Tag Archive for: smithsonian jazz

Swingin’ with the Smithsonian in Daytona Beach

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15038_10151615476644102_362315537_nSpecial thanks to Monica Reardon, Smithsonian Affiliations summer intern, for authoring the 2013 #MuseumDayLive! Affiliate blog series.

The Museum of Arts & Sciences (MOAS) is a science and history museum located in Daytona Beach, Florida.  This Affiliate’s collections showcase a multitude of topics, which include Coca-Cola® memorabilia, paintings of Florida, a giant ground sloth skeleton, celestial charts, and more.  Not to mention a planetarium, an open storage building, and two off-site exhibit areas.  The Museum, since joining Affiliations in 2000, has featured a variety of Smithsonian objects, exhibitions, and programs.

In that spirit, MOAS will be welcoming speakers, musicians and affiliates of the Smithsonian Institution to Daytona Beach for its 3rd Annual Septembers with the Smithsonian series of events. Beginning September 6th, MOAS will be featuring an exhibition as well as special speakers from the Smithsonian Institution and other Smithsonian Affiliates.

“Septembers with the Smithsonian was created to share the benefits of our Smithsonian Affiliation with our community,” stated MOAS Executive Director, Andrew Sandall. “It’s a chance for us to show the diversity of the subject matter museums preserve. Any form of art, either physical or performed, has influenced people’s lives and made them who they are today – the same pieces have different meanings and interpretations for each of us and become part of us.”

A fellow Smithsonian Affiliate museum, the Orange County Regional History Center, has generously loaned the artworks in Highwaymen: African-American Folk Artists of Florida which will be on exhibition through the Fall. On September 12, visitors can explore Florida’s marine environments at the Smithsonian Marine Station with Dr. Valerie Paul, Director of the Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft. Pierce. In addition, Underwater Archaeologist Chuck Meide, from the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum–another Smithsonian Affiliate– will talk about the British Revolutionary Warship, the “Storm Wreck” on September 18. Other speakers will present topics such as archeology, biology and paleobiology, some of which will be highlighted in the Museum’s Natural History Festival on September 21st.

969531_10151615475654102_177155945_nOn September 28th from 7-9pm, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (SJMO) will perform “Swingin’ with the Smithsonian,” featuring vocalist Lena Seikaly. The SJMO will perform selections from the Ella Fitzgerald song book. A special matinee concert for children, “Swingin’ with the Smithsonian Junior” has been added to the concert schedule this year, and will take place Saturday, September 28th from 2-3pm at MOAS.

“Septembers with the Smithsonian was created to share the benefits of our Smithsonian Affiliation with our community. We are looking forward to each of this year’s exciting events at MOAS,” stated MOAS Executive Director, Andrew Sandall.

This year, Smithsonian Museum Day Live! is September 28th. Visitors who present the Museum Day Live! ticket will gain free entrance for two at participating venues for one day only. One ticket is permitted per household, per email address. This ticket is not valid for “Swingin’ with the Smithsonian” or “Swingin’ with the Smithsonian Junior” concerts. This project received financial assistance from VISIT FLORIDA. Exhibits and dates subject to change.

Is the Smithsonian in your neighborhood? Find out which other Affiliates are participating in #MuseumDayLive on September 28, 2013, here.

 

 

For Jazz Appreciation Month, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum is the place to be

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Special thanks for this guest post to Dr. David Taft Terry, Executive Director, at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, a Smithsonian Affiliate in Baltimore, Maryland.  

Photo courtesy of the Baltimore Jazz Alliance.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture will celebrate this wonderful art form with great enthusiasm.  For more than a century, jazz has been the sound of democracy; it has grown and expanded as an expression of freedom around the world.  Drawn from African and European influences and developed in the distinctive historical milieu of the American Experience, jazz is “us” – all of us.  And, from ragtime to swing, bop to avante garde, Latin to contemporary, expressions of jazz are as diverse as the musicians that create it.  Jazz is my favorite music. 

Spice Band performs April 1, 2011. Photo courtesy of the band.

Maryland and her citizens have played critical roles in the development of jazz from its beginnings, and that influence continues to the present day: Eubie Blake, Cab Calloway, Chick Webb, Billie Holiday, Ethel Ennis, Lester Bowie, Winard Harper, Cyrus Chestnut, Dontae Winslow, Lafayette Gilchrist, Carl Grubbs – the list goes on!  You can learn about jazz history in Maryland in the “Pennsylvania Avenue” installation inside our Strength of the Mind gallery, one of the permanent galleries located on the third floor of our museum.  You can experience jazz live through our exciting Jazz Appreciation Month programs.   

I invite you to join us this April.  

Reginald F. Lewis Museum Jazz Appreciation Month Programs:

Friday, April 1, 7:30 p.m. 
FIRST FRIDAYS: Spice Band featuring Vocalist Debbie Poole
Poole brings her unique vocals to classic Phyllis Hyman songs such as “Meet Me on the Moon” and “The Answer Is You.”
Cost: $15 members, $20 non-members. Doors open at 7 p.m. Sponsored in part by AARP (includes light food and drinks) 

Saturday, April 16, 3 p.m.
Drama Presentation: “Satchmo and Baby Dolly”
Explore the special bond between early jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Baltimore native Blanche Calloway in this toe-tapping drama by Camay Calloway Murphy and Randy Smith.
Museum admission required. 

Saturday, April 30, Noon
SATURDAY’S CHILD: Music Program: Jazz for Kids (Ages 6-12)
Enjoy children’s songs performed by the Baltimore Jazz Alliance, and try jazz instruments including the flute, clarinet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums.
Museum admission required. 

Saturday, April 30, 2 p.m.
Book Talk: Music at the CrossRoads, Lives & Legacies of Baltimore Jazz
Uncover Baltimore’s rich jazz history with editor Mark Osteen, Loyola University professor and president of Baltimore Jazz Alliance, and co-writers Jennifer Margaret Nordmark and Bob Jacobsen.
Museum admission required. 

For more information, please visit our website.

For more information about JAM programs, visit the National Museum of American History’s Smithsonian Jazz website.