Tag Archive for: SITES

2024, An Affiliate Recap

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It was an exciting year for collaboration and inspiration in so many communities! With the help of our Smithsonian Affiliates (find the Affiliate directory here), we brought the Smithsonian to communities across the country for an incredible year of collaboration, learning, and inspiration. Our Smithsonian Affiliates help connect Smithsonian initiatives with their local communities to help address many of the challenges we face. Our Affiliates are doing important and necessary work every day, and collaborating with the Smithsonian amplifies this incredible work. Here are a few highlights of Smithsonian-Affiliate engagements from 2024.


2024, An Affiliate Recap by Smithsonian Affiliations

A group of people take a selfie in front of a red brick building
High school Learning Center students and coordinator, Rockwell Museum educator and Smithsonian educators. The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY.

National Youth Summits and the Youth Leadership Team

Since 2011, the National Museum of American History has collaborated with Smithsonian Affiliates to engage teens nationwide in the National Youth Summit program. Affiliate organizations serve as Regional Summits using content from the American History Museum and their own resources to engage local middle and high school students in discussions grounded in history and connected to current issues. In September 2024, a group of nine diverse Smithsonian Affiliates participated in the 2024 Summit exploring Elections & Politics.

Four Affiliates—Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, MI), The Rockwell Museum (Corning, NY), International Museum of Art and Science (McAllen, TX), and Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, CA)—were part of a pilot Youth Leadership Team. This project, funded by a Smithsonian Together We Thrive grant, aimed to enhance teen advocacy and agency in the Summits. The goal was to center youth voices in the planning and development of Summit programming. Twelve teenagers were recruited to discuss democracy, social justice and national issues faced by teens today. Throughout the planning, students met with Smithsonian and Affiliate staff virtually and traveled to Washington, D.C., in August to meet with Smithsonian experts and fellow team members.

Since 2011, the National Museum of American History has collaborated with Smithsonian Affiliates to engage teens nationwide in the National Youth Summit program. Affiliate organizations serve as Regional Summits using content from the American History Museum and their own resources to engage local middle and high school students in discussions grounded in history and connected to current issues. In September 2024, a group of nine diverse Smithsonian Affiliates participated in the 2024 Summit exploring Elections & Politics.

African American Craft Initiative

Courtesy City Lore

Three Affiliates —City Lore (New York, NY), Michigan State University Museum (East Lansing, MI), and Orange County Regional History Museum (Orlando, FL)—were selected to participate in the African American Craft Initiative. The project from the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage aims to expand the visibility of underrepresented elder African American artisans and safeguard their stories. The project is meant to build relationships among artists, elders, and youth within their local communities.

The Affiliate Learning Hub

A screen grab of the Learning Excursions page

In 2024 we launched the Learning Hub, which includes individual Learning Excursions that help Affiliate leadership and their teams think about their work today and into the future. These Excursions inspire Affiliates to continually think about ways they can work together and with the Smithsonian.

Affiliate staff can take a deeper dive into these Excursions:

  • Essentials: For new and existing Affiliates to take a deeper dive into community engagement, collaboration and relationship building, and more
  • Affiliate Stories: Modules to enhance your collaborative efforts, build leadership skills, and showcase your impact.
  • Tools for Action: Download reflection guides and toolkits to facilitate ongoing learning and skill development.

See Me at the Smithsonian Professional Development Training

four people participate in a workshop at an art museum
Courtesy Access Smithsonian

In 2024, Access Smithsonian offered a hybrid professional development training series for the creation and implementation of programming for adults living with dementia and their care partners. Twenty-eight Smithsonian Affiliates were selected to participate. The training presented Affiliate staff with tools and strategies for adapting the See Me at the Smithsonian model at their organizations.

See Me at the Smithsonian has made it possible for people with dementia and their care partners to continue to enjoy Smithsonian museums, engage with the Smithsonian’s most beloved objects, sustain lifelong learning, and connect with and contribute to a larger community.

Participants of the 2024 Affiliate Directors’ Summit. Courtesy Jeremy Norwood for Smithsonian Affiliations

Affiliate Directors’ Summit

In November, the Smithsonian Affiliations team hosted its first in-person gathering for Affiliates since 2019. The Affiliate Directors’ Summit brought together 41 Affiliate leaders in Washington, D.C., to network with and learn from each other and Smithsonian leadership. Participants identified actionable strategies for new or enhanced collaborations that extend and deepen our collective impact. Prior to the in-person gathering, Affiliate leadership joined a special virtual meeting with Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G Bunch III.

In all, Affiliates were involved in more than 800 engagements with the Smithsonian during 2024. Thank you to the entire Smithsonian Affiliations team for your continued excellence in facilitating Affiliate-Smithsonian relationships and guiding so many collaborations from idea to implementation. We wish our Affiliate and Smithsonian colleagues a wonderful holiday season and look forward to 2025 collaborations!

Thinking about how you can collaborate in 2025? Contact your National Outreach Manager or email Affiliates@si.edu and let’s brainstorm!

Coming Up in Affiliateland in June 2021

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Enjoy these summer offerings!

Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo book coverWASHINGTON
Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony, curator at the National Air and Space Museum, will give a virtual lecture on her new book Operation Moonglow for the Museum of Flight, Seattle, 6.3. They also collaborated on a podcast, here. 

