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January 25, 2013
2013 begins with success for our Affiliates!
Funding
Science Museum Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) announced the museum has been awarded a $12 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and plans to open a new exhibit area for young children. The new 21,000-square-foot exhibit space will be devoted to children between 3 and 6 years old. The museum also plans a new main entrance and lobby along with improved parking and updated landscaping.
Mystic Seaport (Mystic, Connecticut) was awarded a $100,000 grant by the Beagary Charitable Trust which the museum will use to create activities and learning tools for use in school, at the museum and online. The funding will be used to develop educational programs to coincide with the completed restoration and 38th voyage of the museum’s 1841 whale ship, Charles W. Morgan. The designation will afford students across the state an opportunity to learn about Connecticut maritime history, the significance of the whaling industry and the importance of the state’s maritime heritage.
The Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, Michigan) received $750,000 as part of the investment in Detroit arts and culture from the Knight Foundation. The grant will enhance the annual Concert of Colors free global music festival, of which the museum is lead producer. In particular, the Knight funding will restore the summer festival’s annual Forum on Community, Culture & Race and help rebuild the Cultural Exchange Network of 50 arts groups that originally facilitated the Concert of Colors.
Pennsylvania Humanities Council recently funded a film and art series to complement “Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges,” at the National Museum of American Jewish History (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). The exhibit focuses on the story of Jewish professors who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and found positions at historically black colleges and universities in the Jim Crow South.
The Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach, California) received a $25,000 donation from Hyundai Motor America that will go toward the purchase of a bus to be used to provide free tours and art workshops to students from the Los Angeles area.
AAM Accreditation
The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) announced that 10 museums have been newly accredited and 13 museums earned re-accreditation at the November 2012 meeting of the Accreditation Commission. Accredited status from the Alliance is the highest national recognition achievable by an American museum. The following Affiliate museums were awarded accreditation. Congratulations!
Executive Transitions
- Smithsonian Affiliations would like to extend our best wishes to Robert Ellis, who served 35 years at The Air Zoo (Portage, Michigan). Former Da Vinci Science Center executive director and CEO, Troy Thrash has been named new chief executive at The Air Zoo.
- We bid a fond farewell to Paul Knappenberger who served 22 years at the Adler Planetarium (Chicago, Illinois). Astrophysicist Michelle Larson has been named as the next president of the Adler.
- Affiliations welcomes Mark Lizewskie, new executive director at the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum (Hershey, Pennsylvania).
September 25, 2012
As summer turns into autumn, Affiliate accomplishments continue to shine!
The Massachusetts Cultural Council approved a proposal to create and name one of the state’s newest cultural districts, the Canalway Cultural District. The District encompasses two Affiliates – the Boott Cotton Mills Museum (operated by the Lowell National Historical Park) and the American Textile History Museum (Lowell, Massachusetts).
Conner Prairie (Fishers, Indiana) is the recipient of a $2.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. This grant will help efforts to integrate science into exhibits and programming over the coming years and create new science-based interactive fun for guests.
PetSmart Inc. is contributing $50,000 to sponsor a cultural diversity series “Unity Through Diversity” at the Musical Instrument Museum (Phoenix, Arizona). The series will focus on various musical traditions that unite people.
The Birmingham Civil Rights District has been named Attraction of the Year by the Alabama Tourism Department. The district, which includes The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Kelly Ingram Park and the 16th Street Baptist Church, was awarded at the Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism.
Science Museum Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) announced the award of a $3 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The grant will be used to fund the extension of the Oklahoma Museum Network (OMN) program, a consortium of museums strategically located across the state working together to provide high quality, hands-on educational experiences.
Richmond County Savings Foundation presented Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Gardens (Staten Island, New York) with a $30,000 award to support the new Heritage Farm project, which combines urban farming with education as well as support for Island feeding programs.
Long Island Museum (Stony Brook, New York) announced that its Long Island Long Ago school program was awarded a grant from Target Corporation. The grant will help the museum reach more than 12,000 Long Island school children annually, including those from underserved communities. In addition, The Long Island Museum was selected to receive a grant from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network for the conservation of several carriages and sleighs that will be featured in two new exhibition galleries in the Carriage Museum.
