Tag Archive for: Heinz History Center

coming up in affiliateland in october 2012

OHIO
The Springfield Museum of Art will host an opening event for the Jack Earl: A Modern Master-A Retrospective exhibition featuring loans from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Springfield, 10.3.

Harold Closter will attend the Ohio Historical Society’s Affiliations Announcement in Columbus, 10.30.

LOUISIANA
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art will host an opening for Art for Art’s Sake exhibition featuring loans from the National Postal Museum. Linda Edquist, conservator, will attend the opening in New Orleans, 10.6.

PENNSYLVANIA
The Senator John Heinz History Center will host an opening for Gridiron Glory: Best of the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition featuring loans from the National Museum of American History in Pittsburgh, 10.6.

The Historic Bethlehem Partnership will host Richard Kurin, Smithsonian Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, for a lecture program and book signing in Bethlehem, 10.14.

ILLINOIS
The Lakeview Museum of Arts & Sciences will open their new facility, the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Harold Closter and Aaron Glavas from Smithsonian Affiliations will be in attendance in Peoria, 10.11.

NEW YORK
The Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages will host a public lecture on Elvis and 1950s culture by Amy Henderson from the National Portrait Gallery in Stony Brook, 10.15.

NATIONWIDE
9 Affiliates: Durham Museum, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Senator John Heinz History Center, History Colorado, Miami Science Museum, The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, Oklahoma Historical Society, Sonoma County Museum, and the South Dakota State Historical Society will host viewing parties and programs as part of the National Museum of American History’s National Youth Summit on the Dust Bowl, 10.17.

WASHINGTON
The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture will host the National Museum of American History’s Buffalo Bills’ Wild West Warriors exhibition in Spokane, 10.17.

WISCONSIN
Smithsonian Affiliations National Outreach Manager Aaron Glavas will attend the Milwaukee County Historical Society’s Affiliations Announcement in Milwaukee, 10.18.

FLORIDA
The Museum of Arts & Sciences will host Richard Kurin, Smithsonian Undersecretary for History, Art, and Culture, for a book talk in Daytona Beach, 10.20.

The Polk Art Museum will be hosting the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition In Vibrant Color: Vintage Celebrity Portraits from the Harry Warnecke Studio in Lakeland, 10.27.

ARIZONA
The Heard Museum will host SITES’ Native Words, Native Warriors in Phoenix, 10.27.

CALIFORNIA
Smithsonian Affiliations’ External Affairs Coordinator Elizabeth Bugbee will attend the Western Museum Association’s Conference in Palm Springs, 10.21-24.

GEORGIA
Curator Michelle Delaney from the National Museum of American History will serve on a panel presentation at the Booth Western Art Museum’s Annual Cowboy Festival in Cartersville, 10.26.   

 

invention invention everywhere!

Since Smithsonian Affiliations started collaborating with the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History, we’ve learned a lot about Places of Invention.  (See this blog to learn more about our collaboration.) 

Affiliate staff and their community partners, on the roof of the National Museum of American History during the kickoff workshop for Places of Invention

Affiliates have joined the action too.  On June 15, Affiliate staff and their community partners joined a day-long workshop to kickoff their individual research projects around their own communities and what makes them so innovative.  (Read more about the kickoff workshop on the Lemelson Center’s blog, Bright Ideas.)

Now, we are all much more attuned to what makes a place of invention – be it exceptional natural resources, the right mixture of people and skills, or an inspiring location… or something else.  Invention was readily on view during a recent trip to western Massachusetts, and we suspect, can be documented in many other communities as well.

Join the quest for invention and share your stories with us!

 

The Loan Clinic: Unlock the Mysteries of Sharing Collections

How did nearly 20 fossils return on long-term loan to the Tellus Science Museum? How did the Senator John Heinz History Center manage to negotiate the loan of a piece of the Star Spangled Banner?  What kind of research did the Frost Art Museum have to undertake to find the perfect paintings for its upcoming exhibition on Seminole portraits? Affiliate guest speakers and Smithsonian Affiliations National Outreach Managers answer these questions and troubleshoot Affiliate loan questions during the session The Loan Clinic: Unlock the Mysteries of Sharing Collections, at the Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference on June 14, 2012.  

We know from our Affiliate Satisfaction Survey that our Affiliate partners want access to Smithsonian loans. We also know that the process can be daunting. So we want to discuss the big questions together–“What could have been done differently?” “How do I anticipate what is needed?” “Am I asking the right questions?” Three Affiliate speakers will present case studies using their loan experiences as a model for tackling the Smithsonian loan process. 

Ladds Quarry fossils on loan from the National Museum of Natural History to the Tellus Science Museum.

With experience working with the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and National Air and Space Museum, Amy Gramsey, Collections Manager, Tellus Science Museum (Cartersville, Georgia) will discuss the power of thinking ahead and recognizing the differences in each Smithsonian museum. Her examples will include the successful loan of the Ladds Quarry fossils from NMNH. Ladds Quarry, an abandoned limestone quarry in Cartersville produced a goldmine of fossils in the 1960s. These fossils were able to return to the Cartersville community to inspire and educate visitors to the Tellus Science Museum through a long-term loan from NMNH. 

Bantam Jeep on loan from the National Museum of American History to the Senator John Heinz History Center.

