agreements provided a simple standard for the sale of 

 art and a discounted fee for services. 



December I 



■ Exhibition The Tropical Research Institute traveling 

 exhibition "Our Reefs: Caribbean Connections" opened 

 in Jamaica, where it was on view at three sites: Negril, 

 Montego Bay, and Kingston, as part of its travels 

 through the Catibbean area. 



December 4 



■ Training Seminar The Smithsonian Accessibility 

 Program presented a training session titled "An 

 Accessibility Critique of NASM's 'How Things Fly'" 

 exhibition. The session was offered to accessibility 

 liaisons, exhibition designers, and exhibit team mem- 

 bers, as well as all staff responsible for working with the 

 public. Presenting the session was a group of people 

 with disabilities who critiqued the exhibition from both 

 a personal and consumer advocacy perspective. 



December 8-12 



■ Course The course "Preserving Natural History Col- 

 lections" was an introduction to an integrated approach 

 to managing and preserving natural history collections, 

 including risk assessment, categorizing collection 

 specimens, and collection profiling applied to collec- 

 tions-care strategic development, and sponsored by the 

 Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Educa- 

 tion. The course included a full-scale exercise using 

 Smithsonian Institution collections. 



December 10 



■ Ceremony In a ceremony on December 10, National 

 Ait and Space Museum Director Donald D. Engen ac- 

 cepted into the collection a backup "Iridium" 

 spacecraft. This is one of the few "production" models 

 in the collection, and represents achievements in space 

 communications and applications for the public. 



December 1$ 



■ Meeting The Office of Membership and Development 

 and the Office of the Secretary convened five meetings of 

 the executive committee of the Smithsonian Washington 

 Council. The Washington Council is chaired by 

 Washington attorney and philanthropist R. Robert 



Linowes. Four more meetings were held during the 

 year, on January 28, 1998, April 14, June 9, and Septem- 

 ber 17. The group of Washington-area business and 

 philanthropic leaders was formed to extend and deepen 

 Smithsonian services to local residents. 



January ippS 



■ Program The Center for Museum Studies initiates a 

 collaboration with Montgomery Community College, 

 Rockville, Maryland, to establish the Montgomery 

 College Humanities Institute. The institute will host a 

 wide range of scholarly and community-focused 

 activities, including an annual faculty seminar led by a 

 Smithsonian scholar-m-residence; museum-based 

 faculty research fellowships; srudent internships at the 

 Smithsonian; public lectures and symposia; and an 

 enhanced humanities honors program. 



January 



■ Construction The Office of Contracting negotiated and 

 awarded a contract to Tompkins Builders for skylight 

 window, wall replacement and miscellaneous work at the 

 National Air and Space Museum. All the walls and 

 skylights in the Museum will be replaced over 48 months 

 at a cost of $25 million. The museum will temain open 

 throughout the entire construction period, and the build- 

 ing envelope will remain secure and watertight at all times. 



January— March 



■ Exhibition Horticulture Services Division col- 

 laborated with the U.S. Botanical Gardens to mount the 

 fourth annual otchid exhibition in the Ripley Center. 

 The display of over 5,000 orchids attracted more visitors 

 to the Quadrangle than any single ptevious exhibit. 



January 5-p 



■ Collecting Dr. Liza Kirwin, Curatot of Manuscripts 

 for the Archives of American Art traveled to Tesuque, 

 New Mexico (north of Santa Fe), to collect the papers of 

 Chuck and Jan Rosenak. For the past two decades, the 

 Rosenaks have devoted their energies to studying and 

 collecting twentieth-century American folk art. Their 

 papers consist of their research material gathered in the 

 course of writing three books: Museum of American Folk 

 Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art 

 and Artists (1991), The People Speak: Navajo Folk Art 

 (1994), and Contemporary American Folk Art: A Collector's 

 Guide (1996). 



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