Kong, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines, as 

 well as films from the United States about Asia. Advertise- 

 ments for the series appeared in Asian community newspa- 

 pers, and that exposure helped attract large and diverse 

 audiences to the films. 



The Freer and Sackler Library began major improvements 

 in public service through an automated cataloging system 

 that includes titles in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Library 

 staff have begun to convert the 57,000-volume card catalogue 

 to the electronic database, which eventually will be accessible 

 by computer worldwide. 



Visitors entering the Freer Gallery through the north door can 

 check current exhibitions and the day's events on two interactive 

 video monitors that were installed this year. Designed by gallery 

 staff and made possible by a generous grant from the Smithson- 

 ian Women's Committee, the monitors attracted approximately 

 4,000 visitor queries in the first month of operation. 



The director was host of a reception at the Freer Gallery in 

 honor of the visit of the Dalai Lama in September. His Holi- 

 ness toured the Buddhist galleries and addressed guests about 

 the importance of preserving the cultural heritage of Tibet. 



"Contemporary Japanese Porcelain," an exhibition of recent 

 work by living artists, received top honors as Best Overall Ex- 

 hibition in the 1994 Smithsonian Exhibition Awards. "A 

 Mughal Hunt," which examined the process by which a 

 scholar traces the history of an unidentified work of art, was 

 cited for the excellence of its labels. 



The collections management departments of the Sackler 

 and Freer Galleries were combined in a single department 

 under a head registrar, who oversaw the acquisition of 175 

 works of art through gift, purchase, and transfer to the Sackler 

 Gallery this year. Among the significant gifts were 72 photo- 

 graphs of Asia by Lois Conner; a group of archaic Lunstan 

 bronzes; and a fine 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist sculpture, 

 which was purchased by the Friends of Asian Arts and the 

 Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program. 



A highlight among the 18 gifts, purchases, and transfers to the 

 Freer collection this year was the Portrait of Yamamoto Kamuke, a 

 hanging scroll by Gion Seitoku (1781-1829?), a Japanese artist 

 known for his religious and historical portraiture, as well as for 

 his paintings of courtesans. The subject of the Freer portrait was 

 the trusted adviser and brilliant military strategist for one of 16th- 

 century Japan's most cunning and powerful warlords. The paint- 

 ing was purchased by Friends of Asian Arts and the Smithsonian 

 Collections Acquisition Program. 



Center for Museum Studies 



Rex M. Ellis. Director 



The Center for Museum Studies (CMS) serves a diverse constit- 

 uency of museum professionals, students, volunteers and cul- 

 tural resource specialist by offering courses, seminars, 



fellowships, internships, information services and professional 

 support. CMS is committed to offering programs and services 

 that foster excellence, public service and diversity within the 

 museum community. 



1995 marked a year of change, new beginnings and in- 

 creased private support for the center. In 1995, the Office of 

 Museum Programs changed its name to the Center for Mu- 

 seum Studies. The new name more accurately reflects the mis- 

 sion and function of the office and more clearly aligns with 

 what the museum community has come to accept as the termi- 

 nology defining museum operations. The office mission has 

 always been, primarily, to support external museums and mu- 

 seum staff by providing training, information and professional 

 support in museum operations. The name change will help to 

 accomplish this more effectively as the office seeks to broaden 

 service to a national constituency. The new name also more 

 clearly facilitates and accommodates efforts to build networks 

 with the many colleges and universities that offer courses and 

 degrees in museum studies. 



The center began two programs in 1995: a new workshop 

 series and the Museum Intern Partnership Program. 



Under the direction of Nancy Fuller, Research Manager, 

 the center developed a new workshop series designed primar- 

 ily to meet the needs of staff working in small, emerging, mi- 

 nority and rural museums. The center's objective in offering 

 the new workshop series (Introduction to Public Program- 

 ming, December 5-9; Introduction to Museum Management 

 and Operations, January 23-27; Introduction to Exhibition De- 

 sign and Production, March 6-10; and Introduction to Manag- 

 ing Museum Collections, April 24-28) was to help museums 

 attain effective levels of professional operation to better serve 

 their communities. Class size was intentionally limited to bet- 

 ter meet the individual needs of the participants. 



The center also introduced the Museum Intern Partnership 

 Program, under the direction of Bruce Craig, Communication 

 Manager, and Bob Kidd, Museum Program Specialist. Given 

 the size and scope of the Smithsonian, most of the 

 Institution's interns do not get a museum experience compara- 

 ble to the vast majority of museums in the United States. The 

 Museum Intern Partnership Program provides a complimen- 

 tary internship at a Smithsonian museum or office and at a 

 smaller, community-focused museum. The program gives se- 

 lected interns a well-rounded experience, provides a mecha- 

 nism for Smithsonian staff to work closely with colleagues in 

 other institutions and broadens the dissemination of 

 Smithsonian resources. Three outstanding individuals were se- 

 lected for the first year of the program, funded by a grant 

 from the Smithsonian's Educational Outreach fund and pro- 

 grams funds in the Center for Museum Studies. Partnerships 

 took place at: National African American Museum Project, 

 Washington, DC, and Museum of African Art, Tampa, FL; 

 Anacostia Museum, Washington, DC, and the Motown His- 

 torical Museum, Detroit, MI; and the National Museum of 

 American Art, Washington, DC, and the Institute of Ameri- 

 can Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM. In April, at the end of the pro- 



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