Affiliates in the News! July 2013

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Congrats to these Affiliates making news! Each month we highlight Affiliate-Smithsonian and Affiliate-Affiliate collaborations making headlines.  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.

telluride

Telluride Historical Museum Executive Director Erica Kinias demonstrates the restored Pelton Wheel, which uses water to generate electricity. The museum was recently named a Smithsonian Affiliate. Photo by Heather Sackett.

Telluride Historical Museum (Telluride, Colorado)
Sharing History: Telluride Historical Museum named Smithsonian Affiliate
Telluride Historical Museum Chronicles Area Gold Rush to Ghost Town

South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, S.D.)
Museum of State Historical Society to Host Live Smithsonian Webcast on July 20
State Historical Society offers free videos

Mennello Museum of American Art (Orlando, FL)
‘Earl Cunningham’s Everglades’ at Mennello Museum

Kentucky Historical Society (Frankfort, KY)
Historical Society Joins Smithsonian Family
Kentucky Historical Society Now a Smithsonian Affiliate
KHS Set To Announce Smithsonian Partnership
Kentucky Historical Society forming affiliation with Smithsonian Institution

Elvis on the Southern Railroad between Chattanooga and Memphis, Tenn. July 4, 1956. © Alfred Wertheimer.

Elvis on the Southern Railroad between Chattanooga and Memphis, Tenn.
July 4, 1956. © Alfred Wertheimer.

Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, PA)
History Center Exhibit explores Pennsylvania’s impact on the Civil War
Heinz History Center exhibition highlights Pa. role in Civil War
Center brings big guns to Pa. Civil War exhibit

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (Fort Worth, TX)
Elvis in a history museum? Fort Worth photos are a swivel-hipping hit
Hanging Out with Elvis in Fort Worth
‘Elvis at 21’ exhibit at Fort Worth Science Museum proves interesting even for non-fans
Elvis at 21 delves into the puzzling nature of sex appeal, charisma, and intimacy

Berkshire Museum (Pittsfield, MA)
Berkshire Museum now a Smithsonian affiliate
Berkshire Museum becomes Smithsonian Affiliate, First Museum in Western MA to earn designation
Berkshire Museum named affiliate of Smithsonian Institution

David Ward of the National Portrait Gallery discusses a painting by Roger Shimomura.

David Ward of the National Portrait Gallery discusses a painting by Roger Shimomura at the Japanese American National Museum.

Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, CA)
A Self-portrait of Asian America: Smithsonian co-presents art exhibition at JANM
Seven citizens, seven stories: the performance “fighting for democracy” heads from Philly to DC
May Issue: First Asian American Exhibit Debuts at the Smithsonian

Schiele Museum of Natural History (Gastonia, NC)
Stay at home safari exhibit takes guests on tour of wild kingdom

Idaho Museum of Natural History (Pocatello, ID)
Digital Specimens

Miami Science Museum (Miami, FL)
2013 Smithsonian Online Education Conference Series Presents Two Sessions on Astrophotography

Mashantucket Pequot Museum (Mashantucket, CT)
Ramp It Up! Skateboard Exhibit Moves to Pequot Museum

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Exclusive Grant Opportunity for Affiliates: Places of Invention

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We’re looking for up to 20 Affiliates to receive $10,000 and training in Washington, D.C. to document innovation in your community.

Places of Invention (POI) is an exhibition in development, organized by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, and scheduled to open at the National Museum of American History in 2015.

poi2The Lemelson Center team is looking to Affiliates and their community partners to explore the central idea of the Places of Invention exhibition–that invention is everywhere and a product of the unique combination of people, resources, and surroundings that come together in a certain place and time.

Teams, led by Affiliates, are asked to apply these themes to their own communities and create multiple deliverables, including videos, oral histories, and public programs. One or more short videos synthesizing their findings will be featured on a dynamic, large-scale interactive map, central to the POI exhibition. Join us in this new model of co-creation of exhibition content! The deadline to apply via written proposal is September 1, 2013. 

