Tag Archive for: Museum of the African Diaspora

Kudos Affiliates!! September 2023

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Kudos to these Affiliates on their recent accomplishments! Do you have kudos to share? Please send potential entries to Aaron Glavas, GlavasC@si.edu.

FUNDING

Michigan Science Center (Detroit, MI) has been awarded nearly $800,000 over three years from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as part of NASA’s Next Generation STEM initiative. Called NASA’s TEAM II Program, the initiative aims to highlight space and STEM and bring the excitement of space science to communities.

Morris Museum (Morristown, NJ) received a $222,320 grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts to support key initiatives in economic and community development, arts education and lifelong learning, artist services and equity and access.

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (Fort Worth, TX) was awarded funding from the North Texas Community Foundation through the Fund to Advance Racial Equity. The grant will support exhibitions at the museum that address achieving a more equitable community.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded Museum Grants for African American History and Culture (AAHC) to the following Affiliates:

  • The African American Museum in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) ($308,000) to research, design and install a permanent, interactive exhibition telling a more comprehensive history of African Americans. Guided by historical research, expert consultants along with focus group input will inform the development of new content and the selection of artifacts. A curriculum guide for middle-school students will be created for the School District of Philadelphia during school time and the Free Library of Philadelphia for out-of-school time.
  • The National Jazz Museum in Harlem (New York, NY) ($99,935) to diversify and attract new audiences through an online video series highlighting jazz as a uniquely American art form by examining jazz in relationship to place, society, and history. The video series will help visitors gain a deeper understanding of the musical and cultural impact of jazz and its musicians with a focus on the lives of the jazz greats who called and continue to call Harlem their home.
  • Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA) ($500,000) to expand its visual literacy and arts program to provide free classes and museum visits for over 2,900 third- and fourth-grade students from Title I schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Museum will partner with the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) to host workshops, a student literacy and art project, and a showcase of student work.

Also, the Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded grants through Museums for America, and its special initiatives, Museums Empowered and Inspire! Grants for Small Museums. Museums for America supports projects that strengthen the ability of individual museums to benefit the public by providing high-quality, inclusive learning experiences, maximizing resources to address community needs through partnerships and collaborations, and by preserving and providing access to the collections entrusted to their care. These Affiliate projects were funded through this year’s cycle:

  • Wisconsin Veterans Museum (Madison, WI) ($66,371) to digitize and catalog post-Civil War through World War I still images from its collection, including photographs, scrapbooks, charcoal and pastel portraits, and other images.
  • Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (Seattle, WA) ($218,146) to catalog and rehouse approximately 9,000 paleobotanical specimens in the collection, including fossil leaves, flowers, seeds, fruits, wood, plant microfossils, and fossil insects, and will undertake data cleanup of approximately 20,000 specimens. Staff will also build new and strengthen existing relationships with regional Tribes through engagement and consultation focused on learning and knowledge sharing of Washington State’s paleontological resources.
  • Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, MT) ($236,240) to design and launch Discover Science!, a paleontology education initiative that will immerse visitors in processes of scientific inquiry of 71-82 million year old prehistoric environments by engaging them with paleontology specimens. Project activities will include producing K-12 curriculum, developing teacher training programs to be offered virtually and in person, and offering a Pop Up Museum service that will include outreach kits for classrooms and a traveling museum educator.
  • Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (Seattle, WA) ($249,964) to partner with community service organizations and a neighborhood community advisory committee to provide arts and cultural programs centered on health and well-being for its diverse Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, the general public, and youth audiences. Informed by recent community surveys, the museum will develop summer arts and music festival events, as well as host two year-long artist residencies to support twenty community clinic-based cultural programs. The museum will also implement an arts training program in which two paid interns are paired with professional artists to work with youth participants to create an art installation.
  • Cincinnati Museum Center (Cincinnati, OH) ($249,685) to develop and design a new permanent exhibition, the Indigenous Peoples Gallery, which will explore the Greater Cincinnati region’s long history of human habitation, from the earliest Native American societies to the Tribal Nations that still call the central Ohio Valley home. This project will build on relationships with seventeen federally recognized Tribal Nations, established through the museum’s ongoing Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) work. Using an interdisciplinary approach and inclusive lens, the Indigenous Peoples Gallery will center and share Indigenous perspectives, feature appropriate cultural resources stewarded by the museum, and communicate the message that Indigenous cultures live and thrive in the Greater Cincinnati today.
  • Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History (Philadelphia, PA) ($159,028) to prototype a new methodology for its core exhibition. Using a model that encourages visitors to interact, the exhibition will share the experience of America’s Jewish community and inform the visitor’s thinking about the key values and challenges of a pluralistic society. Project activities will include creating a prototype that models one section of the new design, and testing the prototype at two locations with key target audiences of Jewish Philadelphians, non-Jewish Philadelphians, and national tourists.
  • San Diego Air & Space Museum (San Diego, CA) $250,000 to improve its collection care processes and digital asset management for its collection of artifacts related to air and space history and technology. This project will enable the museum to implement a new integrated Collections Management System (CMS) across all its collections.

