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Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 1999 



June 24 



■ Concert The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage 

 held the fifth annual Friends of the Festival Ralph Rinzler 

 Memorial Concert, featuring two bands from recent immi- 

 grant groups. The Yuri Yanakov Band performs music from 

 Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia, and Ensemble 

 Tereza presented Mountain Jewish music. 



June 24 



■ Exhibition The SITES exhibition "This Land is Your 

 Land: The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie," the first 

 comprehensive exhibition about the revered musician and 

 artist, opened to stellar reviews at the Autry Museum of 

 Western Heritage in Los Angeles. 



June 24 



■ Purchase agreement The Office of Contracting negotiated 

 an agreement with The John Akridge Company to purchase 

 the Victor Building at 9th and H Streets, NW 



June 25 



■ Publication Conrad Labandeira and Peter Wilf of the 

 National Museum of Natural History's Paleobiology 

 Department authored a report "Response of Plant-Insect 

 Associations to Paleocene-Eocene Warming" that appeared 

 in the journal Science. They studied insect damage on fossil 

 plants during a time that is associated with the greatest rise 

 in global temperatures during the past 65 million years. 

 Their research demonstrated that insect herbivores re- 

 sponded by increased levels of herbivory and in the variety of 

 damage types on host-plant species. 



June 25— July 3 



■ Panda acquisition discussions A National Zoo team visits 

 China to discuss the possibility of acquiring pandas. 



June 27-30 



■ Conference The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage 

 cohosted with UNESCO a working conference, "A Global 

 Assessment of the 1989 Recommendation on the Safeguard- 

 ing of Traditional Culture and Folklore: Local Empowerment 

 and International Cooperation." The conference brought to- 

 gether international scholars and institutional direcrors from 

 24 nations who have participated in regional UNESCO con- 

 ferences leading up to this meeting. 



June 28-July 3 



■ Conference The 1999 meeting of the Society for the 

 Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) took 

 place at the Smithsonian Institution. The conference was 

 cosponsored by two Smithsonian units with an active inter- 

 est in the area of preservation of science collections, the 



Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education 

 and the National Museum of Natural History, and attracted 

 around 200 attendees from all over the United States and 

 Canada. The program included scientific sessions in the Rip- 

 ley auditorium, field trips to various Smithsonian sites, and 

 workshops on particular subjects of practical interest. 



June 28-August 9 



■ International training course "Preservation for Paper-based 

 Collections," a six-week international course, was organized 

 and hosted by the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research 

 and Education in collaboration with the International Centre 

 for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural 

 Property (ICCROM) in Rome. ICCROM is an intergovern- 

 mental organization with 92 member states, of which the 

 United States is one. Thirteen professionals, including con- 

 servators, librarians, archivists, and curators, from Australia, 

 Brazil, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, 

 the Solomon Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, Sweden, the 

 United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe, participated in this event, 

 a first in the United States. The curriculum materials for this 

 course, which is a direct extension of other SCMRE educa- 

 tional programs in the area of paper-based research collection 

 preservation, are all Web based. 



June 29 



■ Exhibition "El Nuevo Mundo/The New World: The 

 Landscape of Latino LA," Coopet-Hewitt, National Design 

 Museum. 



June 29 



■ Exhibition "Under the Sun: An Outdoor Exhibition of 

 Light," Enid Haupt Garden, Smithsonian Mall, Washington, 

 D.C., Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. 



June 30-July 2 



■ Workshop The Tropical Research Institute's FACE (Free 

 Atmosphere Carbon Enhancement) Ring Project held a 

 workshop to review the progress of the prototype project, 

 reach a consensus on the scientific direction of the Panama 

 FACE site, and elaborate a funding strategy. The project was 

 officially inaugurated during the workshop with the atten- 

 dance of Panamanian, U.S., and Canadian officials and 

 represenratives from the agencies and corporations involved. 



July 



■ Award Dr. Caroline Jones, assistant professor of contem- 

 porary art and criticism at Boston Univeisity, has been 

 awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum's 1999 

 Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in 

 American Art for her book Machine in the Studio: Constructing 

 the Postwar American Artist (University of Chicago Press, 

 1997)- 



