Tag Archive for: Affiliates

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

A unique experience: a peek into a two-week visiting professional residency at the smithsonian

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Special thanks for this guest post to Jessica Crossman, Experiential Learning Department Program Coordinator at the San Diego Museum of Man, a Smithsonian Affiliate in San Diego, California. Jessica spent two weeks in April 2013 at the Smithsonian.

This year I had the honor of being selected to participate in the Smithsonian Affiliations Visiting Professionals Program.  My goal while in Washington, D.C., was to learn about how best to create hands-on/interactive exhibits that effectively integrated educational material and to study the use of technology in these types of exhibits.  The museum where I work, the San Diego Museum of Man, is redoing the hands-on part of our Ancient Egypt exhibit.  Because of this, those of us working on the exhibit wanted to explore different ways we could approach the idea of interactivity in an exhibit.  I spent time at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), the National Zoo, and the Smithsonian Latino Center.  At each of these places I learned how these Smithsonian institutions approached hands-on/interactive exhibits in their own unique way.

Forensic Anthropology Lab

In the Forensic Anthropology Lab at the National Museum of Natural History.

My first week in DC was hosted by NMNH.  The members of the exhibits department were kind enough to meet with me, let me attend some of their meetings, and brain storm ideas with me about our exhibit at the Museum of Man.  Coming from the Education Department at my own institution, I gained a whole new perspective on what it takes to make an exhibit while learning great logistical ideas and questions to bring back to the Museum of Man, such as how to think about being able to make our exhibit easily adaptable for future changes and how to think about our goals regarding exhibit interactivity.  Members of the education department met with me to talk about our education programs and gave me tours of their education spaces in the museum including the Discovery Room, the Q?rius Lab, and the Forensic Anthropology Lab.  It was wonderful to see the exhibits from their educational point of view and to hear what their education goals were in the creation of these spaces.  One of the most important ideas that I got out this week was the idea of putting the visitor in the role of the “scientist” both in the wording of text panels and in the execution of interactive elements, such as providing tools (microscopes, magnifying glasses, etc.) for the children to use to make scientific observations in the Discovery Room.  This approach helped the team at the Museum of Man reform how we wanted to approach our own exhibit.

My second week I spent most of time at NMAI, with some time spent at the Zoo and the Latino Center.  At NMAI both the exhibits team and the education team gave me tours of their highly hands-on exhibit for kids called imagiNATIONS, which is designed to show children the innovations and inventions that different Native American Nations have created in order to meet their own specific needs.  While learning about this space I was told that people stay and learn when they feel safe and smart.  This is something that was taken into account when the NMAI team created this space.  While this idea was a simple one it was one of the most important of my trip because once I shared it with the Museum of Man exhibits team it helped us rethink how we wanted to physically design our space so that our visitors would have more of a sense of comfort and would stay longer to learn.

ImagiNATIONS

At ImagiNATIONS education space in the National Museum of the American Indian.

My time at the Zoo was focused in learning about their exhibit development process and in getting a tour of their new elephant exhibit.  It was wonderful to see an approach to technology as a means of visitor participation in their exhibit in the form of a photo booth.  It was fun, effective, and even left visitors with a message of conservation on the photo strips that took home with them.  This low tech use of technology was in contrast with the use of technology that I saw at the Latino Center.  While at the Latino Center I was given demonstrations of immersive gaming experiences that put students at the site of an archaeology dig, of Augmented Reality at use in exhibits, and of the Latino Center’s digital collections.  It was truly amazing to see what possibilities high tech, digital interactives might hold for our visitors.

Along with all of these wonderful learning experiences I met some truly talent and kind people that I hope to keep in touch with.  And of course this trip provided the Museum of Man some new ideas for our hands-on exhibit space.  There was even talk about possible future collaborations between the education department at NMNH and the Museum of Man as well as the Latino Center and the Museum of Man.  I’m very grateful to have been given the opportunity to grow both professionally and personally through this wonderful opportunity.

2013 Affiliations National Conference Resources

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Thanks to everyone who joined us at the 2013 Affiliations National Conference! We had a record-breaking 119 attendees from 74 Affiliates in 31 states and Puerto Rico join us! We know we learned a lot from you and hope you learned something new, met a new colleague, or discovered new possibilities while you were in town. Feel free to share the below post-conference resources with your colleagues who weren’t able to join us this year. And stay tuned…we’ll be uploading the digital recordings for many other sessions shortly. For now, enjoy the webcasts from our two keynote addresses and our one session on mobile marketing as well as the PowerPoint presentations from most sessions (Click on each speaker’s name to find the presentation). View the conference guidebook here and check out photos on our Flickr Photostream too! Contact Elizabeth Bugbee with any questions, comments or other feedback. Thanks for a seriously amazing conference!

