Kudos Affiliates! Spring 2025 Edition

Kudos to these Affiliates on their recent accomplishments! Do you have kudos to share? Please send potential entries to Aaron Glavas, GlavasC@si.edu.

FUNDING 

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science (Denver, CO) received a $20 million gift from the Sturm Family Foundation to launch a new East Wing Project to rejuvenate their historic theater, lobby and plaza. 

Nebraska Tourism awarded a $10,710 grant to the Durham Museum (Omaha, NE) as part of the application cycle of the Community Impact and Visit Nebraska Marketing Grant programs. The funding will be used for the Image Library, Website & Advertising Expansion project. 

Union Station, Kansas City, Inc. (Kansas City, MO) received a grant of $20,000 from Bayer Fund. The grant will be used towards building a better future by helping provide scholarships for local students to visit both Science City and the Arvin Gottlieb Planetarium. The program is for students in grades K-12 at public or charter schools in the Kansas City metro area, including Jackson, Johnson, Wyandotte, and Clay counties as well as non-profit community groups that serve individuals from historically underrepresented communities. 

Conner Prairie (Fishers, IN) received a $2.5 million grant through Lilly Endowment’s Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. The grant will support the Lenape Connection & Kinship on the White River project, which aims to amplify the voices of the Lenape people, honoring their cultural heritage, history and traditions. 

The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (Dubuque, IA) was awarded an Inspire Iowa Cultural Tourism Grant award of $50,000 in support of the summer 2025 traveling exhibit, Ice Dinosaurs: The Lost World of the Alaskan Arctic. Funding will support this new traveling exhibit, in addition to educational programming and a correlated regional marketing campaign designed to attract significant tourism to the River Museum and the region. 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION 

Newsweek USA Today’s Readers’ Choice Awards were recently announced and featured Affiliates in the following categories: 

Best Free Museum 

• California Science Center (Los Angeles, CA) 

• North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, NC) 

• Saint Louis Science Center (Saint Louis, MO) 

Best History Museum 

• Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, PA) 

• Tampa Bay History Center (Tampa Bay, FL) 

• National Museum of the Pacific War (Fredericksburg, TX) 

• Cincinnati Museum Center (Cincinnati, OH) 

• National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati, OH) 

Best Museum Ship 

• USS Constitution Museum (Boston, MA) 

• USS Hornet Museum (Alameda, CA) 

Best Music Museum 

• Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum (Memphis, TN) 

• Birthplace of Country Music Museum (Bristol, Virginia) 

• Musical Instrument Museum (Phoenix, AZ) 

Best Open-Air Museum 

• Hagley Museum and Library (Wilmington, DE) 

• Strawbery Banke Museum (Portsmouth, NH) 

• Conner Prairie (Fishers, IN) 

• Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT) 

• Plimoth Patuxet Museums (Plymouth, MA) 

Best Planetarium 

• Adler Planetarium (Chicago, IL) 

• U.S. Space & Rocket Center (Huntsville, AL) 

• Saint Louis Science Center (Saint Louis, MO) 

Best Science Museum 

• Tellus Science Museum (Cartersville, GA) 

• Perot Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas, TX) 

• Saint Louis Science Center (Saint Louis, MO) 

• The Wild Center (Tupper Lake, NY) 

• Michigan Science Center (Detroit, MI) 

Booth Western Art Museum (Cartersville, GA) and Tellus Science Museum (Cartersville, GA), were recognized for their contributions to the museum industry at the annual Georgia Association of Museums conference. The awards highlight both museums’ dedication to innovation, accessibility, and education. 

• Booth Western Art Museum received a multimedia award for its bilingual digital tour. The museum developed a low-cost, web-based tour that delivers an engaging, bilingual experience and provides greater accessibility for the region’s Spanish-speaking community, which makes up over 13% of the local population. 

• Tellus Science Museum’s annual summer internship program was honored with Georgia Association of Museums’ Student Project Award for developing a new Solar System Traveling Trunk program. The portable educational resource aligns with Georgia’s state science curriculum and provides interactive lessons for students suitable for a wide range of grade levels. 

The travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler recently published a list of the 51 best museums in the United States, which included the following Affiliates: 

• Anchorage Museum (Anchorage, AK) 

• Musical Instrument Museum (Phoenix, AZ) 

• Denver Museum of Nature & Science (Denver, CO) 

• Hagley Museum and Library (Wilmington, DE) 

• Union Station, Kansas City, Inc. (Kansas City, MO) 

• The National WWII Museum (New Orleans, LA) 

LEADERSHIP 

Michelle Larson, CEO of the Adler Planetarium (Chicago, IL), announced she is stepping down to become president of Clarkson University in upstate New York.  The planetarium’s chief financial officer, Audris Wong, has been tapped as interim CEO while the board of trustees undertakes the process of hiring a permanent replacement for Larson. 

Nicole Harvey, a longtime employee of the Oklahoma Historical Society, has been named the next director of the Oklahoma History Center Museum (Oklahoma City, OK) after serving as interim director. 

Plimoth Patuxet Museums (Plymouth, MA) announced Executive Director, Ellie Donovan, is retiring from the Museum this year. Donovan has held several positions at the Museum, serving as Executive Director for the last 16 years. The trustees of the museum added Deputy Director of Research and Public Engagement, Tom Begley, will assume the role of Executive Director following Donovan’s departure.