Tag Archive for: smithsonian american art museum

Smithsonian Insider: Spring 2024

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You may remember receiving the Smithsonian Insider digital communication in your inbox twice per year, in addition to the Affiliate Collaborator newsletter. We are streamlining our communications and combining the publication of the Insider with the Collaborator. Instead, you’ll receive high-level Smithsonian news, Smithsonian strategic initiatives, and highlights from the work of Smithsonian scholars and experts in your regular Affiliate Collaborator newsletter. We hope this reduces the number of emails in your inbox while still bringing you opportunities and resources from the Smithsonian in a more concise digital communication.

SMITHSONIAN STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

The Human Remains Task Force, established in 2023, completed its work and submitted their recommendations to Secretary Bunch in January 2024. The thirteen-member task force was assembled to make policy recommendations to the Secretary concerning human remains in the custody of the Smithsonian. The full report is now published and available to the public. In sum, the task force recommends the Smithsonian develop a policy regarding the treatment and return of human remains in its care consistent with principles set forth in the report. Read the full report.

SMITHSONIAN IN THE NEWS

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has announced the names and estimated opening timeline for the final 12 galleries to open as part of the renovation of its building in Washington, D.C.

World War I: The Birth of Military Aviation Gallery Rendering. Smithsonian Institution.

SMITHSONIAN STAFF UPDATES

Welcome to new Smithsonian leadership:

  • Elizabeth C. Babcock, director, Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum (effective June 3)
  • Sanchita Balachandran, director, Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute (effective April 8)
  • Dalila Scruggs, Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art (effective April 22)
  • Deborah Rosenberg, executive editor, Smithsonian magazine
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Look for this Smithsonian Insider icon in the Affiliate Collaborator and catch up on news coming from the Smithsonian. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about anything you see in one of these posts, please let us know.

Coming Up in Affiliateland in September 2018

Let’s get back to school and back to collaborating!

NATIONWIDE
Over 100 Affiliates will take part in Smithsonian magazine Museum Day. Many of them will host screenings of original programs from the Smithsonian Channel as part of the day’s programming. Check here for participating Affiliates taking part on 9.22.

FLORIDA
The Museum of Arts and Sciences will host its annual Septembers with the Smithsonian programming. On 9.8, Dr. Valerie Paul from the Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft. Pierce will present two lectures on Smithsonian research in the Indian River lagoon. The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra will present two concerts on Jazz Sites: Regional Style and Evolution in Daytona Beach, 9.28-29.

George Catlin, Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie, 1832-1833, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., soon to be on view in Washington.

WASHINGTON
A painting by George Catlin, Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, will be part of the Endangered Species, Artists on the Front Line of Biodiversity exhibition opening at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, 9.8.

TENNESSEE
The International Storytelling Center will screen The True Story of Mary Celeste, the famous “ghost ship” mystery from the Smithsonian Channel, in Jonesborough, 9.17 and 9.22.

NEBRASKA
National Postal Museum Curator Lynn Heidelbaugh will present a lecture at the Durham Museum on Letters of Love, Longing and Loss in World War I, in Omaha, 9.18.

A presenter from the Smithsonian American Art Museum will lead a lively online discussion focusing on the representation of American Indians in artworks by both Native and non-Native artists at the University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History in Lincoln, 9.26.

VIRGINIA
Alison Cawood, citizen science coordinator at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, will give an overview of the Center’s research and citizen science projects at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens in Norfolk, 9.26.

PENNSYLVANIA
The Senator John Heinz History Center will open the Destination Moon exhibition organized by the National Air and Space Museum and Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. In addition to the artifacts in the exhibition, the Center will  feature an Apollo Lunar Surface Television Camera from the local Westinghouse Electric Corporation, also on loan from the National Air and Space Museum, in Pittsburgh, 8.29.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA). Photo courtesy of NASA.

