Tag Archive for: Hunt Hill Farm

June 2015 kudos to Affiliates

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Congrats to these Affiliates on their recent accomplishments!

FUNDING

surfacing July 10-12, 2015!

surfacing July 10-12, 2015!

The Wisconsin Department of Tourism has given the Wisconsin Maritime Museum (Manitowoc, WI) a $39,500 grant for their first annual submarine festival, Sub Fest. The festival will be July 10-12.  During the festival, visitors will see a Naval Art Collection, film showings, and interactive exhibits. Sub Fest was created to celebrate the community’s ship building history and educate others about the area’s lasting legacy.

Union Station Kansas City Inc. (Kansas City, MO) announced a $360,000 gift from the Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation toward a $7.5 million expansion and improvement project. The initiative aims to modernize the streetscape around the station, add a bridge to connect cars and pedestrians to a parking garage and expand the Science City attraction inside Union Station.

The National Park Service announced the recipients of the National Maritime Heritage Grants including the following Affiliates:

– Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT)  The Seaport received $199,806 to restore the 1908 steamboat Sabino, one of two surviving excursion steamers in the US and the only one on the East Coast.
– USS Constitution Museum (Boston, MA)  The Museum received $50,000 to create a multi-media experience to welcome and introduce audiences to the history and significance of the USS Constitution.
– Oklahoma Historical Society (Oklahoma City, OK)  The Society received $25,000 for the Discovery and Excavation of the Steamboat Heroine, an exhibit and education program on western steamboat travel and the history, discovery, and excavation of a western river steamboat.

The National Endowment of the Arts has awarded their Art Works and State and Regional Partnerships grant awards to the following Affiliate projects:

– Michigan State University Museum (East Lansing, MI) received $30,000 to support the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeships and Heritage Awards Program.  The Arts Apprenticeship Program will support master artists in their instruction of apprentices in various traditional arts. The Heritage Awards Program will provide public recognition of the master artists and demonstrations/performances by the artist and apprentice teams at the Great Lakes Folk Festival.  A gallery in the MSU Museum and a website will provide information about the artists and traditions celebrated and perpetuated through these programs.
– American Jazz Museum (Kansas City, MO) received $20,000 to support the 18th & Vine Jazz and Blues Festival. The one-day indoor and outdoor festival will feature ticketed performances by jazz and blues artists on multiple stages. Musical offerings are supplemented by educational programming including jazz storytelling, a workshop, and lectures. Additional accompanying project activities may include performance opportunities for local youth jazz ensembles and a public master class with the festival’s artist-in-residence.

a new exhibition in South Carolina, supported in part by the NEA

a new exhibition in South Carolina, supported in part by the NEA

– Children’s Museum of the Upstate (Greenville, SC) received $15,000 to support a residency by Japanese anime artist Makoto Shinkai to coincide with the museum’s hosting of the exhibition Hello from Japan. The residency activities will include students from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and will incorporate art-making workshops, lectures, and an anime film festival. The residency and the exhibition, organized by the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, will promote education about Japan’s anime tradition through direct engagement and learning.

The Hubbard Museum of the American West (Ruidoso Downs, NM) will present two touch screen interactive exhibits thanks to a $7,500 Hubbard Foundation grant. The award will be used to enhance the wagon exhibits and offer more detailed information to visitors.

 

ACHIEVEMENTS and RECOGNITION

Dr. Dennis A. Casey, educator at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (Martinsville, VA) was elected District VIII Director of the National Science Teachers Association.

The State of Connecticut named Mystic Seaport (Mystic,  CT) President Steve White the 2015 Tourism Leader of the Year. The award honors an individual who has made a singular contribution to the advancement of the tourism industry in Connecticut.

 

LEADERSHIP

Kate Vengrove has been named interim director of Hunt Hill Farm Trust (New Milford, CT).

Amy Hollander has been named the new executive director at the National Museum of Industrial History (Bethlehem, PA).

coming up in Affiliateland in August 2014

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The lazy end of summer is seeing no slowdown of activity in Affiliateland.  Get out there and experience some terrific Smithsonian programs in your neighborhood!

