Wikiwand AI

Smithsonian Affiliations

American museum partnership organization From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Smithsonian Affiliations is a division of the Smithsonian Institution that establishes long-term partnerships with non-Smithsonian museums and educational and cultural organizations to share collections, exhibitions and educational strategies and to conduct joint research.[2] Partner organizations are known as "Smithsonian Affiliates".

Established1996
LocationWashington, D.C.
DirectorMyriam Springuel[1]
Websiteaffiliations.si.edu
Quick facts Established, Location ...
Smithsonian Affiliations
Established1996
LocationWashington, D.C.
DirectorMyriam Springuel[1]
Websiteaffiliations.si.edu
Close

History

The Smithsonian Affiliations program was established in 1996 by Smithsonian Secretary I. Michael Heyman[3][4] with the approval of the Smithsonian Board of Regents. According to Heyman, the program responded to several challenges the Institution faced at the time: a decrease in federal funding, limited storage space for expanding collections, and the goal of making the Institution more reflective of the nation without operating additional museums outside of Washington, D.C.[5]

Commission on the Future of the Smithsonian Institution

In 1993, the Commission on the Future of the Smithsonian Institution introduced the first proposal for collections-based partnerships at the Institution. The Commission, composed of 22 members appointed by the Smithsonian Board of Regents, was charged with examining the Institution's ability to uphold James Smithson's vision of an organization dedicated to "the increase and diffusion of knowledge" amid a changing society and increasing financial pressures. Of the four initiatives proposed by the Commission—Educate More of the Nation's People; Collections, Research and Exhibitions; Governance; and Assure the Future—two addressed partnerships and access to the collections.[6] The first, "To Educate More of the Nation's People", called for building partnerships with other museums, research centers, and educational institutions. The second, "Collections, Research and Exhibitions", called for a master plan for the collections that included sharing them through long-term or permanent loans to partner institutions.[6]

The Commission stated that lending artifacts to other museums in a responsible way could make the Institution more reflective of the nation and help address the problem of storing, curating, studying, and exhibiting its growing collections.[6]

Creating Smithsonian Affiliations

In 1996, during his second year as Secretary, Heyman identified several challenges facing the Institution that aligned with the Commission's 1993 findings: limited storage for expanding collections, decreasing funds, and the goal of reinforcing the Smithsonian's identity as a national museum. The Institution also saw increased interest from outside museums in partnerships and loans beyond standing practices. Although collaborative agreements in the form of traveling exhibitions, joint exhibition sponsorship, and loans had been entered into by individual Smithsonian museums in the past, no infrastructure existed to provide institution-wide oversight and coordination of such partnerships. Heyman created the Smithsonian Affiliations program to oversee and manage collections-based partnerships with other museums. According to the minutes of the Smithsonian Board of Regents meeting housed in the Smithsonian Institution Archives, the program was formally approved by the Board of Regents on September 15, 1996.

Smithsonian Affiliations was one of several outreach initiatives Heyman introduced around the Institution's 150th anniversary to expand its national reach.[7] Other initiatives from the same period included an expanded presence on the World Wide Web and America's Smithsonian, the largest traveling exhibition the Smithsonian had mounted.[8] Heyman announced the Affiliations program in opening remarks at the Smithsonian's 150th Birthday Party on the Mall and at openings of America's Smithsonian in several cities.[9]

Growth of the program

At the end of the 1997 fiscal year, there were 21 organizations recognized as Affiliates.[10] As of 2017, there were over 200 Affiliates.[11]

Program overview

Partner organizations may use the tag line "In Association with the Smithsonian Institution" and the Smithsonian Affiliations logo on their website, programming, and marketing material.[12][13] Any 501(c)(3) nonprofit or publicly operated educational entity may apply to become a Smithsonian Affiliate.[14]

Eligibility is open to non-profit or publicly operated organizations whose missions involve research, knowledge, and education in science, history, and the arts. Under the program's guidelines, the Smithsonian Institution retains control over all collections it loans, and Affiliates cover the costs associated with borrowing and exhibiting objects.[15] Applicants must demonstrate that they can care for, protect, and exhibit Smithsonian collections on a long-term basis and that they are financially able to develop and maintain professional exhibitions.

While serving as an Affiliate, organizations must grant Smithsonian curators and personnel access to borrowed artifacts, provide the Smithsonian with reports needed to monitor the partnership, and operate in accordance with the policies of the Board of Regents.[16][17]

Organizations apply by submitting documentation of their 501(c)(3) status, a mission statement, an organizational chart, an annual report, and a facilities report in the American Alliance of Museums format, together with a narrative describing the proposed partnership. Approved applicants sign a Smithsonian Affiliations Agreement and are assigned a National Outreach Manager to coordinate loans and projects, which are set for defined periods of time.[18]

Programs and professional development

Affiliate organizations take part in professional training, outreach, and programming initiatives coordinated by the Smithsonian Affiliations office.[19]

  • Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference: an annual conference at which staff of Affiliate organizations attend workshops, lectures, and training sessions led by Smithsonian, Affiliate, and museum-industry staff.
  • Smithsonian Affiliations Visiting Professional Program: a program in which staff of Affiliate organizations receive training from Smithsonian staff while working in Washington, D.C.

