March 2$ 



■ Festival The largest crowd ever — estimated at more 

 than 15,000 people — attended The Smithsonian 

 Associates' 29th annual Kite Festival on the Washing- 

 ton Monument grounds. Kite flyers from all over the 

 world entered the handmade-kite flying contest, and 

 the sky was filled with stunning kite displays provided 

 by contestants and various kite organizations. 



March 26 



■ Public program "A Discussion with Hiroshima 

 Kazuo," whose work was featured in the exhibition "A 

 Basketmaker in Rural Japan" at the Arthur M. Sackler 

 Gallery drew members of the public whose interest had 

 been piqued by Mr. Hiroshima's remarkable repertoire 

 of utilitarian baskets. 



March 27 



■ Neics Conference The Office of Public Affairs organ- 

 ized a news conference to launch the planning and com- 

 memoration of the Smithsonian's 150th anniversary in 

 1996. Secretary I. Michael Heyman described the 

 Institution's plans for the celebration, from the big 

 event on the National Mall to the once-in-a-lifetime 

 traveling exhibition of treasures from the collections. 



March 31 



■ Facility Design The design of the National Museum 

 of the American Indian's Cultural Resources Center in 

 Suitland, Maryland, was completed by the award-win- 

 ning architectural firm of Polshek and Partners of New 

 York City, working with Metcalf Tobey Davis of Res- 

 ton, Virginia, in association with the Native American 

 Design Collaborative. 



Spring 



■ Awards Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum 

 received awards from the Art Director's Club and the 

 Type Director's Club for the museum's new graphic 

 identity program. 



Spring 



■ Publication National Museum of American Art. which 

 invites readers to explore a wide range of the museum's 

 collections, was published by the museum in collabora- 

 tion wMth Bullfinch. Featuring 450 full-color 

 illustrations, the book is organized thematically to re- 



flect the variety of concerns and aesthetic visions that 

 have shaped American art over the past three centuries. 

 It was the Smithsonian's annual gift to almost 80,000 

 Contributing Members. 



April 



■ Exhibition A small-format, free-standing version was 

 developed of the popular National Museum of Ameri- 

 can History-Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibi- 

 tion Service exhibition "Beyond Category: The Musical 

 Genius of Duke Ellington." Two copies of this version, a 

 collaboration between SITES and the American Library 

 Association, opened simultaneously at the Carnegie 

 Library of Pittsburgh and the Providence, Rhode Island, 

 Public Library. SITES also prepared a third copy, which 

 opened at the Broward County Main Library in Fort 

 Lauderdale, Florida. The original exhibition was on 

 view in California at the San Francisco and Monterey 

 Jazz Festivals during the summer of 1995. "Beyond Cate- 

 gory" is part of the program America's Jazz Heritage: A 

 Partnership of the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund 

 and the Smithsonian Institution. 



April 



m Exhibitions The National Air and Space Museum 

 opened two World War II-related exhibitions: "Build- 

 ing the Arsenal of Democracy: World War II Photo- 

 graphs from the National Air and Space Museum 

 Archives" and "Hellcat." 



April 



■ New Laboratory The National Zoo's Department of 

 Zoological Research established a biovisualization lab- 

 oratory. Orchestrated by Dr. Alfred Rosenberger, this 

 state-of-the-art computerized system incorporates dig- 

 itized 3-D imaging and animation. These tools will 

 allow scientists to display and study biological and 

 cultural artifacts, such as animal skulls, in three- 

 dimensional digital form with a high degree of 

 accuracy. 



April 



■ Research The Smithsonian Environmental Research 

 Center initiated seasonal sampling of IOO tributaries 

 of the Rappahannock and Shenandoah Rivers in Vir- 

 ginia for concentrations of nutrients. The sampling 

 was part of the center's overall study of the Chesa- 

 peake Bay watershed. 



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