered by Dell, will provide more opportunities for the community to engage in museum experiences through free, out-of-school educational and interactive programs, including drop-in sessions and workshops, using no- and low-tech activities as well as high-tech experiences. The program is designed to reach people who – for a variety of reasons – do not or cannot engage with the Museum at its physical location.
ACHIEVEMENTS and RECOGNITION
After spending six weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list in 2015, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography” has been chosen by the members of the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association (MIBA) as a Midwest Booksellers Choice Award recipient for nonfiction. The South Dakota State Historical Society published Wilder’s account of her family’s pioneering experience last November.
The South Dakota State Historical Society’s museum director, Jay Smith, received the President’s Award for his service to the Mountain Plains Museums Association (MPMA). The President’s Award is a public recognition of those people, institutions or businesses that have contributed significantly in any capacity to the continued growth and success of the MPMA.
Framingham State University has been recognized for its efforts to support diversity and inclusion on campus with a Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award. The award is given by INSIGHT into Diversity, the oldest and largest diversity magazine and website in higher education today.
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpg00Jennifer Brundagehttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgJennifer Brundage2015-10-26 07:49:322024-02-22 15:13:18kudos affiliates! for november 2015
MAINE
National Outreach Manager Jennifer Brundage attends the New England Museum Association conference, and leads a session with colleagues from the Berkshire Museum and the Lemelson-MIT Program in Portland, 11.4-6.
CALIFORNIA
The Museums of Sonoma County open SITES’ Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation exhibition in Santa Rosa, 11.8.
CONNECTICUT
Mystic Seaport kicks off its Stars of the Smithsonian lecture series with a talk by Andy Johnston, Geographer at the National Air and Space Museum, on navigation across the oceans, earth and space, in Mystic, 11.12.
SOUTH CAROLINA Affiliations Director Harold Closter will attend the official Affiliate announcement at the Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head Island, 11.18.
NEW YORK
The John Clum watch fob which tells the story of the gold rush in Alaska, on loan from the National Postal Museum, will be on view at MoAF in November.
The Museum of American Finance opens the Worth its Weight: Gold from the Ground Up exhibition featuring 27 artifacts on loan from three Smithsonian museums, in New York City, 11.19.
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/PedacitoTierra-178x270.png270178Jennifer Brundagehttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgJennifer Brundage2015-10-25 20:39:242022-08-22 13:36:12coming up in Affiliateland in November 2015
The signature blue, red and yellow suit worn by mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent wore as Superman is at the Ohio History Center, the headquarters of Ohio History Connection, a Smithsonian Affiliate in Columbus, Ohio, thanks to a loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The suit, worn by actor George Reeves in the 1950s televeision show, is part of 1950s: Building the American Dream, a new exhibit at the History Center.
Read the O Say Can You See? blog about this loan.
The Columbus Dispatch posted this video the day the suit was unveiled. They were on hand to see some local school children go bonkers over the suit. Check it out below.
And read the entire Columbus Dispatch story here.
Follow @SIAffiliates, @amhistorymuseum, and @OhioHistory on Twitter to follow the #superman weekend (October 10, 2015 the exhibition opens to the public).
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpg00Elizabeth Bugbeehttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgElizabeth Bugbee2015-10-08 17:03:032021-01-26 17:17:18Kids go bonkers for Superman suit
Affiliates continue to demonstrate significant impact, all over the country. Congratulations to all!
FUNDING
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced grants for 217 museum projects awarded through the highly competitive Museums for America and National Leadership Grants for Museums programs including the following Affiliates:
The San Diego Natural History Museum will improve the management and accessibility of data for more than 1.2 million specimens in its paleontology research collection by upgrading its current database to “Specify 6,” a database designed specifically for natural history collections.
The Denver Art Museum will develop a Latino artist-in-residence program to better reflect the full diversity of the community. The museum will create a series of one-month Latino artist residencies, bringing Latino artists of local, national, and international stature to the museum.
The Denver Art Museum will conduct a first-ever detailed conservation survey of 604 three-dimensional objects in its Architecture, Design, and Graphics collection. The project will advance institutional long-range goals for strengthening collections management by improving curatorial knowledge of the collection condition in anticipation of heightened exhibition, rotation, and program activity.
History Colorado seeks to improve the stewardship of a collection of 6,187 historic objects and more than 50,000 archaeological artifacts through relocation of the items to a new storage facility. Relocation to an 15 environmentally stable and readily accessible facility will allow History Colorado to more effectively preserve and manage its collections.
