affiliates in the news! February-March 2013

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Ten Thousand Springs Pavilion

Richard Parker, left, Bill Ferguson, right, reconstruct pieces made of red sandalwood to create The Ten Thousand Springs Pavilion on display at the International Museum of Art & Science. photo by Joel Martinez/jmartinez@themontor.com

International Museum of Art and Science (McAllen, Texas)
IMAS hosting traveling exhibit channeling 600-year-old Chinese pavilion 

Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Heinz History Center exhibit examines ‘1968: The Year that Rocked America’ 

Riverside Metropolitan Museum (Riverside, Calif.)
RIVERSIDE: Smithsonian scientist to visit museum 

Carolinas Aviation Museum (Charlotte, N.C.)
NC museum will receive Smithsonian designation
Carolinas Aviation Museum joins forces with Smithsonian 

Smithsonian scientist Rusty Russell shows off a specimen he collected in the desert at the 2009 Citizen Science Week. During the week from Feb. 12 through 16, school groups will get the opportunity to work with Russell at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum.

Smithsonian scientist Rusty Russell shows off a specimen he collected in the desert at the 2009 Citizen Science Week. During the week from Feb. 12 through 16, school groups will get the opportunity to work with Russell at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum.

Wing Luke Museum of the Asian American Pacific Experience (Seattle, Wash.)
Wing Luke now partner with park service
Seattle’s Wing Luke museum now part of Nat’l Park Service
Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum now part of National Park Service

Naples Museum of Art (Naples, Fla.)
Hirshhorn ‘Mouse House’ now at home in Naples
Naples Museum of Art pleased to make a permanent home for ‘The Mouse House’

 Agua Caliente Cultural Museum (Palm Springs, Calif.)
Monday Newsmaker: Promoting understanding of Native American culture

coming up in affiliateland in march 2013

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March is coming in like a lion with events all over Affiliateland!

Jefferson's Bible, from the collection of NMAH

Jefferson’s Bible, from the collection of NMAH

COLORADO
The Littleton Museum will host SITES’ Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America featuring 28 artifacts from the National Museum of the American Indian, in Littleton, 3.2.

History Colorado will host an exhibition on Jefferson’s Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth featuring four artifacts on loan from the National Museum of American History, in Denver, 3.22.

FLORIDA
Douglas Baldwin, educator at the National Air and Space Museum, will give a talk on “Time and Navigation;” Douglas Herman, geographer at the National Museum of the American Indian, will give a talk on “Celestial Navigation by Pacific Islanders” as part of Night Fest at St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum in St. Augustine, 3.2.

Virginia Mecklenberg, curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, will give a gallery talk on the Harlem Renaissance at the Mennello Museum of American Art in Orlando, 3.23.

PUERTO RICO
Affiliations director Harold Closter will lead a workshop on “Developing a Museum Budget” at the Museo y Centro de Estudios Humanísticos, as part of their annual professional development training series for museum professionals, in Gurabo, 3.9.

 

opportunities for Latino scholarship

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 OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 

Our colleagues in the Smithsonian Latino Center are gearing up for a very busy 2013.

On November 7-9, 2013, the Smithsonian Latino Center will be hosting the Latino Art Now! conference, in collaboration with the Inter‐University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR) headquartered at the University of Notre Dame, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  Since 2005, the Latino Art Now! conference has become a leading national forum for artists, art historians, art professionals, educators, scholars, critics and art dealers.  Its aim is to explore U.S. Latino art and its relationship to contemporary American visual culture and art, while advancing awareness, education, scholarship and knowledge in this emerging field.

Held for the first time this year in Washington, D.C., the conference will coincide with the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, to open at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on October 25, 2013.  The organizing committee is currently accepting submissions for abstracts of papers to be given at the conference. 

Click here for full information about the conference, and how to submit a paper.

And, do you know (or maybe you ARE) an aspiring scholar who would like to spend the summer at the Smithsonian advancing research on Latino and Latin American art, history and culture?  Check out the Latino Museum Studies Program, giving graduate students the opportunity to do research, explore leadership opportunities, and complete a  practicum project with colleagues at the Smithsonian. 

Click here for full information about the Latino Museum Studies Program, and how to apply.

