Tag Archive for: japanese incarceration

Smithsonian Affiliations at 25: Chapter 2- National Youth Summits

Affiliations Anniversary Series: 25 Years in Your Neighborhood
Chapter 2: National Youth Summits

Catch up on Chapter 1: The Ten Thousand Springs Pavilion here.

The late John Lewis seated next to filmmaker Stanley Nelson on stage at the National Youth Summit

The Late Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) and filmmaker Stanley Nelson at the 2011 National Youth Summit on Freedom Rides. Photo courtesy National Museum of American History.

Engaging younger audiences has always been a goal of the Affiliate network. As an ongoing reflection of the past 25 years of working with our Affiliates, this month we focus on the role of the National Youth Summit and the regional youth conversations produced by Affiliates to complement and amplify the Smithsonian’s national program.

In 2010, Smithsonian Affiliations met with colleagues at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History on a concept for a new program— one in which students confront enduring questions of power, representation, privilege, and choice through peer-to-peer discussions, individual reflections, and shared action planning. The National Youth Summit would take place at the National Museum of American History, while Affiliates would host regional youth summits to amplify and augment the national program, allowing middle and high school students in Affiliate communities to discuss local issues.

With the assistance of five Affiliate museums, the first National Youth Summit launched on February 9, 2011, and commemorated the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Rides. The Summit featured Freedom Ride veterans and scholars discussing civic activism and the history of the Freedom Rides. Since that original program, there have been seven Youth Summits with Affiliate collaboration, with topics ranging from women’s suffrage to systemic racism, Japanese American incarceration to the war on poverty, and featured speakers like the late Congressman John Lewis-(D-GA) and documentarian Ken Burns.

five people sit on a stage in an auditorium filled with young people

National Youth Summit at the Japanese American National Museum. Photo courtesy JANM.

The topics are national, but the impact is local. Affiliates exemplify this with customized programs for local students—programs that reflect the demographics and lived experiences of youth in their community and center the community’s history through museum programming and interpretation. Over the past decade, the regional summits have reached thousands of young people and inspired numerous discussions about important events in America’s past that have relevance to the nation’s present and future.

Auditoriam at the birmingham civil rights institute

National Youth Summit at Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Photo courtesy Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

The National Youth Summit with Affiliate regional conversations continues to grow and play a vital role. By extending the reach to schools who might otherwise not be able to participate, by expanding historical content available through the program, and by creating deeply meaningful learning that relates to the actual lived experiences of students in underrepresented communities, Affiliates continue to show why they are critical venues for a national conversation.

An eighth Youth Summit is in the works for Fall 2021. Until then, catch up on past programs and conversation kits on the National Youth Summit website.

Stay tuned next month for Chapter 3: 10 Years of Reaching for the Stars Together, in our 25th anniversary series.

News from SITES

Our friends at SITES have some exciting new traveling exhibitions to share with you, and some last-minute booking opportunities for those looking for a great exhibition to fit in to your schedule.

New Exhibitions

100 Faces of War
An exploration into the meaning of service, the exhibition features 100 portraits of veterans from every state and the District of Columbia who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Accompanied by a personal, unedited statement from each sitter, the portraits are an homage to these individuals who collectively represent a cross section of those who have served.

Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic
This exhibition provides a rare glimpse into the music icon’s public and private life just two years before her untimely death at the age of 44. Includes 65 framed pigment prints, panels, ephemera, and vinyl excerpts from the work of author Zadie Smith.

Woodcut by Robert Blackburn

Robert Blackburn Blue Things, 1963–1970 Woodcut 20 x 26 Wes and Missy Cochran, Cochran Collection Photograph by Karl Peterson

Robert Blackburn & Modern American Printmaking
Robert Blackburn (1920-2003) was a key artist in the development of printmaking in the twentieth century. His masterful expertise with the medium helped define the overall aesthetic of the American “graphics boom.” This exhibition examines Blackburn’s life and work, and features original prints by Blackburn and the artists with whom he collaborated, including Robert Rauschenberg, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Grace Hartigan, and Will Barnet.

Men of Change
Men of Change will present for new generations the stories of approximately 25 African American heroes—both the known and unknown– who stand as icons on the nation’s historical landscape. Features large-scale photographs, collage, video, freestanding 3-D art reproductions and more.

A New Moon Rises
Featuring large-scale, high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface taken since 2009 by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). These striking images help answer our questions about the Moon’s formation, its continuing geological evolution, and its relationship to Earth and the solar system.

 

School girls reciting the pledge of allegiance

School girls reciting the pledge of allegiance
Dorothea Lange, Courtesy of National Archives

Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the nation was overcome by shock, anger, and fear—a fear exaggerated by long-standing prejudice against Asians. In response, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which sent 75,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry and 45,000 Japanese nationals to incarceration centers. This is the powerful story of the incarceration and the people who survived it.

Last Minute Booking Opportunities at a discounted rate!

Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project
May 19 – July 29, 2018 ($3,500 for 10 weeks, plus shipping) and
August 18 – October 28, 2018 ($3,500 for 10 weeks, plus shipping)

Patios, Pools, & the Invention of the American Backyard
June 16 – August 26, 2018 ($2,750 for 10 weeks, plus shipping) and
September 15 – November 25, 2018 ($4,125 for 10 weeks, plus shipping)

 

A Very Young Crater

A Very Young Crater. Courtesy NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University.

A New Moon Rises
February 2 – April 28, 2019 ($15,000 for 12 weeks, plus shipping)

For questions about any exhibition, please contact the SITES Scheduling Department: 202.633.3140, or sites_schedule@si.edu

coming up in Affiliateland: May 2016

Washington, D.C.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, 5.5.

Smithsonian Affiliations welcomes staff from Affiliate organizations at a reception celebrating our 20th Anniversary on the first day of the American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting, 5.26

Florida
Maria del Carmen Cossu, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service project manager, will serve as a juror at the Mayfaire Arts Festival at the Polk Museum of Art, 5.7.

The Mennello Museum of American Art opens Pop Art Prints, an exhibition of 37 items from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The installation includes works from the 1960s by Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, and others. The installation is part of a series that highlights objects from the collection that are rarely on public view, opening 5.6.

Missouri
Last chance to see Above and Beyond at the Saint Louis Science Center. The exhibition celebrates the power of innovation to make dreams take flight and features two artifacts from the National Air and Space Museum. The exhibition closes 5.8.

California, Michigan, Washington, Hawaii, Colorado
Four Affiliates– Arab American National Museum, Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, and History Colorado – and the National Museum of American History will connect via webcast to a live Youth Town Hall at the Japanese American National Museum for National Youth Summit: Japanese Incarceration in World War II, 5.17.

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Ohio
The Ohio History Connection will host a videoconference featuring Dr. Jeremy Kinney, curator at the National Air and Space Museum.  The videoconference will connect NASM with the Ohio History Connection and Stone Gardens Assisted Living Complex near Cleveland. Kinney will discuss the Enola Gay and its restoration while a curator from OHC will address the Ohio connections to the plane, 5.19.

Virginia
Last chance to see two of George Washington’s battle swords together for the first time in over 200 years. One sword is on loan to George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens from the National Museum of American History. Exhibit closes 5.30.

clippings2Idaho
There’s still time to see Titanoboa: Monster Snake at the Idaho Museum of Natural History, an exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. On view through 6.12.