Mystic Seaport (Mystic, CT) – Award Amount: $149,318;
The Mystic Seaport Museum will improve the physical state of the 1908 steamboat, Sabino, a National Historic Landmark vessel and the last remaining wooden, coal-fired, operating steamboat in the United States.
The Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art will undertake two video projects to help visitors better understand the museum and earth science, and to provide an incentive for more school-driven visits. The museum plans to update its welcoming video, and a second video will focus on earth science with STEM-related material.
Conner Prairie Museum will implement a series of on-going maker programs using the tools, materials, and philosophy of the modern maker movement by drawing inspiration from the historic crafts and trades visitors experience at the museum.
Abbe Museum (Bar Harbor, ME) – Award Amount: $150,000;
The Abbe Museum will design, fabricate, and install a permanent exhibit showcasing the history and culture of Maine’s native Wabanaki people. The exhibit will include content, artifacts, images, and interactive elements informed by the museum’s interpretive framework, its Native Advisory Council, and Native advisors.
The USS Constitution Museum will create an online collections, research, and interpretive portal for educators and information seekers of all ages offering free and unlimited access to the museum’s nationally significant collection of manuscripts, rare books, artifacts, and artwork capturing the role of the Constitution during the War of 1812.
Michigan State University Museum (East Lansing, MI)-Award Amount: $59,898;
The Michigan State University Museum will preserve an important collection of rare and fragile barn models located for decades in substandard space, by rehousing them in the museum’s cultural collections resource center, a climate-controlled repository.
The Senator John Heinz History Center will develop, fabricate, and tour a traveling exhibit that will use life figures, modular panels, hands-on objects, cases with artifacts, oral histories, and video components to help audiences at small local museums explore how World War II transformed the lives of Pennsylvania residents.
The Museum of History and Industry will launch a two-year project designed to engage participants, pre-K through adult learners, through a coordinated set of museum, classroom, and community experiences in exploring the region’s legacy of innovation, collaboration, experimentation, and perseverance skills.
The Wing Luke Asian Museum will expand and strengthen its guided neighborhood walking tours to provide opportunities for members of the Asian Pacific American community to share their stories, to stimulate the local economy by fostering partnerships with neighborhood businesses and organizations, and to promote the historic and cultural appeal of the Chinatown International District.
Madison Children’s Museum will model a creative approach to behavioral change encouraging increased physical activity by redesigning stairwells in its historic building and by producing related programming to counteract decreased activity and a rise in obesity among Wisconsin children. During the two-year initiative, the museum will produce three examples of stairwell transformation.
Museum of Latin American Art(Long Beach, CA) and Framingham State University(Framingham, MA) have been selected to receive a competitive Latino Americans: 500 Years of History grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. As two of 203 grant recipients selected from across the country, both will receive a cash grant of $3,000 to hold public programming – such as public film screenings, discussion groups, oral history initiatives, local history exhibitions, multi-media projects or performances – about Latino history and culture.
The Abbe Museum (Bar Harbor, ME) has received a grant from Grants to Green Maine to provide an energy efficiency audit for the museum’s historic downtown location. The grant complements the museum’s Greening the Abbe Initiative and the near completion of the National Endowment for the Humanities funded projects that have helped reduce the Abbe’s carbon footprint and operating costs.
PNC’s Grow Up Great program has awarded a $30,000 grant to The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art and Technology (Newark, OH) to provide early childhood science education this coming school year. The programs will feature classroom instruction, field trips and family nights at the Works. New this year will be a teacher professional development day at the Works facilitated by an instructor from the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center.
The Witte Museum (San Antonio, TX) announced the beginning stages of construction for the H-E-B Lantern, the entrance to the New Witte and home to a Pterosaur, “Quetzy” through a generous donation of $2 million on behalf of H-E-B to the New Witte.
LEADERHIP AND STAFF CHANGES
Susan J. Weller, former executive director and curator at the J.F. Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota, has been named director of the University of Nebraska State Museum(Lincoln, NE). She succeeds Priscilla Grew, who has directed the museum since 2003.
Fundraising professional Karrie Zuccarello of Indianapolis has been named chief development officer at Conner Prairie (Fishers, IN). She joins the museum from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, where she was director of development since 2011.
The Denver Art Museum(Denver, Colorado) has named fashion and art historian and curator Florence Müller as its next Avenir Foundation Curator of Textile Art, Curator of Fashion.
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpg00Elizabeth Bugbeehttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgElizabeth Bugbee2015-09-28 17:03:142022-06-09 09:38:52Kudos Affiliates! for October 2015