Museums Empowered: Professional Development Opportunities for Museum Staff is a special initiative of the Museums for America grant program supporting staff capacity-building projects that use professional development to generate systemic change within a museum.

  • Museum of Us (San Diego, CA) ($249,393) to conduct an internal capacity-building project by offering an assortment of training and professional development opportunities. Project activities include conducting cultural competence training for the museum staff and board; conducting de-escalation training for forward-facing staff; offering ongoing professional development opportunities for staff; recruiting Indigenous staff, trustees, fellows, and partners; implementing a fellowship program; and auditing the employee handbook.
  • Perot Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas, TX) ($209,711) to develop a leadership professional development program to attract talent and help grow the next generation of museum leaders. The program consists of four training categories: a core values academy where participants will learn how to lead with clarity, confidence, and connection; leadership training that develops curious leaders; crucial conversations for mastering dialogue training that helps leaders develop dialogue skills to have important conversations in the moment; and crucial conversations for accountability training that prioritizes the person and not the process through candid coaching, identifying goals, and supporting professional development.

Inspire! Grants for Small Museums, a special initiative of the Museums for America grant program, was designed to reduce the application burden on small museums and help them address priorities identified in their strategic plans.

  • Dennos Museum Center (Traverse City, MI) ($10,110) to conduct a conservation survey of its outdoor sculpture collection. Informed by a Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) report, museum staff will work with a conservator to create a plan for object-by-object conservation care. The survey will address the environmental damage of the outdoor sculptures and help the museum staff develop a long-term maintenance and repair plan, organized by highest conservation priorities.
  • International Museum of Art and Science (McAllen, TX) ($37,398) to improve collection stewardship and accessibility for approximately 5,600 works of Mexican and Latin American folk art in its collection. Local and national project advisors will inform research activities and assist staff in reviewing Spanish and English text translations related to the objects. 

U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bill that allocates $116,000 for the New Mexico Museum of Space History (Alamogordo, NM) to photograph and catalog its object collection and archival records, which will be made accessible on their website.

The Dr. Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry (Baltimore, MD), and the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD) Department of Dental Public Health (DPH) received a five-year $1.28 million Science Education Partnership Award grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to design innovative online tools that will redefine how young learners are taught about oral health across the country. Entitled A Mouthful of History, the project will provide accessible and easily disseminated online educational modules that combine the health sciences, science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM), and the humanities to create a scaffolded learning experience that starts with Pre-K learners and continues with them until 12th grade.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) announced 27 reaccreditation awards made at the 2023 meeting of the Accreditation Commission, which featured the following Affiliates:

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Kudos Affiliates!! May 2023

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Kudos to these Affiliates on their recent accomplishments! Do you have kudos to share? Please send potential entries to Aaron Glavas, GlavasC@si.edu. 

FUNDING  

MakerUSA, in collaboration with the Pinhead Institute (Telluride, CO), has received a $100,000 grant to fund a program manager to design and operate “maker” programming regionally. The grant will cover the costs of a program manager, as well as an $8,000 sub-grant that will go directly to Pinhead to develop programming. 