TENNESSEE
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum hosts its grand opening weekend with concerts, contests, exhibits and more in Bristol, 8.1-3.

MISSOURI
Union Station will open a satellite Spark!Lab, developed by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, in Kansas City, 8.5.

FLORIDA
History Miami opens SITES American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music exhibition in Miami, 8.6.

Celia Cruz, Ricky Martin and Gloria Estefan, some of the artists featured in the American Sabor exhibit.

Celia Cruz, Ricky Martin and Gloria Estefan, some of the artists featured in the American Sabor exhibit.

CONNECTICUT
Hunt Hill Farm hosts two public programs by photography curator Shannon Perich from the National Museum of American History, who will discuss photography during the Civil War, and sign copies of the Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the National Collections publication, in New Milford, 8.10

WASHINGTON
The Museum of History and Industry hosts Innoskate, a day-long celebration of skateboarding innovations, including demonstrations, clinics, and talks by skateboard artists in Seattle, 8.16.

SOUTH CAROLINA
The South Carolina State Museum will open Windows to New Worlds, a newly-expanded complex that includes a planetarium and 4-D theater in Columbia, 8.16.

 

blackWings2

PENNSYLVANIA
Antje Neumann, conservator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, will participate in Pittsburgh’s Hidden Treasures at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, 8.17.

MARYLAND
Robbie Davis, Project Director for the Smithsonian’s Museums on Main Street will serve as a juror for Annmarie Garden‘s upcoming exhibition Feast Your Eyes: Food as Art in Solomons, 8.20.

ALABAMA
The U.S. Space and Rocket Center opens SITES Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight exhibition in Huntsville, 8.24.

WISCONSIN
The Kenosha Public Museum hosts a lecture on Mr. Lincoln’s Air Force: Civil War Ballooning on Both Sides of the Line by National Air and Space Museum curator Dr. Tom Crouch in Kenosha, 8.26.

 

 

kudos Affiliates! summer 2011

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As summer heats up, so do Affiliate accomplishments.  Way to go Affiliates!

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas, Texas) has received a $4.4 million gift from the Texas Instruments Foundation bringing the total within $29 million of its $185 million fundraising goal.

The African American Museum in Philadelphia was awarded $45,000 from the John S. and James L.Knight Foundation, as part of a community-wide contest to inspire and enrich the city entitled Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia. The program entitled “RAAMP It Up Wednesdays” will showcase local artists by presenting commissioned dance and gospel performances through free weekly concerts at the museum’s Seventh Street Plaza.

The Putnam Museum (Davenport, Iowa) was awarded $35,000 by the Davenport Riverboat Development Authority for an upgrade to the River, Prairie and People exhibit at the museum.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced Michigan State University Museum (East Lansing, Michigan) was one of 31 awards for the Conservation Project Support Grants. Michigan State University Museum was awarded $87,816 to rehouse 16,179 mammal specimens into museum-quality cabinets. In addition, the grant will fund students to assist with project activities.

The Chabot Space and Science Center(Oakland, California) received a grant worth $1.8 million from the Betty Moore Foundation, to develop the Bill Nye Climate Lab exhibition and website, designed to support the science education of youngsters.

The Connecticut Community Foundation awarded Hunt Hill Farm (New Milford, Connecticut) with a $10,000 grant for a New Talent Arts Initiative, to offer professional opportunities to young artists.

The National Museum of Dentistry (Baltimore, Maryland) has been awarded a Give Kids A Smile Champion Grant from the ADA Foundation, and an additional award by the DentaQuest Foundation to help provide every first grader in Baltimore City public schools with educational resources to enhance children’s oral health, and to ensure good oral health practices, particularly those from low-income families.

The Rubin Museum (New York, NY)  has been awarded a $270,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for the study of Tibetan Buddhist painting.  The three-year grant will advance the work of David Jackson, a renowned scholar on Tibetan Buddhist painting and a consulting curator at the Rubin.