Tuesday, June 11
Keynote Address:
Re-purposing the Museum: Using Digital Tools to Re-engage Young Audiences
Stephen Brown, President and Executive Producer at Mobile Digital Arts and General Manager of the New Learning Institute

Linking the Landscape: Digital Outreach to Small Towns and Rural Communities
Tom Falvey, Director of Education, South Carolina State Museum
Carol Harsh, Director, Museum on Main Street, Smithsonian Institution
Sonchia Jilek, Executive Director, The Pinhead Institute

Digital Trends: Crowdsourcing, 3-D, and Badging, Oh My!
Herbert Maschner, Director, Idaho Museum of Natural History
Lynn-Steven Engelke, Director of Programs, Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access
Kathryn Burke, Museum Technician, National Postal Museum

SITES=Success: Transforming Museums Through Traveling Exhibits
Micah Parzen, Chief Executive Officer, San Diego Museum of Man
Betsy Gordon, Project Manager, National Museum of the American Indian
Jonathan Stevens, President and Chief Executive Officer, American Textile History Museum
Jennifer O’Keefe, Special Assistant to the Director, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

Establishing Deeper Connections: Creating a Culture of Membership
Christi Janssen, Executive Director, The Durham Museum
Laurie Pillman, Membership Coordinator, Peoria Riverfront Museum

Make It Mobile: The New Museum is in Your Hand
Richard Cooper, Manager of content Development & Interpretation, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Heather Foster, Writer, Editor, Web Content Manager, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
Nancy Proctor, Head of Mobile Strategy & Initiatives, Smithsonian Institution

What’s The New Normal? Strategies for Survival and Reinvention
Thomas Stoneback, Executive Director, National Canal Museum
Jose Santamaria, Executive Director, Tellus Science Museum
Camille Akeju, Director, Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum

Wednesday, June 12
A Peek at “Object Project” at the National Museum of American History (Workshop Tour)
Howard Morrison, Director of Education and Interpretation
Judy Gradwohl, Assistant Director for Education and Public Programs
Click here for a diagram reporting on visitors’ responses to questions about their connections to history, motivations for visiting, expectations for their visit, actual visit experiences, and perceptions of benefits.
Click here for the front-end evaluation report for the new National Museum of Natural History learning center.

Keynote Address:
Envisioning a National Network of Early Learners
Kimberlee Kiehl, Executive Director, Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center
With an introduction from Marsha L. Semmel, former Director of Strategic Partnerships, Institute of Museum and Library Services

Full STEAM Ahead: Integrating Science, History and Art
Ellen Rosenthal, President and CEO, Conner Prairie
Brian Mancuso, Director of Exhibits, Conner Prairie
Jeff Dunn, Planetarium Supervisor, Mystic Seaport
Deborah Stokes, Education Specialist, National Museum of African Art

Collaboration Block: Seriously Amazing Opportunities

  • Places of Invention: The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation
    Julia Swan, Adult Public Programs Manager, Museum of History and Industry
    Anna Karvellas, Places of Invention Affiliates Project Coordinator, The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation
    Kate A. Lukaszewicz, Lead Educator, Senator John Heinz History Center
  • Youth Capture the Colorful Cosmos: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
    Combined session presentation
    Lindsay Bartholomew, Miami Science Museum, Moderator
    Christopher Myers, U.S. Space & Rocket Center
    Chelsea Dorman, Educator, College Park Aviation Museum
    James Wells, Education Program Manager, York County Culture & Heritage Museums
  • Our American Journey
    Elizabeth Bly, Director of Grants, Japanese American National Museum
    Magdalena Mieri, Director, Program in Latino History & Culture, National Museum of American History
    Pino Monaco, Director of Program Evaluation & Audience Research, Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access
  • Smithsonian Science NOW: National Museum of Natural History
    Combined session presentation
    Margaret Benson, Online Community Manager
    Colleen Marzec, Managing Producer Web Portal


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

what’s new at SITES?

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From amazing animals to the immigration experience in America, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) exhibitions reflect the depth and breadth of the Smithsonian’s research and collections.  Host a SITES exhibition and find out how it can expand your community of visitors and supporters, lead to creative programming opportunities and generate greater press coverage.  Here are some of our newest available exhibitions:

Rothschild Giraffes, Barbara von Hoffman, Nature’s Best Photography

Rothschild Giraffes, Barbara von Hoffman, Nature’s Best Photography

Nature’s Best Photography:  Windland Smith Rice International Awards
Nature’s Best Photography features 48 award-winning, large-scale, color photographs of wildlife and wild places from around the globe.  From animals on land, in the sea and in the air to images of people in nature, Nature’s Best Photography reveals the majesty, diversity and even humor of the animal and natural world.  Nature’s Best Photography includes information about the species and its habitat, a description of how each photographer captured their shot, technical photo specifications and a video of polar bear cubs in the wild.  Don’t miss your chance to host this eye-opening exhibition of rare and wonderful images of our animal cousins. Now booking! Tour begins April 2014. Contact:  Ed Liskey, liskeye@si.edu, 202.633.3142