CALIFORNIA
The USS Hornet- Sea, Air and Space Museum in Alameda will screen Smithsonian Channel’s Battle of Midway: The True Story virtually, 6.6.

Jon Grinspan headshot

National Museum of American History Curator Jon Grinspan

NATIONWIDE
Affiliates across the country will co-host our latest Virtual Scholar Talk, What America’s Greatest Father-Daughter Political Dynasty Teaches Us About Fixing Democracy.  National Museum of American History curator Dr. Jon Grinspan will share this story from his book, The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought To Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915, 6.17.

From Miami to Alameda, Indianapolis to San Antonio, Smithsonian Affiliates all over the country will disseminate thousands of copies of Inspiration Nation, a summer activity guide for K-8 students presented by the Smithsonian in collaboration with USA Today. Filled with stories from the Smithsonian, students can use the publication to step away from their screens and find inspiration everywhere around them.

Coming Up in Affiliateland in May 2021

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Spring continues to bloom at Affiliates! 

MISSOURI

Billie Holiday on stage at Sugar Hill

Billie Holiday on stage at Sugar Hill, Newark, New Jersey, April, 1957. All photographs © 2018 Jerry Dantzic/ Jerry Dantzic Archives. All rights reserved.

The American Jazz Museum will open the SITES’ exhibition Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill, in Kansas City, 5.8.

MARYLAND
Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony, curator at the National Air and Space Museum, will give a virtual lecture on her new book Operation Moonglow for Historic Annapolis, hosted in Annapolis, 5.4.

MICHIGAN
Dr. Muir-Harmony will also talk about Operation Moonglow for the audiences of the Yankee Air Museum, hosted from Belleville, 5.5.

NEW YORK
As part of its Environments Examined series, the Rockwell Museum will host a virtual panel with scientists from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and National Air and Space Museum, From High Tech Science to High Tech Art: Transforming Data into Action, hosted from Corning, 5.27.

Coming Up in Affiliateland in April 2021

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Happy Earth Month everyone!

A museum visitor looks at a display of various people of color.

“The Bias Inside Us” features Spanish photographer Angélica Dass’ Humanae project, which reflects on the color of skin that challenges the concept of race. Photo by Science Museum of Minnesota.

IOWA
The Bias Inside Us exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service opens at the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, 4.17.

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rican Affiliates, the Museo de Arte and Museo y Centro de Estudios Humanísticos, offer a workshop on The Conservation of Caribbean Culture: Training Future Conservators of Cultural Patrimony, 4.19-23.

MASSACHUSETTS
Teen filmmakers in the McAuliffe Center’s STEM mentorship program will present their ideas for addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as part of Framingham State University’s Science on State Street Fair: Planet Earth Edition, 4.20.

The Springfield Museums will feature Dr. Joyce Bedi, historian at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History, for a talk on Who Invented the Environment?, in Springfield, 4.22.

A scientist examines a skull.

Dr. Kari Bruwelheide measuring a cranium. Image Credit: Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution.

OHIO
Dr. Kari Bruwelheide, forensic anthropologist at the National Museum of Natural History, will lead a virtual workshop for teachers as part of the Rethinking Jamestown professional development activities organized by the Springfield Museum of Art, in Springfield, 4.21-22.

NEW YORK
The Rockwell Museum will host a virtual dialogue with guest curator Emily Zilber and curator-in-charge Nora Atkinson about the Forces of Nature: Renwick Invitational 2020 exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery as part of the Museum’s Environments Examined Spring 2021 lecture series, in Corning, 4.29.

Coming up in Affiliateland in December 2019

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Happy holidays to all!

MASSACHUSETTS
Framingham State University wraps up its 18-month series on the Moon Landing in Context with a day-long symposium entitled, Sustainable Space, Sustainable Earth: From Ideas to Action, featuring comments by Affiliations National Outreach Manager Jennifer Brundage in Framingham, 12.6.


NORTH CAROLINA
The American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service opens at the Greensboro History Museum in Greensboro on 12.7.

 

The Cape Fear Museum will be screening several Smithsonian Channel films throughout December, including Mass Extinction: Life at the Brink; The Green Book: Guide to Freedom; David Attenborough’s Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates; and Polar Bear Town: Quest for Cubs in Wilmington, check website for exact dates.

 

Coming up in Affiliateland in November 2019

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We are thankful for our amazing Affiliates and all that you do!

WASHINGTON
The Museum of History and Industry will open SITES’ Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation exhibition in Seattle, 11.2.

Group of women in colorful saries,

The Museum of History and Industry will host ‘Sari Stories’ featuring personal stories and a draping demonstration.

OHIO
National Museum of American History curator Frank Blazich is giving two talks at the Ohio History Connection for Veteran’s Day on Navy Pontoon Technology and on the Army’s Pigeon Service, in Columbus, 11.9.

MASSACHUSETTS
The Moon Landing in Context series continues at Framingham State University with a talk by National Air and Space Museum curator Teasel Muir-Harmony on The Future of Space Exploration: The Policy Perspective, in Framingham, 11.14.

MARYLAND
National Air and Space curator emerita Valerie Neal will moderate a discussion of three former and current astronauts in a program commemorating the Apollo program with Historic Annapolis and the U.S. Naval Academy, in Annapolis, 11.17.