The Arvest Foundation announced a $2,500 contribution to the Oklahoma Historical Society (Oklahoma City, OK) to support digitization and preservation of oral interviews of veterans who served in WWII and beyond. The interviews were conducted and recorded in the 1980s through the 1990s using technology that is deteriorating. 

The California Natural Resources Agency announced more than $19.7 million in funding awarded by the California Cultural and Historical Endowment to support 63 museum projects including: 

New Mexico’s Governor approved $100,000 in capital funding to provide, improve, and enhance exhibits and programs at the New Mexico Museum of Space History (Alamogordo, NM). 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION 

Neville Crenshaw, manager of special exhibitions and featured experiences at the Saint Louis Science Center (Saint Louis, MO), and the Center’s team were awarded the Mission Moment 2022 award from MindsEye, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving people of all ages with visual disabilities in the St. Louis region. The award recognized the work from the team to make 2022’s HOCKEY: Faster Than Ever special exhibition more accessible for guests who are blind or partially sighted. 

The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) announced the reaccreditation awards for 2023, which included three Smithsonian Affiliates: 

Aquarium of the Bay (San Francisco, CA) received reaccreditation for 2023 through 2028 by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced 30 finalists, including three Affiliates, for the 2023 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The National Medal is the nation’s highest honor given to museums and libraries that demonstrate excellence in service to their communities. 

A collaboration between Nebraska Public Media Labs and the University of Nebraska State Museum (Lincoln, NE), Expedition Nebraska: A Virtual Natural History Experience has been honored for Metaverse, Immersive and Virtual Experiences in the 27th Annual Webby Awards. The project allows visitors to virtually travel back in time to prehistoric Nebraska and experience how it has changed over millennia. The Webby Awards, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, is the leading international awards organization honoring excellence on the internet. 

Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, PA) received the S.K. Stevens Award from the Pennsylvania Museums Association for its work on the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES) exhibition American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith.

The National Art Education Association has named Miriam Machado, director of education at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum (Miami, FL) as the recipient of the 2023 National Museum Education Art Educator Award. This prestigious award, determined through a peer review of nominations, recognizes the exemplary contributions, service, and achievements of one outstanding NAEA member annually at the National level within their division.

LEADERSHIP 

Pamela D.C. Junior, director of the Two Mississippi Museums (Jackson, MS) announced her plans to retire. She has led the Two Mississippi Museums, which consists of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, since 2019. Junior’s retirement is effective June 30. 

Kenosha Public Museums‘ (Kenosha, WI) director Leslie Brother has resigned. Peggy Gregorski has been named interim director while a national search is conducted.

Kudos Affiliates!! Summer 2022

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Kudos 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 Nissan Foundation announced $848,000 in grants to 33 nonprofit organizations for its 2022 grant cycle. The following Affiliates were part of this award: 

NASA’s Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions program has selected Adler Planetarium (Chicago, IL) and its proposed project, Climate Change and Me: Engaging Young People with NASA Data, Missions and Careers through Immersive Visualizations, Planetarium Programs, and Virtual Experiences to help inspire the next generation of explorers and to expand student participation in STEM fields. Through on-site and virtual field trips, students in grades 5 through 8 will learn about global climate change concepts, analyze data and various factors that may determine how certain human activities affect the Earth’s climate. The agency awarded approximately $800,000 for the implementation over the next two to four years. 

Oklahoma legislators approved a bill to issue a bond worth $46 million to address critical deferred maintenance needs of the Oklahoma Historical Society (Oklahoma City, OK). 

The Wallace Foundation announced Arab American National Museum was one of 18 arts organizations of color selected to participate in the first phase of a new five-year arts initiative, part of the Foundation’s efforts to foster equitable improvements in the arts. Arab American National Museum will receive five years of funding totaling approximately $900,000 to $3.75 million with the aim of developing useful insights about the relationship between community orientation, resilience, and relevance. 