 

 

Affiliates in the news! January-February 2013

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Each month we’re highlighting Affiliate-Smithsonian collaborations making headlines. Congrats to these Affiliates making news this month! If you have a clipping you’d like to have considered for the Affiliate blog, please contact Elizabeth Bugbee.

BCMA-VI-SmithsonianBirthplace of Country Music Alliance (Bristol, Tenn.)
Astrophotography students to exhibit work, share enthusiasm about VI and BCM-hosted program

American Textile History Museum (Lowell, Mass.)
Ex-astronaut fits the bill at Lowell textile museum 

South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, S.D.)
South Dakota State Historical Society, Smithsonian announce agreement
Smithsonian Affiliation program strengthens ties to South Dakota
South Dakota State Historical Society and museum to be affiliated with Smithsonian Institution
South Dakota State Historical Society Museum becomes affiliate of Smithsonian Institution
South Dakota state museum becomes affiliate of Smithsonian
Museum of South Dakota State Historical Society announces new status as Smithsonian Institution Affiliate 

National World War II Museum (New Orleans, La.)
Congressional Gold Medal goes on national tour

what’s an SA-Q?

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question-markLast year, the Smithsonian launched its first-ever advertising campaign, Seriously Amazing.  As part of the effort, seriouslyamazing.org asked a number of fun “SI-Q” – questions designed to peak your interest in our collections, research and exhibitions.

Affiliations staff has decided to start asking our own intriguing questions – SA-Q – that seek to expose all the treasures embedded in the Affiliate network.  Each month in our e-newsletter, you’ll see a new feature, posing a question that will expose all the ways that Affiliates contribute to the diffusion of knowledge.  First to email a right answer wins a prize!

January’s SA-Q asked: It’s inauguration time! Which Affiliate has presidential-related exhibits or artifacts on view?

The winner was Janet Hedrick, Eastern Regional Development Manager at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, who pointed to the Booth Western Art Museum, an Affiliate in Cartersville, Georgia, and their presidential exhibit.  Do you know of other Affiliates with presidential-related exhibits or artifacts on view?  Let us know!  Comment here, or drop us a note at affiliates@si.edu.

February’s SA-Q will be related to Black History Month, so put on your thinking caps!

affiliations conference preview: spaces for learning

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Do you operate an education center at your museum, or thinking about it?  Join us at the Affiliations National Conference on June 10-12  to meet colleagues who are opening or running new spaces for learning on the Smithsonian campus.  Through tours of these spaces, frank discussions with colleagues, exchanging resources and research, and hands-on activities, discover and share what makes an education center such a vital place in a museum.

Affiliations staff is currently working with the following museums to feature their education spaces:qurious

  • The National Museum of Natural History will be opening Q?RIUS in 2013, a new interactive 10,000 square foot programming space.  Q?RIUS will have access to a 20,000 specimen collection representing all departments of the museum, innovative programming and distance learning opportunities.
  • The National Museum of the American Indian’s imagiNATIONS activity center invites families to explore how Native peoples have adapted to natural environments with innovation.  Visitors can explore different kinds of transportation (snowshoes and skateboards), homes (tipis, adobes, igloos), hands-on activities (basket-weaving, Native percussion), and more.
  • The National Museum of American History is undergoing a major renovation that will result in new education spaces when they reopen in 2015.  Affiliates can talk to the staff about their planning and prototyping process, the “Object Project” and demonstration spaces, and explore possible collaboration opportunities.
  • The National Air and Space Museum’s Moving Beyond Earth gallery is an immersive space that puts visitors “in orbit.”  Affiliates can enter their Shuttle mock-up to learn about life in orbit (including the space toilet), or play the interactive SpaceFlight Academy, a group quiz that tests flight readiness.
  • The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s very popular ARTLAB+ is a digital media studio forARTLAB teens.  Staff will share how they provide access to professional technology and art, coupled with mentorship, to develop a community of young creators and innovators.   

Come to the Affiliations National Conference in Washington, D.C., on June 10-12, and bring your own experiences with education spaces to share with Smithsonian and Affiliate colleagues in these hands-on tours.  See you there!

The Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference is for current Affiliates only. If you are interested in becoming an Affiliate, please contact Elizabeth Bugbee for more information.