For more details and information on how to apply, email or call Anna Karvellas at (202) 633-4722.

Places of Invention has been made possible by a generous grant from the National Science Foundation.

Promote your Smithsonian Museum Day Live activities with us!

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MD_logo_smallOn September 28, 2013, many Smithsonian Affiliates will be opening their doors for FREE as part of Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live! Museum Day Live! is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country open their doors for free to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket.

So far, more than 60 Smithsonian Affiliates are participating and many will even have special Smithsonian programs coinciding with Museum Day Live! We’d like to help you promote your Museum Day Live! activities by sharing them on The Affiliate blog and our social media platforms as well as share them with our colleagues at smithsonianmag.com. We’ll be featuring Affiliates on The Affiliate blog throughout August and September and highlighting Smithsonian collections, exhibits, programs and more in Affiliate neighborhoods.

Follow these guidelines and email Elizabeth Bugbee (bugbeee@si.edu) to submit blog ideas.

  • There must be a Smithsonian connection. It can be a new program or event or bringing new life to an ongoing loan or exhibit from the Smithsonian at your organization.
  • Please send a brief description of the program, exhibit, loan, etc.
  • Please send a great photo to post on our blog and social media.
  • Let us know who to contact for more information.
Septembers with the Smithsonian at The Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Septembers with the Smithsonian at The Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Here’s a small selection of what’s happening in your neighborhood on September 28. And stay tuned for blogs throughout August and September highlighting these events and more!

The Museum of Arts and Sciences (Daytona Beach, Florida): It’s the 3rd Annual Septembers with the Smithsonian at the museum. Each week, MOAS will welcome a special Smithsonian speaker on topics such as archeology, biology and paleobiology. The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (SJMO) will treat visitors to “Swingin’ with the Smithsonian,” on 9.28, complete with a vocalist and featuring the Ella Fitzgerald songbook. Check out the entire month’s program schedule at www.moas.org

 

Lydia Mendoza; photo courtesy Courtesy Lydia Mendoza.

Lydia Mendoza; photo courtesy Courtesy Lydia Mendoza.

 

American Jazz Museum (Kansas City, Missouri): In Spanish the word “sabor” means “flavor” and is often used to describe good music. Sample the unique ingredients of Latino Music in the U.S. and indulge in sabor musical dishes across America in the exhibition American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music, organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. On view through October 27, the exhibition focuses on five major centers of Latino popular music production in the years after World War II – New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, and San Francisco.

 

Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Cody, Wyoming): The “Mother of all Swiss Army knives” is currently on view thanks to a loan from the National Museum of American History. If you count the miniatures inside, it has 100 “blades,” and yes, even a functional .22-caliber five-shot pinfire revolver. The one modern convenience it doesn’t seem to have is a bottle opener, but the bottle cap as we know it wasn’t invented until 1892. The collection (64 objects from the National Firearms Collection) is on long-term loan to the Center.

knifegun

The “Mother of all Swiss Army knives” on view at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

To see the full list of participating Affiliate organizations, click here.

To register your museum for Museum Day Live!, click here.

Featured video: Smithsonian Firearms in Cody

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Sharing a great article from By Katharine MacKnight at KULR-8 TV in Billings, Montana.

In 1876, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History established the National Firearms Collection in Washington, DC. It’s the home to nearly 7,000 artifacts. Sixty-four of them are now on display at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Firearms Exhibit. It’s one of the largest collections of firearms to come out of the Smithsonian.

“It’s for people who love firearms and know a lot about them and also for people who don’t know a lot and would like to come in and learn why it’s important to American history,” says Ashley Lynn Hlebinsky, Firearms Curatorial Resident at the Buffalo Bills Center of the West Firearm Exhibit.

“Journeying West: Distinctive Firearms from the Smithsonian” is an exhibition at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. It was a carefully researched and planned out process that took Curator Warren Newman years to bring together.

