16 



Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 2000 



connecting communities to the Smithsonian for more than 

 50 years. This year, SITES sent 47 exhibitions to 163 locales, 

 reaching about 5 million people. 



The enormously popular "Star Wars: The Magic of Myth," 

 originally shown at the National Air and Space Museum, 

 broke attendance records at the Field Museum in Chicago. The 

 museum was the third stop on a seven-city tour that this year 

 included the San Diego Museum of Art and the Minneapolis 

 Institute of Arts. SITES has collaborated with Lucasfilms on a 

 number of educational outreach projects, including a distance 

 learning program through the Fairfax Network in Virginia 

 that was set for broadcast in November 2000. 



Creating community linkages is part of SITES' mission. 

 For "On Miniature Wings: Model Aircraft of the National 

 Air and Space Museum," SITES joined with the Academy of 

 Model Aeronautics to create educational programs for stu- 

 dents in each tour-city museum. Teacher resource material, 

 developed with an advisory committee of educators, is tied 

 to math and science curricula. SITES' successful rural initia- 

 tive, Museum on Main Street, took the exhibition "Barn 

 Again!" to 200 towns this year. With a grant from the John 

 S. and James L. Knight Foundation, SITES is developing a 

 new exhibition in the series Yesterday's Tomorrows: Pasr 

 Visions of the American Future. 



Where else but at the Smirhsonian Folklife Festival could 

 you listen to Tibetan monks engaging in vigorous religious 

 debate, residenrs of the nation's capital reminiscing about 

 their neighborhoods, and South Texas conjunto musicians 

 performing for a dance party? This 34th annual living exhi- 

 bition, a program of the Center for Folklife and Cultural 

 Heritage, attracted a diverse audience of more than 1.2 

 million people to the Smithsonian's neighborhood on the 

 National Mall during 10 days in June and July. The featured 

 programs were the cultures, communities, and traditions of 

 Tibet, the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin in Texas and Mexico, 

 and Washington, D.C. Special events included a visit from 

 the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, 

 who participated in a traditional peace ritual called a Mon- 

 lam Chenmo and gave a free public address. 



Programs for students and teachers capitalize on the 

 Smithsonian's extraordinary potential as a learning resource. 

 More than 6.5 million schoolchildren visited the Smithson- 

 ian this year, and some 24,000 teachers used Smithsonian 

 professional development resources. 



The annual Teacher's Night at the Smithsonian, hosted by 

 the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies 

 (SCEMS) and sponsored by the Clark- Winchcole Founda- 

 tion, attracted more than 2,000 educators from nearly 50 

 school disrricts. Educators can find more information on-line 

 at the new Field Trips and Learning Resources Web site (edu- 

 cate. si.edu), developed by SCEMS. 



In every Smithsonian museum, educators find food for 

 thought and useful teaching tools. "Whose Beauty Is It?," a 

 workshop for elementary through high school teachers pre- 

 sented by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and 

 the National Museum of African Art, raised questions about 

 beauty in art to stimulate future classroom discussions and 

 field trips. The workshop was so successful that it sparked 



plans for similar collaborative workshops among Smithson- 

 ian museums. 



For preschoolers ages 2 through 4, the National Postal 

 Museum introduced a fanciful tour called Let's Deliver Mail. 

 Children uncover the mystery of mail delivery by tracing the 

 travels of three make-believe characters through the mail 

 system. Early childhood specialists and museum educators 

 profit from the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center's latest 

 training seminar, "Creating Collections in the Classroom," 

 which complements the "Learning Through Objects" semi- 

 nar offered twice a year. A scholarship program enables 

 teachers working with low-income children in the Washing- 

 ton, D.C, metropolitan area to participate. 



Smithsonian museums have a lot to offer adolescents and 

 young adults, who typically lack consistent involvement with 

 museums. The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's 

 comprehensive design and career awareness program series for 

 high school students, Design Directions, doubled in size this 

 year with 600 participants. The National Museum of African 

 Art hosted its first-ever College Night, attended by 1 ,000 

 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 30 col- 

 leges and universities. The National Museum of Natural 

 History hosted the first annual Discovery Young Scientist 

 Challenge, a nationwide scholarship contest for middle school 

 students sponsored by Discovery Communications, Inc., in 

 partnership with Science Service. Forty finalists competed for 

 the $10,000 top prize by working with museum scienrists in 

 their laboratories on "science challenges." 



Family days at the National Museum of American History, 

 Behring Center reflected the exuberance of the American ex- 

 perience. Playful innovation with a purpose took center stage 

 in a day-long demonstration of robotics sponsored by the 

 Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. 

 For the family program "Tales from the Land/Cuentos de la 

 Tierra," storytellers shared tales originating in different com- 

 munities, from Native American hunting and gathering 

 thousands of years ago to migrant farm labor today. 



On a local, regional, and national scale, the Institution 

 has stepped up its efforts to welcome more people — espe- 

 cially minorities and new Americans — into the Smithsonian 

 experience. 



Bhangra, a traditional Punjabi folk dance, has found re- 

 newed popularity, especially among South Asian youth who 

 mix it with rap and hip-hop beats. Four groups of Bhangra 

 dancers performed in "From Roots to Shoots," the biggest 

 drawing card in the series of Heritage Month events spon- 

 sored by the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum 

 Studies. 



During the five Herirage Months — Hispanic Heritage, 

 American Indian Heritage. Black History, Women's History, 

 and Asian Pacific American Herirage — Smithsonian muse- 

 ums and centers presented more than 150 lectures, films, 

 performances, and programs. More than 2,000 people partici- 

 pated — twice as many as last year. 



Building bridges through community organizations, the 

 Program for Asian Pacific American Studies (PAPAS) has 

 established connections with the growing local population 

 of recent immigranr children from Asia. Working with 



