Tag Archive for: Historic Bethlehem Partnership

Kudos Affiliates!! January 2021

Congratulations 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 Abbe Museum (Bar Harbor, ME) and the California African American Museum (Los Angeles, CA) are recipients of an Art Museum Futures Fund grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The emergency COVID-19 grants will be used to support general operations.

The Ohio State Controlling Board approved $1.2 million to Ohio History Connection (Columbus, OH) for the support of educational initiatives. The funding is part of Ohio’s response to the health and economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Guinness Open Gate Brewery is donating to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture (Baltimore, MD) as part of its Guinness Gives Back Baltimore Community Fund. As an extension of the brewery’s mission to contribute to America’s craft brewing scene in a positive way as makers and creatives, the brewery’s support will champion underrepresented artists to inspire the next generation.

Springfield Museum of Art (Springfield, OH) received $61,200, an Ohio Arts Council CARES Act Economic Relief for the Arts award, to support salaries and operating expenses. In addition, the museum received $61,227 from the Park National Bank to support general operating expenses.

The Andrew W. Mellon and William Penn Foundations selected the African American Museum in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) as one of 37 institutions to split an $8 million fund. The museum was awarded $200,000 to support general operating costs.

The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission announced nearly $2 million in grants to museums and historical societies across the commonwealth including the following Affiliates:

Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded grants to the following Affiliates as part of its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. The funding will be used to develop exhibitions and education programs that accurately portray the role of religion in the U.S. and around the world.

  • Conner Prairie (Fishers, IN) ($500,000) – to create a new storyline on the role of religion in African American history in the early 19th century.  The project will “explore the vital role of religion in the lives of antebellum Black settlers, who often thought of the Northwest Territory as their Promised Land.”
  • Heard Museum (Phoenix, AZ) ($2,500,000) – to develop a permanent exhibition that will explore the origin stories of four North American indigenous tribes — the Seneca in the Northeast, the Yup’ik in the Arctic, the Akimel O’odham, and the Navajo in the Southwest — in an immersive and educational presentation that seeks to educate about the diversity and beauty of indigenous religion and spiritual practices.
  • Plimoth Patuxet Museums (Plymouth, MA) ($2,499,110) – to support The Light Here Kindled: Providence, Manitou and the Legacy of America’s Founding Faiths program that seeks to strengthen and expand the museum’s capacity to incorporate the crucial role of faith, particularly the beliefs and practices of Reformed Christianity, into its interpretations of Colonial Plymouth and the people of the indigenous Patuxet.

Putnam Museum (Davenport, IA) received a $35,000 grant from the Scott County Regional Authority to support the design and construction of a world culture gallery.

Wisconsin Maritime Museum (Manitowoc, WI) received a $138,000 State COVID-19 Cultural Organization grant to help sustain operations through challenges posed by the pandemic.

Peoria Riverfront Museum (Peoria, IL) received $700,000 through the Illinois Public Museum Capital Grants Program to support its STEM Inspires program for dome planetarium capital upgrades.

National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (Cedar Rapids, IA) received a $10,000 Virtual Arts Experience grant through the Iowa Arts Council, to offer 15 virtual music performances by local artists for K-12 music classrooms and aging adults in care centers. Participating students and aging adults will engage in a virtual pen pal program. Students will submit music-related questions to adult learners who will record their responses with the help of care center staff.

Four Affiliates received a grant from the Iowa Arts and Cultural Recovery Program to provide relief for lost income or extra expenses incurred due to the pandemic. The grants may be used to offset operating expenses, as well as costs associated with reopening in person or adapting programs to virtual formats.

The Western Reserve Historical Society (Cleveland, OH) will renovate its library using a $3 million gift made by the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Foundation. The gift allows for the continuation of the physical and cultural transformation of its main campus and headquarters by renovating the library’s first floor public reading room and consolidating staff workspaces.

LEADERSHIP

Dr. Kimberly Robinson, a 31-year NASA veteran, has been named the executive director and CEO of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (Huntsville, AL). She will assume her role Feb. 15. Robinson is NASA’s Utilization Manager for Advanced Exploration Systems and was previously the Payload Mission Manager for Artemis I, the first integrated flight test of the NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System rocket, and the Exploration Ground Systems at Kennedy Space Center.

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture (Baltimore, MD) announced the appointment of Terri Lee Freeman, former President of the National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, TN) as the new Executive Director. As a national leader, who brings an entire career in philanthropy, focused on fundraising and building strategic alliances, she will join the museum in February.

Ben Jones was named the new executive director of the South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, SD). Ben is the former Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Education.

Dan Joyce announced he will retire as executive director of the Kenosha Public Museums (Kenosha, WI) at the end January following more than three decades at the museum.

kudos Affiliates! February 2014 edition

Nice going Affiliates!  Bravo!

Funding

Students experience Textile Revolution: An Exploration through Space and Time, the permanent exhibition at the American Textile History Museum.

Students experience Textile Revolution: An Exploration through Space and Time, the permanent exhibition at the American Textile History Museum.

For the eighth consecutive year, Citizens Bank charitable foundation donated $25,000 to the African-American Museum in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) in honor of Martin Luther King Day. The funding was used to underwrite the museum’s costs to offer free admission and cultural activities to more than 3,000 expected visitors.