The Museum of History & Industry (Seattle, WA) has announced a $10 million donation from Jeff Bezos, to expand the museum’s Bezos Center for Innovation. The new gift will allow the center to expand interactive storytelling; enhance educational programs; create a dynamic “innovation hub” where the community comes together to tackle major problems on topics ranging from climate change to social justice; present insights from leading-edge innovators; and build a definitive collection of artifacts and archives that preserve Seattle’s history as a global center of innovation. 

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center (Huntsville, AL) announced a $10 million gift from Shift4 Founder/CEO Jared Isaacman for a new training facility to support Space Camp programs. The planned concept will be a 40,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art hangar-style building featuring space and aviation simulators, an aquatic center, a netted drone space, classrooms, and a challenge course designed for the training of future astronauts, pilots, and engineers. 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION 

The South Dakota State Historical Society’s (Pierre, SD) third Pioneer Girl Project installment, “Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts” written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and edited by Nancy Tystad Koupal, has been selected for the Association of University Presses Scholarly Typographic award. 

The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) announced the winners of the 77th annual Leadership in History Awards, the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history. The Award of Excellence, which is presented for excellence in history programs, projects, and people, included: 

  • History Colorado (Denver, CO) was also a recipient of the AASLH’s History in Progress Award. 

Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (Seattle, WA) was one the six recipients of the 2022 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor given to libraries and museums that make significant and exceptional contributions to their communities. 

Museum Grants for African American History and Culture from the Institute of Museum and Library Services were awarded to the following Affiliates: 

  • National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, TN) ($250,000) to increase visitor access to the museum through a ticketing software implementation project. The project will support visitors’ ability to manage online reservations, make member reservations, and redeem coupons, while also providing information to museum staff about how visitors experience the museum. 
  • National Jazz Museum in Harlem (New York, NY) ($49,981) to celebrate the “jazz in Harlem experience” by developing two exhibitions: a free in-person experience and a digital exhibition featuring interviews and artifacts sourced from Harlem residents. Staff will host two community artifact drives where historians and digitization experts will review photographs and correspondence and record oral history interviews with selected residents. 
  • Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture (Baltimore, MD) ($50,000) to support the growth and development of emerging museum professionals by creating opportunities to engage with and learn from African American museum leaders. 
  • Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA) ($236,610) to expand its Emerging Artists Program, a competition to identify emerging Black artists for solo exhibitions. Each year of the two-year project, museum staff will work with a jury of experts to identify four fellows to receive financial and professional support to help promote their work, better establish their careers, and expand their visibility. A digital publication will document each fellow’s exhibition. 
  • Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (Birmingham, AL) ($98,140) to update its programs by applying an intersectional lens to the educational goals in alignment with their recently updated strategic plan. The project team will also enrich the Legacy Youth Leadership Program curriculum with intersectional narratives, develop two archives focused on Latinx and immigrant human and civil rights struggles, update the human rights gallery, and collaborate with members of local tribes to develop a plan for the addition of a land acknowledgement marker. 
  • American Jazz Museum (Kansas City, MO) ($50,000) to improve the care of the John H. Baker Film Collection by conducting an inventory and catalog project. Based on recommendations from a 2021 Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) report, the museum will contract with a filmmaker/preservationist to be assisted by a student intern to assess, inventory, and catalog more than 2,000 film titles dating from 1927 through the 1970s. They will digitize a subset of films and make them available to the public, along with educational programming developed in partnership with local institutions of higher education. 

LEADERSHIP 

Clayton Anderson, Nebraska’s only NASA astronaut, has been named the new president and CEO of the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum (Ashland, NE). 

Year End Kudos!

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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 North Carolina Museum of History (Raleigh, NC) received a $2.5 million gift from the David R. Hayworth Foundation to create the Dr. David R. Hayworth Children’s Discovery Gallery. The Gallery will have four primary areas focusing on school-age children, preschoolers, a space for live learning, and the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association exhibition.

The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation announced a $100 million commitment to transform the financial strength and long-term viability of Southeast Michigan’s arts and culture communities through the establishment of an endowment that will support the sector now and forever. The Foundation will gift the Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, MI) $100,000 annually and Michigan Science Center (Detroit, MI) $200,000 annually to support general operating needs. Each organization will also co-design, in partnership with Community Foundation and national consultants, metrics and benchmarks that support their goals and strategic plans.

