Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

Smithsonian in YOUR classroom

At SITES, we’re always looking for new and interesting programs to recommend to our exhibitors. We suggest speakers, workshops, events, educational activities, and more so that our venues can reap the full benefit of hosting one of our exhibitions.

To this end, I was recently introduced to a program at the Smithsonian American Art Museum which matches perfectly with SITES’ core mission of bringing the Smithsonian to YOU.  This distance learning program, called Artful Connections, uses real-time videoconferencing in which museum docents teach lessons about U.S. history and culture using the museums’ extensive holdings of American art. That’s right – it’s basically a Smithsonian-led tour of Smithsonian artwork taking place right in YOUR classroom!  And best of all – it’s FREE!

Topics range from “The Lure of the West” to “Found Object Artworks” and correspond to national education standards. For SITES, I was most interested in the program “America’s Signs & Symbols,” as I suspected the themes would parallel those in our exhibition Becoming American: Teenagers & Immigration, making it an excellent program to recommend to future museums on the tour.

Actually observing the “America’s Signs & Symbols” videoconference helped me understand how the setup works, and how valuable the program really is. The docent sits at studio desk and speaks to a camera, using a computer monitor to zoom and indicate details on artwork seen on the screen in the classroom.  The docent sees what the students see on a one monitor, and another monitor shows video of the classroom itself (the view in this photo was later adjusted to be able to see the students – sweet kindergarteners from my hometown of Greenville, SC!)  This way, the instructor can see both the students and what the students are seeing, which facilitates communication and allows the program to run smoothly.

We’re hopeful that our exhibitors will use Artful Connections and recommend it to schools in their area. It’s another great way to experience the Smithsonian without coming to Washington, DC!

To learn more about Artful Connections or to schedule a tour, visit http://americanart.si.edu/education/video/.

Hey, this is new! Kind of like Facebook, huh?

Meeting an Apollo Astronaut

If you've followed our postings for a while now, you know that I get to work on our space and science exhibitions. Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes (which opened this past weekend in Santa Barbara) has beautiful photographs of the planets and moons. NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration is a wondrous selection of artworks from NASA's art program. In development is Suited for Space, featuring the photographs of Mark Avino and based on the book by Space History curator Amanda Young. I've worked with scientists from the National Air and Space Museum and NASA, but until last week, my connection to real live astronauts had been through the artwork. 

Last Thursday, however, I had the privilege and honor of spending nearly an hour with artist Alan Bean. Name sound familiar? He is not only a painter, but he was the fourth man to set foot on the moon, exactly 40 years ago today, as an Apollo 12 astronaut. And he was the commander of Skylab II, living in space for nearly two full months.

Mr. Bean has graciously offered to loan us one of his recent works to share with the venues hosting NASA | ART. Currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on the mall in Washington, DC, his fabulous paintings will soon have to go back to their owners--all except one, which will be shipped to Colorado Springs to join the NASA | ART exhibition.

What makes Mr. Bean's artwork so special? Well, for one thing, no other artist in the world has ever been to the moon! And the paintings share Mr. Bean's deeply personal stories and memories. Each painting is also textured--little details that you might at first miss: A small bump here, a little scratch there. When I was examining the paintings with Mr. Bean, I learned that those bumps aren't dust or paint--they are pieces of the Apollo 12 heat shield. And that little scratch? Made with Mr. Bean's own hammer, brought back from the moon. The small pieces of fabric are pieces from his own spacesuit's flight patch, or part of the flag, and include bits of moon dust that still cling to the cloth 40 years later.

Looking at a painting with the actual artist is an extraordinary thing, but it is especially out of this world when the artist has lived in space!

From the Field: A Review of Beloved Daughters Exhibition

I’ve just returned from the Western Museums Association annual conference in sandy, sunny San Diego. Two experiences there reminded me that museum exhibitions are powerful forces in educating the public and, perhaps, even making our world a better place.

The first was a keynote lecture by Bob Welch, non-fiction writer and columnist for The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR). Witty and profound, Welch’s comments were inspiring. He described the journey he took in researching his latest book about the first American nurse killed in Europe after D-Day, a Polish immigrant named Frances Slanger. She overcame widespread prejudices against immigrants in 1920s Boston and proved to her teachers that she was smart enough to become a nurse.Through sheer determination, Slanger also overcame military objections to her near-sightedness and was allowed to serve on the front lines in World War II. To Welch (and myself), the preservation and thoughtful presentation of history inspires people; it fuels imagination and creativity and helps us avoid repeating our mistakes. History is full of valuable lessons.

The other experience that gave me pause was a visit to Beloved Daughters: Photographs by Fazal Sheikh at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. The exhibition features MacArthur Fellow and human rights “artist-activist” Fazal Sheikh’s large-scale, black-and-white portraits of girls and women in India. While the photographs were visually haunting, reading the text accompanying the images felt like being kicked in the gut, over and over. Photographed in orphanages, the young girls had been abandoned by their families, who wanted boys instead. Teenage girls became prostitutes, trapped in their circumstances with almost no means of escape, and young wives became victims of spousal abuse as conflicts over dowries or the inability to produce male children drove husbands to physical violence. Without a doubt, this was an eye-opening exhibition, and I’ve seen quite a lot of shows. But Beloved Daughters was the most moving exhibition I’ve ever seen.

--Ed Liskey, Scheduling and Exhibitor Relations Coordinator

A Lunch-time Encounter with Michelle Obama

You never know who you'll meet around the National Mall. SITES registrar Juana Dahlan had a chance encounter with Michelle Obama while picking up some lunch at the Department of Energy today.  

Gotta love it.

African American Art Show Closes

So goes another popular SITES exhibition, Ancestry and Innovation: African American Art from the American Folk Art Museum, ended its national tour in mid-October at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina. Like most exhibitions that include fine art, the exhibition run was only two years--a measure to safeguard the collections from light, temperature, and humidity exposure. You know the rules, but parting is still such sweet sorrow. The objects have now safely made their way back to the American Folk Art Museum in New York.

But people are still talking about the collection of 39 quilts, sculptures, paintings, and works on paper from a host of self-taught black artists such as Clementine Hunter, Kevin Sampson, and Pearlie Posey:

"Odd, strange, and unbelievable!"

"Loved the stories behind the quilts and art work. Such beauty from simple beginnings."

"Impressed by the vitality of the pieces and the naturalness, the imperfection of them."

"Moving stories which enrich already meaningful art! Enjoyed the unexpected twists of humor."

"Very different and strange things, but so, so cool. We loved it!"

"I loved the paintings. They reminded me of spending time with my dad."

>> Check out a few works from the show
>> See kid-made works inspired by the works in the exhibition
>> Read artist biographies