44 



Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 2000 



"Directions" shows this year included three artists whose 

 choice of artistic media set them apart from their peers. 

 Pakistani-born Shahzia Sikander uses traditional watercolor 

 and natural vegetable pigments to create luminous, vividly 

 detailed, often autobiographical images of figures, creatures 

 and landscape elements. Her work deliberately evokes 

 ancient traditions of Muslim and Hindu miniatures yet ex- 

 presses a purely personal vision. American artist Leonardo 

 Drew, by contrast, has earned acclaim for his large, wall- 

 mounted sculptures made from the detritus of contemporary 

 society. The use of the distressed found objects collected 

 by the artist comment on both Drew's southern Black her- 

 itage and America's industrial past. Cathy de Monchaux's 

 enigmatic mixed-media sculptural forms suggest aspects 

 of animal and human anatomy to some, medieval appara- 

 tuses to others, science-fiction inventions to still more. 

 Her use of a mixture of sumptuous fabric and cold metal 

 make her works appear simultaneously seductive and 

 threatening. 



Further broadening its reach, geographical representation, 

 and the ambition of its activities, the museum's Board of 

 Trustees continued to expand in number. New members in- 

 clude community leaders Jacqueline Leland and Barbara 

 Levine, both of Washington, D.C., and business executives 

 Steven Oliver of the San Francisco Bay Area and Steven 

 Mnuchin of New York City. The museum's long-planned 

 program of institutional development was launched in Octo- 

 ber with the establishment of its first development office. In 

 July, the Hitshhorn issued its first direct mail solicitation for 

 unrestricted contributions with an appeal letter sent to more 

 than 6,800 individuals. The development staff worked 

 closely with the Director and Board of Trustees to finalize 

 planning documents in preparation for a proposed endow- 

 ment campaign. 



Acquisitions this year were highlighted by Untitled 

 (Library), 1999, by British sculptor Rachel Whiteread 

 (b. 1963), further strengthening the museum's world- 

 renown collection of modem and contemporary sculpture. 

 This piece is one of a series of works that grew out of White- 

 read's commission for the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna, 

 Austria and, like its genesis, was produced through the 

 process of directly casting the space around the objects rather 

 than the objects themselves. Important works by Jannis 

 Kounellis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, John Currin, Cathy de 

 Monchaux, and Arshile Gorky were also among the year's 

 acquisitions. 



Following the mid-year departure of Neal Benezra, Assis- 

 tant Director for Art and Public Programs, the Hirshhorn 

 welcomed the announcement of Kerry Brougher to the posi- 

 tion of Chief Cutator in July. Mr. Brougher, who cocurated 

 the Ed Ruscha exhibition on view at the Hitshhorn this year, 

 was previously Director at the Museum of Modern Art in 

 Oxford, England. The museum also welcomed a second 

 fundraising professional to the newly-formed Development 

 Office and the Education Department added a program as- 

 sistant to coordinate the many public programs created for 

 children and adults. 



National Air and Space Museum 



John R. Doiley, Director 



John R. (Jack) Dailey, retired U.S. Marine Corps general and 

 pilot, assumed the duties of director of the National Air and 

 Space Museum in January 2000. General Dailey came to the 

 museum from the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis- 

 tration (NASA), where he had been the Associate Deputy 

 Administtator since retiring from the U.S. Marine Corps in 

 1992. 



In January, the Smithsonian Board of Regents voted to 

 recognize the extraordinary generosity and dedication of 

 Steven F. Udvar-Hazy by naming the new aviation and space 

 center at Washington Dulles International Airport in his 

 honor. The center's observation tower will be named for the 

 late Donald D. Engen. The capital campaign for the center 

 was launched on October 8, 1999. 



General Dailey will continue the effort to open the Steven 

 F. Udvar-Hazy Center by December 2003. A large part of the 

 focus of the museum in fiscal year 2000 was on preparing to 

 build the Center and on preparing the national collections 

 now in storage at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restora- 

 tion and Storage Facility for the move. In conjunction with 

 the Under Secretary for American Museums and National 

 Programs, rhe museum established an Si-wide Ovetsight and 

 Control Board to help ensure the successful completion and 

 opening of the Center. 



General Dailey was selected by his fellow Commission 

 members to serve as the chair of the U.S. Centennial of Flight 

 Commission. The Commission was established by Congress 

 in 1998 to assist in coordinating a wealth of educational and 

 other public outreach activities surrounding the celebration 

 of the centennial of powered flight in December 2003. 



The museum's renovation project continued, with com- 

 pletion scheduled for July 2001. 



Collections and Research 



The three scholarly divisions at the National Air and Space 

 Museum, Aeronautics, Space Hisrory, and the Center for 

 Earth and Planetary Studies (CEPS), continued their work in 

 scientific and historical research, collecting significant arti- 

 facts and developing exhibitions related to all aspects of 

 aviation and space flight. 



The Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight 

 series published its firsr volume, Beyond the Moon: A Golden 

 Age of Planetary Exploration. 1971-1978, written by Robert 

 S. Kraemer and published by Smithsonian Institution Press. 

 Perer Jakab's The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville 

 Wright also was published by Smithsonian Institution Press. 



The research highlight in the Division of Space History 

 was rhe publication, with favorable reviews (including one 

 in the New York Times Book Section), of curator's David 

 DeVorkin's book Henry Norris Russell: Dean of American 

 Astronomers. It was published by Princeton University 

 Press. 