Kimball Electronics Gives, the employee giving circle of Kimball Electronics, announced Conner Prairie (Fishers, IN) has been awarded a $500 grant to support the purpose of Creating Quality for Life for the communities in which the company operates and where its employees live. 

The Durham Museum (Omaha, NE) received a $35,974 American Rescue Plan federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The museum plans to use the funding to add additional part-time facilitators to its education team. A portion will also be used to expand and enhance both online and on-site educational programming such as the museum’s virtual field trips and award-winning Museum Live! weekly webcast series.

The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs is distributing $1 million among 118 Iowa arts and cultural groups to encourage people to safely “Re-imagine, Re-engage, Reconnect” with concerts, museums, festivals, and one another. Funds will provide economic relief to organizations challenged by the pandemic. Recipients include:

Union Station, Kansas City, Inc. (Kansas City, MO) received a $5 million gift from the Sunderland Foundation to be used for a wide range of Union Station improvements, including diamond-polishing the granite and marble floors, repairing its ornate ceiling, and completely overhauling its restrooms.

Flushing Town Hall (Flushing, NY) received a $50,000 grant from the Guru Krupa Foundation in support of the cultural institution’s art education programs that cater to the population of Queens and beyond. The grant will fund Flushing Town Hall’s Diwali Festival and help fund artist fees and public programs, along with general operating expenses of Flushing Town Hall. 

Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT) will receive an American Rescue Plan Act grant award of more than $40,000 to support the rebuilding of the museum’s Sustainable Maritime Trades and Skills Program.

The NBA Foundation awarded a grant to the Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA) to help create employment opportunities, further career advancement and drive greater economic empowerment for Black youth.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Retired Executive Director Dr. Bob Blackburn of the Oklahoma Historical Society (Oklahoma City, OK) received the Governor’s George Nigh Public Service Award for his contributions during 41 years of public service.

The article ‘Not a Tinker’s Damn’: The Politics of Suffrage in the South Dakota Election of 1918, by Gerard Boychuk from the South Dakota History, the quarterly journal of the South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, SD), won the Michael P. Malone Award from the Western History Association. The article was part of a special issue on the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted most women equal voting rights.

LEADERSHIP

The Morris Museum (Morristown, NJ) announced it has appointed Andrew Sandall to be the next president & CEO, succeeding Dr. Cleveland Johnson, who will retire at the end of the year. Sandall is currently the Executive Director of the Museum of Arts & Sciences (Daytona Beach, FL).

Kudos Affiliates!! July 2019

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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 National Atomic Testing Museum (Las Vegas, NV) has received a $1 million matching grant from the state to assist in their search for a larger space in downtown Las Vegas.  The additional room will allow the museum to expand their exhibitions on nuclear testing in Nevada.

IBEW Local 252 and National Electrical Contractors Associated donated $25,200 to the Yankee Air Museum (Belleville, MI) for its Save the Bomber Plant effort. The museum is raising funds for renovation work required to transform the historic WWII Willow Run Bomber Plant into the future home of the Yankee Air Museum.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services recently announced awards totaling $2,231,000 in Museum Grants for African American History and Culture (AAHC) including the following Affiliate projects:

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (Birmingham, AL)-$167,852.00 award to expand its Legacy Youth Leadership Program for high school students to 20 historic sites in the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium.

Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA)-$247,880.00 award to expand ìMoAD in the Classroom, a visual literacy and arts outreach program offered to Title I and under-served third grade students in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The National Jazz Museum in Harlem (New York, NY)-$49,876.00 award to develop a new website that provides public access to its digital collections.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services announced the first grant projects funded through the Inspire! Grants for Small Museums initiative featuring the following Affiliate organization:

Springfield Museum of Art (Springfield, OH)-$38,744.00 award to build its capacity to work with preschool children and teachers by expanding the professional development components of its Artful Play program.