Coming Up in Affiliateland in June 2018

ARIZONA

The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum will open the Smithsonian exhibition Water/Ways which focuses on the relationships between people and water, in Bisbee, 6.2.

PENNSYLVANIA

The Heinz History Center hosts History on Tap featuring a talk by Theresa McCulla, historian of the American Brewing History Initiative at the National Museum of American History, on how Prohibition influenced the alcohol industry, in Pittsburgh, 6.3.

TEXAS

Space Center Houston hosts Allan Needell, curator of space history at the National Air and Space Museum, who will talk about the Saturn V rocket, in Houston, 6.7.

WYOMING

Soon to be on view in Wyoming, George Catlin’s, Buffalo Chase with Bows and Lances, 1832-1833, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West opens the exhibition Albert Bierstadt: Witness to a Changing West which features three George Catlin paintings on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in Cody, 6.8.

TENNESSEE

The International Storytelling Center will screen First Ladies Revealed: Twists of Fate, a program from the Smithsonian Channel, in Jonesborough, 6.11.

MARYLAND

The Smithsonian Associates lead a day-long Natural History of the Mid-Atlantic tour which will make a stop at Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center in Solomons, 6.16.

WEST VIRGINIA

The Heritage Farm Museum and Village will screen the Smithsonian Channel’s program  Aerial America: West Virginia in Huntington, 6.20, 23.

FLORIDA

The Polk Museum of Art opens the exhibition The Von Wagner Code featuring the etching Roman Chariot Race, on loan from the National Museum of American History, in Lakeland, 6.23.

Coming up in Affiliateland in April 2018

Spring activity is blooming across the country!

MASSACHUSETTS
The Tsongas Industrial History Center at the Lowell National Historical Park will offer a Teacher Creativity Studios: Asian Pacific American Cultural Presence in the Classroom workshop for teachers with the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access in Lowell, 4.7.

Dr. John Grant, geologist with the Museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies (CEPS), in front of a full-scale model of the Mars Rover Curiosity, will be a featured speaker at Framingham State University in Massachusetts.

Framingham State University will feature a talk by National Air and Space Museum scientist John Grant on moving the Mars rovers as part of the Science on State Street Festival in Framingham,  4.21.

PENNSYLVANIA
Attendees to the National Association of Automobile Museums conference will spend a day at the Smithsonian for talks and tours, thanks to conference organizer the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey, 4.10.

ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Teen teams from the Upcountry History Museum (SC), Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (TX), Arab American National Museum(MI), Rockwell Museum (NY), and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (OH) will digitally connect to the Smithsonian Secretary’s Youth Advisory Council meeting in Washington, 4.11.

NEW YORK
The Art + Science lecture series continues with a talk on Native responses to the environment by National Museum of the American Indian educator Ed Schupman at the Rockwell Museum in Corning, 4.12.

MISSOURI
The St. Louis Science Center opens SITES’ Destination Moon exhibition in St. Louis, 4.14.

CONNECTICUT
Mystic Seaport hosts a talk by National Museum of Natural History geologist Liz Cottrell on Expeditions to Arctic Volcanoes as part of its Adventure Series in Mystic, 4.19.

Mountain Climber by Rockwell Kent, 1933, is headed to Oregon thanks to the High Desert Museum. (woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Peter E. Blau and Andrew J. Blau in memory of their father, Alan J. Blau)

OREGON
The High Desert Museum will open Ascent: Climbing Explored exhibition featuring artifact loans including two paintings, brushes and palettes from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in Bend, 4.28.

Coming Up in Affiliateland in March 2018

D. C.
Affiliate participants in the Will to Adorn project from the Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco) and the Institute of Texan Cultures (San Antonio) will discuss their work with students as part of the Youth Access Grant Forum in Washington on 3.1.

Curator Leslie Przybylek from the Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh) will be a panelist in the program  Innovative Lives: How Women Shaped the Alcohol Industry at the National Museum of American History, 3.16.