Anne Madarasz, Museum Division Director, Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) has had success organizing loans from the National Museum of American History (NMAH), National Portrait Gallery, and National Postal Museum and is currently investigating loans from National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of African Art.  A firm believer in having every History Center exhibition include a Smithsonian artifact, Madarasz’s success in obtaining loans comes from her strategy of not limiting her request to just one Smithsonian museum and having a solid back-up plan. Her case studies will include the successful loan of the Bantam Jeep, which has been on loan from NMAH since 2003, and a fragment of the Star Spangled Banner which is currently included in the History Center’s exhibition Stars & Stripes: An American Story. 

Annette Fromm receives a Certificate of Award for her participation in the 2011 Affiliations Visiting Professionals Program. (L to R) The Honorable Sam Johnson (TX-03), Smithsonian Affiliations Director Harold Closter, Annette Fromm, Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough.

A Smithsonian Affiliations Visiting Professional in 2011, Annette B. Fromm, Assistant Professor/Museum Studies Coordinator, The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University(Miami, Florida), is well-versed in advanced planning to anticipate what surprises may occur along the way. Working in conjunction with the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate in Clewiston, Florida, to secure portraits of Seminoles from the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Fromm will touch on how to anticipate what costs may be to avoid big surprises after a proposal is secured. Her Visiting Professional residency at NMAI, NPG and the American Art Museum proved the importance of pre-arranged researching to find the best fit

for her exhibition. 

Join us at the 2012 Affiliations National Conference, June 12-14!

Register today! 

View the 2012 Conference Agenda. 

Book your hotel room at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel. 

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.

do you live in a place of invention?

 

The iconic Hewlett-Packard garage in 2009. Courtesy of BrokenSphere/ Wikimedia Commons.

Company labs.  Governmental research centers.  Universities.  These places are where many of us think inventions happen.  But how about garages, coffee shops, parks, or other community gathering spots?!  Invention can happen in all kinds of places.  This idea forms the foundation of the Lemelson Center’s exhibition in development, Places of Invention.  It’s about communities “where people, resources, and spaces have come together to spark inventiveness.”  Does that describe your environment?  If so, consider contributing your story to the Places of Invention exhibition website.

The Lemelson Center team has assembled case studies of historic and contemporary invention hubs – Hartford, CT in the late 1800s; Hollywood, CA in the 1930s-40; Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN in the 1950s-60s; Silicon Valley, CA and the Bronx, NY in the 1970s-80s; and Fort Collins, CO today.  Over the course of the next year, the exhibition team will work closely with six Affiliates to create community documentation projects of their places of invention to be featured in the exhibition.  Affiliate partners in this project include: the Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, PA); American Museum of Science and Energy (Oakridge, TN); Museum of History and Industry (Seattle, WA); Lakeview Museum (Peoria, IL); American Textile History Museum (Lowell, MA); and The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art and Technology (Newark, OH).

But we know there are many more stories to be told.  Take the Lemelson Center’s survey or email them at lemcen@si.edu to describe your place of invention and join the conversation!

coming up in affiliateland – december 2011 and january 2012

a busy ending to 2011… and full steam ahead into 2012!  

TEXAS:
The
Frontiers of Flight Museum hosts the the National Air and Space Museum’s At the Controls in Dallas, 12/1.

GEORGIA:
The
Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History celebrated its 10th anniversary as a Smithsonian Affiliate in Kennesaw, 12/3.

COLORADO:
The
Littleton Museum hosts SITES’ 125 Years of Lasting Light: Grand Canyon Photography in Littleton, 12/8.

TENNESSEE:
The
American Museum of Science and Energy hosts SITES’ Earth From Space in Oak Ridge, 12/16.

FLORIDA:
The
Mennello Museum of Art will host SITES’ William H. Johnson: An American Modern in Orlando, 1/6.

MISSISSIPPI:
The Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center will present a professional development workshop at the
Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, 1/12.

FLORIDA:
The
Orange County Regional History Center will host SITES’ Beyond Baseball: Roberto Clemente in Orlando, 1/21.

WASHINGTON, D.C.:
Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth, MA), Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (Birmingham, AL), National Museum of American Jewish History (Philadelphia, PA), Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, MI), Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, CA), Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, PA), Institute of Texan Cultures (San Antonio, TX), and the Western Reserve Historical Society (Cleveland, OH) will participate in a two day meeting to brainstorm ways in which the institutions could work together to foster civic engagement on immigration/migration issues, 1/25-1/26.

WASHINGTON, D.C.:
The
Rubin Museum of Art (New York, NY), the Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas, TX), Miami Science Center (Miami, FL), and the California Science Center (Los Angeles, CA)  will participate in planning meeting for a National Symposium on Early Learning, 1/27-28.

CALIFORNIA:
The
Columbia Memorial Space Center will host SITES’ Suited for Space in Downey, 1/28.

 

kudos affiliates! november 2011

Nice going, Affiliates!

The Allegheny Regional Asset District board has proposed a $25,000 increase for the Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) in the upcoming 2012 budget. The increase is to oversee the operating for the Fort Pitt Museum.

The Wisconsin Maritime Museum (Manitowoc, Wisconsin) has received a $39,550 award through the Wisconsin Department of Tourism Joint Effort Marketing Grants to promote the fun that visitors can have when they come to Northeast Wisconsin.

The Museum of Nature & Science (Dallas, Texas) announced two $1-million challenge grants from Dallas-based Highland Capital Management, L.P., and Atmos Energy Corporation that will extend matching gift opportunities for the new $185 million Perot Museum to provide funding for site acquisition, exhibition planning and design, construction of the new building, education programs and an endowment.

The Rubin Museum of Art (New York, New York) announced that its founders, Shelley and Donald Rubin, had donated $25 million to help support operations, exhibitions and programs over the next five years.