Read the entire article here- https://www.kulr8.com/story/22879382/smithsonian-firearms-in-cody
KULR-8 Television, Billings, MT

coming up in affiliateland, July-August 2013

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Spend your summer at a Smithsonian Affiliate! Check out these events in your neighborhood in July and August.

MAINE
Kevin Gover, National Museum of the American Indian and Harold Closter, Smithsonian Affiliations, attended the public announcement of the Abbe Museum as a new Smithsonian Affiliate in Bar Harbor, 07.05.

Gabrielle Tayac (Piscataway), National Museum of the American Indian curator of the IndiVisible exhibit will give a public lecture on the similar histories of African-Native Americans and Acadian/Wabanaki relations at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, 7.10. 

FLORIDA
Lindsay Bartholomew, science curator at the Miami Science Museum, presented as part of the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access online webinar, Do It Yourself Astrophotography:  Applications for the Classroom and Beyond, along with Mary Dussault, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, in Washington, D.C, 07.10.

MARYLAND
The B&O Railroad Museum collaborated with the Smithsonian Science Education Center for a Science Education Academy for Teachers workshop, in Baltimore, 07.10.

Warren Perry, National Portrait Gallery curator, will guest jury the exhibition Humor Me! at Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center, in Solomons, 08.07.

COLORADO
National Outreach Manager Aaron Glavas will be speaking at the public announcement of the Telluride Historical Museum as a new Smithsonian Affiliate in Telluride, 7.29.

IDAHO
The Idaho Museum of Natural History will host the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) exhibit Native Words, Native Warriors in Pocatello, 07.20.

MISSOURI
The American Jazz Museum will host SITES’ American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music, in Kansas City, 08.01.

MASSACHUSETTS
The USS Constitution Museum will host a teacher workshop featuring a lecture by Sidney Hart, Senior Historian from the National Portrait Gallery, in Boston, 07.26 and 08.09.

NATIONWIDE
Ten Affiliates are hosting student interns as part of the Smithsonian Latino Center’s Young Ambassadors Program, through 08.02–Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Musical Instrument Museum, California Science Center, Museum of Latin American Art, Chabot Space and Science Center, Miami Science Museum, Museum of Flight, and the International Museum of Art and Science.

Four Affiliates are participating in a Smithsonian EdLab teacher workshop, Connecting Classrooms, throughout July and August –the South Dakota State Historical Society in Pierre; the International Museum of Art and Science in McAllen, Texas; the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in San Juan; and Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum in Arizona.

LAST CHANCE! See these exhibitions in your community before they close!

CONNECTICUT
The SITES’ exhibit Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America closes at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, in Mashantucket, 07.21.

TEXAS
Within the Emperor’s Garden: The Ten Thousand Springs Pavilion exhibit closes at the International Museum of Art and Science, in McAllen, 08.18.

MAINE
SITES’ exhibit IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas closes at the Abbe Museum, in Bar Harbor, 08.04.

It all started with a field trip to NMAI.

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IMG_5680A few years ago, members of Plimoth Plantation’s Wampanoag Indigenous Program made a trip from Plymouth, Massachusetts to Washington, DC to visit the National Museum of the American Indian. While there Darius Coombs, Associate Director of the program, noted in the museum’s canoe exhibition there was no representation of a traditional mishoon.  Today, he and Richard Pickering, Deputy Executive Director of Plimoth Plantation, are back in Washington, DC to meet with NMAI to coordinate their donation of a Wampanoag mishoon to the museum.

IMG_5665The meeting was held at NMAI’s  Cultural Resources Center where they were first granted a behind the scenes tour of the storage facility. It was quite a treat to be able to view the rows upon rows of drawers upon drawers of artifacts including the entire Wampanoag collection. After the tour Darius gave a brief presentation to the staff at NMAI CRC including this video of the Wampanoag mishoon trip to Martha’s Vineyard:

 

The meeting was a great success and we are eager to share follow up information as it becomes available. Stay tuned for more on this exciting collaboration!