Four Affiliates were winners of the 66th annual Leadership in History Awards, the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH):

USS Constitution Museum (Boston, Massachusetts) for The Family Learning Project.
Greensboro Historical Museum, Inc.  (Greensboro, North Carolina) for the exhibit Voices of a City: Greensboro, North Carolina.
North Carolina Museum of History  (Raleigh, North Carolina) for the exhibit Behind the Veneer: Thomas Day, Master Cabinetmaker.
Museum of History and Industry (Seattle, Washington) for the multimedia project MOHAI Minutes.

 

coming up in Affiliateland, May 2011

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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 september 20

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Congratulations to these Affiliates making headlines this week!

Museum of American Finance (New York, NY)
The Museum of American Finance will unveil the display of an 18-karat solid gold Monopoly set covered with hundreds of precious gemstones, on loan from the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. READ MORE

Museum of American Finance To Display Jeweled Monopoly Set and Host Tournament. READ MORE

Polk Museum of Art (Lakeland, FL)
Polk Museum of Art is pleased to announce that it has been accepted into the Smithsonian Affiliations Program. READ MORE 

Polk Museum Gets Affiliation With Smithsonian. READ MORE

Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences (Peoria, IL)
Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences has been awarded a $10,000 Arts Education Invitational Grants Initiative grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to digitize the Picture Person Program educational kits. READ MORE

Hunt Hill Farm (New Milford, CT)
. The Smithsonian curator who got the ball rolling was Rayna Green, curator and director of the American Indian Program, Division of Home and Community Life, who will present “In Julia’s Kitchen”. READ MORE

The Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages (Stony Brook, NY)
The Long Island Museum in Stony Brook announced Thursday it has received accreditation from the American Association of Museums, the highest honor awarded by the national organization. READ MORE

The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar (Richmond, VA)
Richmond visitors have a new starting point for the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War and the end of slavery: Historic Tredegar. READ MORE

Historic Tredegar: The Region’s Gateway to the Civil War. READ MORE

National Museum of American Jewish History (Philadelphia, PA)
On November 12th, the National Museum of American Jewish History will reopen in its new location at Independence Mall. The weekend of celebration will feature performances by Jerry Seinfeld and Bette Midler. READ MORE

Two of the country’s most famous Jewish performers will highlight the opening of one of the most ambitious Jewish museum projects in years. READ MORE

North Carolina Museum of History (Raleigh, NC)
Exhibit in North Carolina Shows the Real George Washington. READ MORE

National Mississippi River Museum (Dubuque, IA)
Foundation awards river museum $1 million grant for river center. READ MORE

Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day
Everybody loves a freebie and this Saturday, September 25, marks Smithsonian magazine’s 6th Annual Museum Day, when more than 1,500 museum and cultural venues across the United States will honor Smithsonian.com’s special get-in-free ticket for two. READ MORE

What’s Coming Up in Affiliateland in October?

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PANAMA is in DC!
Museo del Canal Interocánico de Panamá and the Smithsonian Latino Center collaborate on programming, including the Panamanian Passages exhibition, opening at SI’s International Gallery on 10.5.
10.1-9 – The Tremendous Encounter puppet show is presented in SI’s Discovery Theater.
10.15 – The Latino Center’s annual gala celebrates Panama.
10.16 – Interpreting 500 Years of Panamanian History panel at the DC Historical Society.

MONTANA: Smithsonian historian Michael J. Neufeld lectures on his book Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, 10.1.

MICHIGAN: Oud virtuoso Rahim AlHaj, Smithsonian Folkways recording artist and three-time Grammy nominee, presents a concert at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, 10.1.

NEBRASKA: Smithsonian Teachers Night at the Durham Museum in Omaha, 10.9. SITES’ American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print opens, 10.30.

TEXAS: The Women’s Museum: An Institute for the Future in Dallas will host an opening reception for their Leadership America Program at the Smithsonian’s African Art Museum in Washington, 10.11.

MARYLAND: The B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore celebrates their 10th anniversary as a Smithsonian Affiliate, 10.15.

CONNECTICUT: Dwight Blocker Bowers, curator at the National Museum of American History, gives a lecture about his forthcoming book on the Museum’s puppet collection at Hunt Hill Farm in New Milford, 10.17.