TSA's studio arcs courses are considered to be among the 

 finest offered in the Washington area. Classes in painting, 

 drawing, photography, and various handicrafts continued to 

 educate and entertain students from beginners to the profi- 

 cient. The numerous photography classes, in particular, 

 proved especially popular, offering participants the oppor- 

 tunity to enhance their artistry as well as to learn darkroom 

 techniques. 



The Online Associate began monthly publication on the 

 World Wide Web to complement the print version of the 

 Resident Associate catalog, enabling Resident members and 

 the general public to keep informed about TSA programs. 



Smithsonian Study Tours 



Acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns, who in February lectured in 

 Washington, D.C., and showed clips from his film Thomas 

 Jefferson, also talked about his recent films when he joined par- 

 ticipants in the Smithsonian Study Tour seminar at Colorado's 

 annual Telluride Film Festival. It was one of the more than 

 350 local, national, and international tours offered by TSA. 

 Film expert Peter Brunette of George Mason University was 

 study leader for this program. 



In April The Smithsonian Associates offered its first Oxford 

 University/Smithsonian study voyage aboard the AITS Arcadia 

 to the Greek Islands. Oxford tutors offered seven on-board 

 seminars on topics including ancient philosophers, the Btonze 

 Age Aegean, and che Ottoman Empire for the 149 Associates 

 who traveled on this unique voyage. 



On "The Golden Spike: A Journey Through History" study- 

 tour, eighty-three Associates traveling by vintage train visited 

 Promontory Summit, Utah, where they participated in the 

 reenactment of the driving of the golden spike that marked 

 the completion of the Transcontinental Railway in 1869. William 

 Withuhn, NMAH curator of transportation, served as study- 

 leader on the tour. 



Local tours offered a wide and exciting variety of onsite 

 learning experiences in the arts, sciences, and humanities. 

 Lasting from a few hours to four days in length, local tours 

 allow participants to join an acknowledged expert in a study 

 of such subjects as art, architecture, drama, nature, geology, 

 history, and ethnic cultures. Sites visited included little- 

 known and well-known, popular attractions of the Mid-Atlantic 

 region. Of particular note this year was the "Hoses, Hook, and 

 Ladders: Washington's Historic Firehouses" tour on July 19. 

 Historian and DC firefighter Richard Schaffer led participants 

 to some twenty historic firehouses in greater Washington, 

 D.C., including two 18th-century structures in Alexandria, 

 Virginia. 



Masters Program in Decorative Arts 



The Masters Program in the History of 19th- and 20th-century 

 American Decorative Arts, established in 1996, welcomed its 

 second class. Students had not only the opportunity to explore 

 the unparalleled collections and libraries of the Smithsonian 



Institution, but also the chance to visit and intern at such 

 renowned institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 

 the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts, 

 Boston. 



As the program grew the curriculum diversified, offering a 

 variety of seminars like "Industrial Design and American 

 Society, 1925— 1965" in addition to survey classes on silver, 

 glass, texciles, and furniture. The program also graduated its 

 first class, and these graduates found positions at such pres- 

 tigious institutions as The White House, the Cranbrook Art 

 Museum, and the Maryland Historical Society. 



National Outreach 



Smithsonian Institutes for "Professionals 



As part of an ongoing telationship with Indiana University, 

 TSA presented a World Affairs Institute for forty participants 

 who came from the state's business, political, and academic 

 communities. Focusing on the challenges facing Europe in the 

 21st century, the program included lectures by notable interna- 

 tional experts from organizations including the Library of 

 Congress, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for 

 Scholars, Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Ad- 

 vanced International Studies, and Columbia University, and 

 events at the embassies of Germany, France, and Great Britain. 

 TSA designed and hosted a behind-the-scenes look at foren- 

 sic science with collections manager David Hunt of the physi- 

 cal anthropology department of NMNH. The thirty-five 

 teachers who participated came from around the country. All 

 were participants in a program with Educational Field 

 Studies, Inc., and served as a focus group to discuss plans for a 

 new TSA program to introduce incoming student groups to 

 the Smithsonian. 



Smithsonian Voices of Discovery 



TSA presented a Smithsonian Voices of Discovery lecrure 

 series in the communities visited by the America's Smithsonian 

 traveling exhibition. In each city — Sc. Paul/Minneapolis, 

 Houston, Portland (OR), Birmingham (AL), and San Jose/ 

 Oakland — free public programs expressing the diversity of 

 Smithsonian tesearch and collections were presented in 

 museums, libraries, business and civic organizations, senior 

 centets, and schools and universities. In addition, a series was 

 presented in San Antonio, where important connections have 

 been made with the Latino community there. Fifty scholars 

 traveled to these cities, conducting 382 presentations and 

 reaching approxjmately 29,000 people. In addition, tens of 

 thousands of people were able to participate via television and 

 tadio broadcasts and online discussions. 



Voices from The Smithsonian Associates® 



The audiocassette series, Voices from The Smithsonian As- 

 sociates®, expanded to seventeen programs selected from 

 popular Resident Associate events, featuring such speakers as 



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