The American Textile History Museum (Lowell, MA) has received a major gift of $1 million from the late G. Gordon Osborne and his wife, Marjorie, which will go towards the museum’s endowment fund.

The  Western Reserve Historical Society recently received a $407,000 grant from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation to work with its local school district to implement an entrepreneurial curriculum for 4th-6th graders. The 3-year program will be implemented this spring.

Awards and Recognition

The Oklahoma Historical Society (Oklahoma City, OK) announced the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. has selected The Daughter of Dawn as one of 25 films inducted to its 2013 National Film Registry, a collection of cinematic treasures that represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking. The 80-minute, six-reel silent movie was shot during the summer of 1920 in Oklahoma’s Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge outside of Lawton.

Charlene Donchez-Mowers and the Historic Bethlehem Partnership (Bethlehem, PA) have been named the recipients of the seventh Tribute to Historic Preservation Award sponsored by the Sun Inn Preservation Association.

Leadership

The board of governors of the Strategic Air and Space Museum (Ashland, NE) announced that Michael McGinnis has been appointed as the museum’s new Executive Director.

kudos Affiliates! for November 2012

As summer turns into autumn, Affiliate accomplishments continue to shine!

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced the Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, Michigan) has been awarded $750,000 to help support cross-cultural understanding.

Dr. Kenneth B. Chapman and his wife, Dr. Ulrika Holm, presented Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Gardens (Staten Island, New York) with $10,000 to be used for restoration and repairs to the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden. The Chapman Family has agreed to contribute an additional $10,000 in matching funds for the restoration project.

Denver Museum of Nature and Science (Denver, Colorado) was one of nine organizations to receive 21st Century Museum Professionals grant from The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The $244,897 award will enable the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, through Denver-area Evaluation Network (DEN) a collaborative of 15 cultural organizations, to positively influence evaluative thinking, implementation, and use in diverse Mountain-Plains museums.

Dell Services is donating $6.5 million in technology and services to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas, Texas) to power its IT operations and help support its goal to advance youth education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Union Station Kansas City (Kansas City, Missouri) announced that the funding has been secured to move forward to create a new 3-D digital theater and Innovation Center. Three local foundations – the Goppert Foundation, the Regnier Family Foundation and the Schutte Foundation – provided the funding needed to establish this new theater which will be able to serve multiple purposes: showing a variety of educational and entertainment films, first- and second-run movies, and offering digital, interactive conference space for large groups.

The Mid-America Science Museum (Hot Springs, Arkansas) will qualify for a $7.8 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation thanks to a $520,000 pledge from the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission that completed a local $1.7 million matching requirement. The pledge means almost $10 million will go to begin construction on a massive renovation and expansion program.

Historic Bethlehem Partnership celebrated the announcement that the U.S. Interior Secretary named 14 acres in Downtown Bethlehem a National Historic Landmark District. The distinguished honor means their historic sites “possess exceptional value… in illustrating the heritage of the United States.”

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.   

 

coming up in Affiliateland, May 2011

Sliding into summer with lots of activity!

FLORIDA:
The South Florida Museum opens SITES’ Hidden Life of Ants in Bradenton, 5/7.

PENNSYLVANIA:
Smithsonian researcher Warren Perry presents a lecture on “William E. Doster’s Defense of the Lincoln Conspirators” at the Historic Bethlehem Partnership in Bethlehem, 5/8.

MONTANA:
Dr. Rick Potts, Director of the Human Origins Program at the National Museum of Natural History will lead a workshop and lecture focused on human evolution at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, 5/13.

CONNECTICUT:
Hunt Hill Farm celebrates Steinway in May with Anna Karvellas, project director for the Steinway Diaries exhibition at the National Museum of American History, presenting a lecture on “The William Steinway Diary,” 5/14.  Smithsonian Scholar Robert Wyatt will speak on Steinway artists past and present in New Milford, 5/21.

CALIFORNIA:
Riverside Metropolitan Museum celebrates “Smithsonian Week” in Riverside, 5/19.

TEXAS:
The Women’s Museum: An Institute for the Future will display a painting by Lois Mailou Jones, on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, in its exhibition, Loïs Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color in Dallas, 5/21.

 

affiliates in the news: week of jan 11

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Champaign, Illinois)
A massive star is born: Time-lapse movie shows that massive stars form like their smaller siblings

National Civil War Museum (Harrisburg, PA)
Museum curator to experience life of Civil War soldier

Institute of Texan Cultures (San Antonio, TX)
Institute of Texan Cultures Formalizes Partnership with Smithsonian Institution
Institute of Texan Cultures links up with Smithsonian
UTSA museum to become Smithsonian affiliate

Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science (Tallahassee, FL)
Tallahassee Hosts Four Centuries of African American Art and History
Brogan expands access with technology

Historic Bethlehem Partnership (Bethlehem, PA)
Merchants, event organizers report an upturn in holiday activity in Bethlehem over the previous year

Rubin Museum of Art (New York, NY)
The cosmos cycles on…
Visions of the Cosmos, Rubin Museum of Art, New York

North Carolina Museum of History (Raleigh, NC)
SECU grants $500k to North Carolina Museum of History

Miami Science Museum (Miami, FL)
MetLife Foundation Announces More Than $1,000,000 in Grants to Five Nationally-Recognized Science Museums to Engage Youth in Scientific Learning and Discovery