Educational collaborations

The Smithsonian Affiliations program develops collaborative educational programs in science, art, history, and culture.

  • National Youth Summit: The 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides was an NEH-funded program featuring a panel of Freedom Riders at the National Museum of American History. The event was broadcast to five Affiliate sites, where students were able to question the panelists about their experiences as civil rights activists.[20]
  • Places of Invention: a collaboration between the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (National Museum of American History) and Smithsonian Affiliations, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Six Affiliate organizations conducted community research documenting their communities as "places of invention", with results intended for the Lemelson Center's exhibition of the same name scheduled to open in 2015.[21]
  • Youth Capture the Colorful Cosmos: a collaboration between Smithsonian Affiliations and the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in which students at thirteen Affiliate organizations control MicroObservatory robotic telescopes over the internet to capture astronomy images, some of which are used in astrophotography exhibitions of the students' work.[22]
  • Smithsonian Immigration/Migration Initiative: an initiative centered in the National Museum of American History and the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, with eight Affiliate partners serving in an advisory group. The initiative examines how young members of immigrant communities in the United States can tell their own stories, and convenes representatives in Washington, D.C. to discuss programs and collections focused on immigration and migration.[23]
  • Spark!Lab Outreach Kit: traveling kits of hands-on invention activities created by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and sent to five Affiliate museums.[24]
  • Let's Do History Tour: a program in which educators from the National Museum of American History toured several cities to share teaching techniques, online tools, and educational content for K–12 teachers, with Affiliate organizations presenting local and collection-based resources for teaching American history.[25]
  • Universal Design Webinar: a collaboration between Smithsonian Affiliations, the American Alliance of Museums, and the Smithsonian Accessibility Program on universal design in museums, hosted at twenty-four Affiliate organizations and later published as an article in AAM's Museum magazine.[26]

List of Affiliates by state/country

The following is a list of current Smithsonian affiliates:[27]

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Panama

Pennsylvania

Puerto Rico

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Former Affiliates

Loans and exhibitions

The following are examples of artifacts, works of art, and scientific specimens that the Smithsonian Institution has loaned to Smithsonian Affiliate organizations.

The National Museum of American History has been among the most active lenders. It sent the Pioneer (locomotive), a Civil War-era engine, to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland for the exhibit The War Came by Train.[28] Its loans have ranged widely in subject: Kermit the Frog traveled to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa for Toadally Frogs!,[29] while the top hat worn by President Abraham Lincoln on the night of his assassination went to the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, California.[30] The Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, holds a Bantam Jeep and a piece of the original Star Spangled Banner Flag on loan from the museum.[31]

The National Museum of Natural History has likewise lent objects across the country. Pieces from its Bisbee Mineral Collection appeared in Digging In: Bisbee's Mineral Heritage at the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum in Bisbee, Arizona,[32] and the Smithsonian Community Reef—thousands of crocheted reef forms originally part of the Sant Ocean Hall exhibit—was sent to the Putnam Museum and IMAX Theatre in Davenport, Iowa.[33] Among its more unusual loans are the skeleton of the racehorse "Lexington", displayed at the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Kentucky,[34] and an 18-karat gold Monopoly set designed by artist Sidney Mobell, lent to the Museum of American Finance in New York, New York.[35] The museum also provided "The Peoria Falcon", a sheet of copper stylized in the form of a falcon during the Mississippian Period and excavated near Peoria in the late 1850s, to the Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences (now Peoria Riverfront Museum) in Peoria, Illinois.[36] For the exhibit Smithsonian Expeditions: Exploring Latin American and the Caribbean at the Miami Museum of Science, it lent several items, including painted gourds and a 5-foot-tall monolith from the Nicaraguan island of Momotombito.[37]

From the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Thomas Moran's painting The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was shown at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming from June 1 to October 31, 2009,[38] and three José Campeche paintings were lent to the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico.[39]

The National Postal Museum contributed a Railway Post Office to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, North Carolina,[40] as well as stamp designs and drawings created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which went to the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, California.[41]

Several other Smithsonian units have lent works as well. More than 20 sculptures from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden are on display at the Annmarie Sculpture Garden in Solomons, Maryland,[42] and Yokohama prints from the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery appeared in Japan After Perry: Views of Yokohama and Meiji Japan at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California.[43] The Historic Arkansas Museum drew on the National Museum of the American Indian for more than 40 artifacts shown in We Walk in Two Worlds: The Caddo, Osage and Quapaw in Arkansas.[44]

Some affiliates have borrowed large groups of objects at once. The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas received over 140 space objects, among them the original Apollo 13 command module and the space suit worn by commanding astronaut James Lovell.[45] The Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska borrowed 174 artifacts for American Originals: Collections from the Smithsonian, including the jacket Bob Keeshan wore while filming the children's television series Captain Kangaroo, a three-wheel Westcoaster Mailster used by the United States Postal Service in the 1960s, and oil paintings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Seneca Chief Red Jacket.[46]

References

Related Articles

Timelines

Top Qs

Fact Checks