History Colorado (Denver, Colorado) was selected to receive Mountain Plains Museum Association’s Leadership and Innovation Award.
College Park Aviation Museum (College Park, Maryland) received an Anacostia Trails Heritage Area Inc. grant for $500 to support the “Aviation Meets Art” program.
10 Affiliates received Museums for America Program Grants from The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
- Chabot Space and Science Center Foundation (Oakland, California) Award Amount: $149,885Chabot Space & Science Center will use its grant to support and expand its Galaxy Explorers/Champions of Science program, a teen education program to enhance their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) knowledge and proficiency through hands-on, standards-based science enrichment and experimentation; to provide students with meaningful and challenging volunteer and work experience; to allow them to build crucial interpersonal and professional development skills; and to give them an opportunity to give back to their communities through science outreach.
- San Diego Air & Space Museum (San Diego, California) Award Amount: $124,500The San Diego Air & Space Museum, with its partner the Balboa Park Online Collaborative, will increase public access to its photo and video collections online through the two-year Great Explorations project.
- History Colorado (Denver, Colorado) Award Amount: $144,895History Colorado will inventory approximately 4,500 items stored at the Museum Support Center in Pueblo, Colorado, in order to gain physical and intellectual control of the collection, improve collections access, and make collections resources and associated information broadly available for research and use.
- Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center (Mashantucket, Connecticut) Award Amount: $32,430Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, a tribally owned and operated institution in southeastern Connecticut, will use its grant to develop new programmatic explorations aided by handheld technologies. Each program will consist of a multimedia, in-depth exploration of an aspect of Pequot Indian history, accessed through the use of touch-screen technologies and enriched by images, oral histories, and objects.
- Miami Science Museum (Miami, Florida) Award Amount: $149,955The Miami Science Museum will develop an exhibit addressing the intellectual needs of adults who accompany young children (aged three to six) to science exhibitions. The goal is to provide access to science for young learners while simultaneously providing rich learning opportunities for adults, thereby optimizing outcomes for multigenerational audiences.
- HistoryMiami (Miami, Florida) Award Amount: $140,700HistoryMiami will present the Cultural Heritage Spotlight Series, an annual artist-in-residence project highlighting Miami area traditional artists and cultures.
- National World War II Museum, Inc. (New Orleans, Louisiana) Award Amount: $150,000The National World War II Museum will use the grant to support The Campaigns Pavilion Road to Berlin, composed of two exhibitions, The Road to Tokyo: Asia-Pacific Campaign Gallery and The Road to Berlin: European-Mediterranean Campaign Gallery. The objectives of this project are to implement an interactive technology to allow visitors to digitally collect content, to provide a digital device for visitors to follow the stories of WWII historical figures; to create a mechanism to collect data of user interactions, and to develop a tool to collect visitor information to facilitate post-visit communications.
- American Textile History Museum (Lowell, Massachusetts) Award Amount: $94,806The American Textile History Museum will accession, catalogue, and scan 2,600 photographs of textile workers, textile mills and machinery, and views of textile cities and towns from the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as 1,950 insurance maps of textile mills dating from 1872 to 1953. This project constitutes the final phase of a four-phase effort to improve intellectual control of and online access to the museum’s library and curatorial collections through the Chace Catalogue.
- North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, North Carolina) Award Amount: $129,697The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences will develop experiential programming and purchase educational supplies and equipment for its Earth Observation and Biodiversity (EOB) Investigate Lab. The EOB Investigate Lab will engage adults and teens, in authentic science research to prepare them for college, the workforce, and science and civic literacy.
- Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas, Texas) Award Amount: $131,289The Museum of Nature and Science will create an expanded and highly productive volunteer program to complement its move to a newly built state-of-the-art facility in downtown Dallas. The museum will develop a comprehensive updated volunteer program focused on recruitment, job placement, training, and evaluation in order to provide superior customer experiences and efficient operations, while building strong attendance and membership.