Asians worked the Hawai’i plantations, playing a major role in the archipelago’s agricultural industry. Photograph courtesy The Bishop Museum, Hawai’i

Asians worked the Hawai’i plantations, playing a major role in the archipelago’s agricultural industry. Photograph courtesy The Bishop Museum, Hawai’i

I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story
Asian and Pacific Americans (APAs) make up more than 5% of the U.S. population –over 17 million people–and those numbers are growing. In the first exhibition of its kind, the Smithsonian celebrates APA history across the multitude of incredibly diverse cultures, and explores how APAs have shaped and been shaped by the course of our nation’s history. Rich with compelling, often surprising stories, the exhibition takes a sweeping look at this history, from the very first Asian immigrants to the influx of highly skilled workers many decades later. Thanks to a generous grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Wide American Earth is available at a modest fee of $2,000 per 10-week booking, plus outgoing shipping. Now booking! Tour begins September 2013. Contact: Minnie Russell, russellm@si.edu, 202.633.3160

Bollywood dancers

Dancers and musicians perform a Bollywood show at a restaurant in Jackson Heights. Queens, New York. Photo by Preston Merchant

Beyond Bollywood:  Indian Americans Shape the Nation
Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation is a groundbreaking exhibition exploring the vibrant heritage, daily experience, and diverse political, professional and cultural contributions of Indian Americans in shaping the United States.  Told through captivating images, music, visual art, and first-person narratives, Beyond Bollywood documents a history of discrimination, resistance, achievements and the lasting influence Indian Americans have had on the American experience. Tour begins January 2015. Contact:  Ed Liskey, liskeye@si.edu, 202.633.3142

Welcome Abbe Museum! First Museum in Maine to be in Association with the Smithsonian

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PrintSmithsonian Affiliations is pleased to announce a new affiliate relationship with the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine. The Abbe Museum is Maine’s first Smithsonian Affiliate, joining 177 Affiliates in 41 states, Puerto Rico and Panama, currently in association with the Smithsonian.

“Becoming a Smithsonian Affiliate will support exciting collaborations between our organizations, while dramatically expanding the Abbe Museum’s visibility in the market place and in Maine’s cultural community,” said Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, Abbe CEO. “Collaborative projects are key to the Abbe’s strategic direction. The Smithsonian is an incredible institution with tremendous scope in reach and resources. We are thrilled to share those resources with our community and members.”

The partnership will provide the Abbe Museum access to the Smithsonian’s many resources, including its 137 million-object collections, scholarships and educational opportunities for staff, traveling exhibits and membership benefits.

“The Abbe Museum is well-recognized for its outstanding collections, first-class exhibits, professional staff and commitment to education,” said Harold A. Closter, director of Smithsonian Affiliations. “With a mission that so thoroughly matches the work of the Smithsonian, we are honored to welcome the Abbe Museum into the family of Smithsonian Affiliates and look forward to working with this impressive organization to help preserve the rich heritage of Maine and share the inspiring stories of its people.”

Collaboration with the Smithsonian is something in which the Abbe Museum already has experience. When Abbe’s downtown location opened, the museum borrowed three collection items for the exhibit “Four Molly’s: Women of the Dawn,” guest curated by Bunny McBride.

On May 23, the exhibition “IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas” will go on display in the Abbe where it will remain through Aug. 4. “IndiVisible” was developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

The Abbe has long enjoyed a relationship with the National Museum of the American Indian, particularly working together in the development of educational programming.

A current Abbe Board Member, member of the Passamaquoddy tribe and renowned Native artist, David Moses Bridges, has worked extensively with the Smithsonian as a researcher, consultant and educator.

“I was very excited to learn of our relationship with the Smithsonian,” said Bridges. “I have always been impressed by the Smithsonian’s commitment to include Native people as the caretakers and interpreters of the collections they oversee. The Affiliations program allows the Abbe Museum and its visitors access to the greatest collection of Indigenous art in the world. Anyone who has stepped inside the Smithsonian will understand that the Abbe Museum’s new affiliation with the Smithsonian is surely something to be excited about.”

Established in 1996, Smithsonian Affiliations is a national outreach program that develops long-term collaborative partnerships with museums and educational and cultural organizations to enrich communities with Smithsonian artifacts, scholars, educational programs and professional-development opportunities. The long-term goal of Smithsonian Affiliations is to facilitate a two-way relationship among Smithsonian Affiliates and Smithsonian museums and research, education and outreach organizations to increase discovery, inspiration and lifelong learning in communities across America. More information about the Smithsonian Affiliations program and Affiliate activity is available at www.affiliations.si.edu.