Battelle has awarded $753,000 to fund 19 different out-of-classroom education programs that build skill in Central Ohio students including the Community STEM Center Initiative at The Works by The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art and Technology (Newark, OH). Partnering with middle schools in Licking County, The Works will build on activities from previous years, supporting teachers through professional learning and cross-district mentorship and collaboration while expanding student access to creative out-of-school learning opportunities to explore STEM concepts and careers.

Sullivan Museum and History Center (Northfield, VT) will receive part of a $269,000 gift from the TAWANI Foundation to cover the operating expenses of new student activities.

The Peoria Riverfront Museum (Peoria, IL) received a $1 million donation from T. Bondurant “Bon” French and Hollis “Holly” S. French to honor work Bon French’s parents performed for the museum’s predecessor, Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences. Some of the donation will endow a fund to support the Center for American Decoys at the museum.

The California Assembly voted to approve a funding bill to allocate $5.8 million for the Columbia Memorial Space Center (Downey, CA). $5 million will be used to construct a second building on the space center grounds. The remaining $800,000 is earmarked to purchase a 3D printer and audio/visual system.

LEADERSHIP

The Putnam Museum & Science Center (Davenport, IA) board of directors announced that community leader and education advocate Rachael Mullins Steiner will become president/CEO of the Putnam effective July 1. Steiner will replace Kim Findlay, who retired from the Putnam after more than a decade of service.

H. Alexander Rich, an assistant professor of art history at Florida Southern College has replaced Claire Orologas as leader of the Polk Museum of Art (Lakeland, FL). Orologas, who became the museum’s executive director in 2012, will become executive director emerita.

Ivy Barsky, who has served as director and CEO at the National Museum of American Jewish History (Philadelphia, PA) since 2012, will be stepping down at the end of June. The museum board has asked Dr. Misha Galperin, a consultant to philanthropic and nonprofit organizations, to serve as interim leader.

Abbe Museum (Bar Harbor, ME) President and CEO Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko will be resigning from the museum at the end of June to accept a post as executive director of the Illinois State Museum in Springfield. The Board of Trustees is in the process of choosing an interim leader for the organization.

Kudos Affiliates! December 2018

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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 National Mississippi River Museum received $5,000 from IBM to aid the development of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum at the museum.

Midlands Community Foundation has awarded $89,175 to 24 nonprofit organizations serving Sarpy and Cass counties. Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum received $3,300.

The Knight Foundation announced the winners of the 2018 Knight Arts Challenge in Detroit. The Arab American National Museum was awarded $100,000 to support the Arab American Arts and Cultural Festival.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Burns & McDonnell made a multiyear, multi-million-dollar commitment to Science City at Union Station Kansas City. Burns & McDonnell will invest $2.5-3 million over the next five years, bringing the total investment over the last decade to an excess of $8 million. The first phase of offerings include:

  • Burns & McDonnell Battle of the Brains: Commitment for two more K-12 STEM competitions, with each to result in a $1 million permanent exhibit inspired by area students.
  • Field Trip and Transportation Fund: For an entire school year, Burns & McDonnell will award one field trip per week for a class to experience Science City.
  • Pop-Up Series: Burns & McDonnell and Science City STEM professionals will be on-site to present insightful talks and demos for students.
  • Summer Camp: STEM professionals from Burns & McDonnell will enrich Science City’s summer camp with industry trends and innovations and share tips and insights regarding careers in STEM.
  • Internship: A Burns & McDonnell Battle of the Brains participant will be offered an internship to work at Burns & McDonnell or Science City.

LEADERSHIP

Jody Blankenship, CEO of the Connecticut Historical Society, has stepped down to take the job as president and CEO of the Indiana Historical Society. He will replace John Herbst, who served at the Indiana society’s helm for 12 years after leading Conner Prairie and the Indiana State Museum. Herbst is retiring at the end of the year, and Blankenship will take over Jan. 21.

The Newark Museum announced that Linda Harrison had been selected to succeed Steven Kern as director and chief executive officer. Ms. Harrison is coming from the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, where she has served as the director and chief executive since 2013. Ms. Harris will begin her new position in January 2019.