One affiliate received a Museum Grants for African American History and Culture from The Institute of Museum and Library Services:
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati, Ohio) Award Amount: $29,841
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will develop an institutional succession plan to provide professional development opportunities to mid-level managers and to mentor and train identified managers and directors to enhance their leadership and managerial skills.
May 22, 2012
As summer heats up, so too do Affiliate accomplishments!
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced that the Lowell Festival Foundation along with Lowell National Historical Park (Lowell, Massachusetts) is one of 788 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. The Lowell Festival Foundation is recommended for a $30,000 grant to support the 2012 Lowell Folk Festival.
The Michigan State University Museum (East Lansing, Michigan) has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Traditional Arts Program. Totaling $80,000, the NEA grant will assist with documentation of traditional artists and folk arts events and develop social media tools to connect folk artists, audiences and other cultural workers. The Michigan Traditional Arts Program provides support for the Michigan Heritage Awards and Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, which research, document and share traditional arts and expressive culture of Michigan.
Inasmuch Foundation announced the distribution of $11.3 million in grants to 37 organizations in Oklahoma, including $500,000 to Science Museum Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) for the new Children’s Hall, 20,000 square feet of friendly streets, buildings and “outdoor” spaces containing interactive exhibits in which families can engage in a playful and child-friendly world of science play. Stafford Air and Space Museum (Weatherford, Oklahoma) received $50,000 for the restoration and outdoor display of two historic aircraft; and a busing and admissions assistance program for Oklahoma school children and senior citizens.
Conner Prairie Interactive History Park (Fishers, Indiana) received $5,000 from The Kroger Co. to support its K-12 education programs.
The Museum of Arts & Sciences (Daytona Beach, Florida) announced in cooperation with the City of Daytona Beach and the Volusia County Council, the Museum has been chosen as the site for a new structure – an expansion housing the collection of more than 2,600 Florida oil and watercolor paintings of Cici and Hyatt Brown as part of a $13 million gift from Cici and Hyatt Brown.
Dr. Annette B. Fromm of the Frost Museum (Miami, Florida) has been approved for candidacy for the Fulbright Specialists Roster, creating an opportunity to engage in short-term collaborative projects at host institutions in over 100 countries.
The Frank H. McClung Museum (Knoxville, Tennessee) received re-accreditation from AAM.
December 21, 2011
Congratulations Affiliates on ending the year so strong!
Two Affiliates received SITES’ Smithsonian Community Grants, supported by MetLife Foundation:
The Orange County Regional History Center (Orlando, Florida) received $5,000 to fund honoraria, travel, materials and marketing for three programs related to the themes of Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente.
The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture (Baltimore, Maryland) received $3,310 to fund a panel, “Clemente in Context/Clemente en Contexto,” to provide museum visitors with some historical and cultural context about Afro-Latino populations in the Caribbean and in the United States. All programming relate to the themes of Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente and IndiVisible: African-Natives Lives in the Americas.
Chabot Space and Science Center (Oakland, California) received $200,000 to fund the Redwoods overnight environmental education center from the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council which promotes programs and projects to bring young people in touch with the environment.
The Center for Jewish History (New York, New York), announce the expansion of its international fellowship program to include senior scholars, early career scholars and emerging artists and writers through a new five-year, $750,000 grant from The Vivian G. Prins Foundation. The grant will support fellowships for those who seek permanent teaching and research positions in North America.
Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) received a $5 million gift from the estate of the late William S. Dietrich II to turn a vacant building into an artifacts storage facility and conservation center. The Center also received a $2 million grant from UPMC to support educational programs and operations at the museum, where the library and archives will be renamed for Thomas and Katherine Detre.
Three Affiliates received Art Works grant awards from the National Endowment for the Arts:
Michigan State University Museum (East Lansing, Michigan) will receive a $40,000 grant to support the 2012 Great Lakes Folk Festival. In collaboration with the City of East Lansing, the university will produce a festival that showcases the traditional music, dance, foodways, and other cultural expressions of the nation’s Upper Midwest using an innovative approach, highlighting the cultural sustainability and adaptive reuse (recycling) inherent in traditional culture in conjunction with modern technology (a solar powered stage).
Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art (Biloxi, Mississippi) will receive $34,000 to support the exhibition, George Edgar Ohr: Apostle of Individuality. Designed to be installed in the Knight Gallery, the exhibition will include works by Mississippi ceramic artist George Ohr.
Whatcom Museum (Bellingham, Washington) will receive $34,000 to support the exhibition, Vanishing Ice: Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art, 1775-2012. The exhibition will examine the artistic legacy of the planet’s frozen frontiers — glaciers, icebergs, and fields of ice– now jeopardized by climate change through the presentation of 75 works.
Science Museum Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) received a $1 million donation from Love’s Travel Stops to help kick off a capital campaign and $30 million renovation for the museum entrance and the addition of a permanent exhibit aimed at introducing young children to science.
Putnam Museum and IMAX Theatre (Davenport, Iowa) received $5,000 award from the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend to support the Putnam Power Mission video production.
Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth, Massachusetts) will receive a $235,000 grant from the state’s Cultural Facilities Fund to fund repairs, improvements, and expansions.
The Coca-Cola Foundation awarded $50,000 to the North Carolina Museum of History (Raleigh, North Carolina) for the development and implementation of the initiative “Educational Outreach Programs for North Carolina Students.”
Two Affiliates were recipients of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) 2011 Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives awards:
Center for Jewish History (New York, New York) received $229,600 to fund Illuminating Hidden Collections at the Center for Jewish History.
San Diego Museum of Man (San Diego, California) received $115,200 to fund Capturing History: Cataloging the San Diego Museum of Man’s Photographic Collection.
April 26, 2011
Despite being the world’s largest museum complex, one of the challenges at the Smithsonian Institution remains taking the unique offerings away from the invisible walls of the National Mall and “encourage inventive creativity in young people” who may never visit Washington D.C.
 The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation has met this opportunity head on by launching the Spark!Lab Outreach Kit Project, through a distribution of six organizations including five Affiliate museums. This collaboration is seen as an effort to extend the reach of Spark!Lab—the center’s hands-on invention activity center—beyond the boundaries of the National Museum of American History. The kits will be designed to replicate some of the most popular Spark!Lab activities and provide opportunities for partner museums to connect their collections and exhibitions to themes of invention and innovation.
The Spark!Lab kits will test and engage students in a variety of interactive stations including “Shaping Space,” a structure building activity; “Now What?,” a problem-solving game; “Snap Circuits,” which gives visitors the chance to use real circuit components to create and test their own electric inventions; and “Soundscapes,” which encourages children to use items, including musical ramps, xylophone staircases and bridges with bells, to create music and sound pathways for marbles. The “Spark!Lab Jr.” program helps learners under the age of 5 develop inventive thinking and problem-solving skills.
“At the Lemelson Center we believe that a playful approach to problem solving can spark new ideas and lead to great inventions,” said Arthur Molella, director of the center. “This outreach project allows us to reach children outside of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and inspire a new generation of inventive Americans.”
During this pilot program, Spark!Lab kits will be featured at the following Smithsonian Affiliate museums-the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Annmarie Garden in Solomons, Maryland, the Western Science Center in Hemet, California, the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida, and the Science Museum Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.
“Science Museum Oklahoma is excited to partner with the Smithsonian and offer a new challenge to our younger guests!” said Suzette Ellison, vice president of Programs and Interpretation at the museum.
 An educator at Annmarie Garden inventing with a Spark!Lab kit “We are very excited to introduce the Spark Lab kits in our classrooms,” said Jaimie Jeffrey, Education Director at Annmarie Garden. “As an arts center, teaching children to apply creative problem-solving skills and innovative thinking to everything they do is paramount for us. These kits are great reinforcements for these strategies in all of our kids’ and family programs.”
The Lemelson Center expects to develop an online Spark!Lab “tool kit” based on evaluations and ‘lessons learned’ from the in-museum activity kits. The on-line content will outline Spark!Lab’s educational philosophy, mission, and vision, and will include simple at-home activities and a list of additional resources for parents and kids.
The Spark!Lab Affiliate program is supported by a gift from the LEGO Children’s Fund. And be sure to meet the Spark!Lab staff at the annual Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference in June.
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