PENNSYLVANIA
The African American Museum in Philadelphia  will screen the Smithsonian Channel program  The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X in Philadelphia, 3.1.

Jasper Francis Cropsey, The Coast of Genoa, 1854, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Aileen B. Train, Helen B. Spaulding and Julia B. Key

FLORIDA
The Polk Museum of Art will exhibit Jasper Cropsey’s The Coast of Genoa, a painting on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in Lakeland, starting 3.3.

CONNECTICUT
The Connecticut Historical Society will host a lecture and book signing by Dr. Richard Kurin on The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects in Hartford, 3.5.

KENTUCKY
The Frazier History Museum will host an exhibition on The Magnificent Mona Bismarck, who donated fashion collections to the National Museum of American History, opening in Louisville, 3.15.

NEW YORK
The Rockwell Museum will host a talk by curator Matilda McQuaid of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum as part of their Art + Science lecture series in Corning, 3.22.

WASHINGTON
The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience will host a workshop entitled  Teacher Creativity Studios: APA Cultural Presence in the Classroom in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s Center for Learning and Digital Access in Seattle, 3.24.

Coming up in Affiliateland in February 2018

Happy new year! We may still feel cold, but events are heating up at Affiliates across the country.

NATIONWIDE
Five Affiliates will host (via videoconference) the Smithsonian Secretary’s Youth Advisory Council meeting. Thank you to the Arab American National Museum, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the Upcountry History Museum and the Rockwell Museum for sharing their students and spaces for this important dialogue happening in Washington, 2.7.

Eight Affiliates will host screenings of The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X , a new film from the Smithsonian Channel as part of their Black History Month programming. Thanks to the following Affiliates for sharing the film with your audiences!
2.1 – Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, MD
2.6 – Museum of History & Industry in Seattle, WA
2.7 – Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, PA
2.8 – African American Museum in Philadelphia, PA
2.12 – History Colorado in Denver, CO
2.22 – California African American Museum in Los Angeles
2.23 – Mennello Museum of American Art/Orlando Museum of Art, FL
2.26 – Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, TX

CALIFORNIA
The Riverside Metropolitan Museum presents the Uncovering Ancient Mexico: The Mystery of Tlatilco exhibition, exploring an ancient society in central Mexico that flourished 3000 years ago. The exhibition features 9 artifacts from the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian and opens in Riverside, 2.3

WASHINGTON
The Whatcom Museum opens Jeweled Objects of Desire featuring over 50 artifacts on loan from the National Museum of Natural History’s gem and mineral collection in Bellingham, 2.3.

FLORIDA
The Orange County Regional History Center opens the SITES’ exhibition Things Come Apart in Orlando, 2.10.

Take it Apart! A fun contest in Orlando for the Things Come Apart exhibition.

PENNSYLVANIA
A ‘rum runner’ ship model on loan from the National Museum of American History will be on view at the Heinz History Center as part of their American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition exhibition in Pittsburgh, 2.10.

OHIO
With a grant from the Ohio Arts Council, educators from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Accessibility Program will lead three workshops for teachers in collaboration with the Springfield Museum of Art on strategies for using art to reach students with multiple disabilities, in Springfield, 2.15-16.

MARYLAND
Annmarie Garden opens Big Fun Art, an exhibition of local and national artists juried by Jennifer Brundage, Smithsonian Affiliations National Outreach Manager, that explores playfulness, dynamism and joy, in Solomons, 2.16.

ARIZONA
Dr. Richard Kurin will be speaking on and signing his book The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, 2.20.

TEXAS
The Asian American Resource Center will host a teacher workshop in collaboration with the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access entitled Teacher Creativity Studios: Asian Pacific America Cultural Presence in the Classroom in Austin, 2.21.

NEBRASKA
The Durham Museum will host a lecture by Dr. Krewasky Salter, Guest Associate Curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Double Victory: The African American Military Experience in Omaha, 2.27.