Congratulations Affiliates on your spring accomplishments!

FUNDING

Birthplace of Country Music Museum (Bristol, TN) announced a $100,000 gift by Bank of Tennessee as part of the museum’s “Name Your Seat” fundraising campaign.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a partnership with Mystic Seaport (Mystic, CT) to support the upcoming journey of the Charles W. Morgan, which will sail the New England coast this summer to promote conservation strategies. NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries will work with the museum to develop science and outreach activities around the voyage.

Russell Ebeid, a Michigan businessman and philanthropist has made a $2-million bequest to the Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, MI) to endow the museum’s community archive. Ebeid’s gift will support oral histories, photographs, artifacts, books, newspapers and ephemera that highlight Arab-American contributions and places their immigrant experience within the larger context of American history.

The National Endowment for the Arts announced it’s awarding of $74.85 million in grants for the second half of the fiscal year for a wide variety of projects, from the avant-garde to traditional folk art including the following Affiliate projects:

• Heard Museum (Phoenix, AZ)  – $10,000

To support Free Summer Sundays, a multidisciplinary program featuring Native American visual and performing artists. Economically disadvantaged residents will receive free admission to the museum on Sundays.

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Champaign, IL)  – $10,000

To support the publication and promotion of the journal “Ninth Letter,” as well as a chapbook and issues on a forthcoming iPad app. Each digital edition is centered around a theme; past themes include Midwestern literature, women’s writing, and international literature in translation.

• American Jazz Museum (Kansas City, MO) – $15,000

To support the 18th & Vine Jazz and Blues Festival, a one-day indoor and outdoor festival that will include Ramsey Lewis, Geri Allen and Arturo Sandoval.

 

ACHIEVEMENTS and RECOGNITION

The Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science (Miami, FL) received a Britweek Business Innovation Award for Innovation in Sustainability by the British Consulate-General, Florida and UK Trade and Investment for the new museum, to open in 2015.

The American Alliance of Museums has announced that the National Canal Museum (Easton, PA) was one of four museums that earned re-accreditation at the February meeting of the Accreditation Commission.

The Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau presented the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum (Hershey, PA) with the Platinum Award for “Excellence in Programming”.

 

LEADERSHIP

The Board of Directors of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas, TX) appointed Colleen Walker as the Museum’s Eugene McDermott Chief Executive Officer, effective June 1, 2014.

Janis Rowe was named Associate Director of Hubbard Museum of the American West (Ruidoso Downs, NM).