Chronology 



143 



October 16 and April 1 



■ Panel discussions A National Museum of African Art panel 

 discussion on "Kente Is Not Just a Cloth: Reflections on 

 Kente" brought together scholars from Ghana and the United 

 States who explored kente cloth production, design, aesthet- 

 ics, and use in Ghana, the United States, and around the 

 world. Another panel discussion was organized on the topic 

 of "Perspectives on Art of the Oshogbo School" with panelists 

 offering diverse views regarding the history, development, 

 and importance of art and attists from the Oshogbo school. 



October 1 6-April 1 7 



■ Exhibition "History in a Vacuum" showcase at the Na- 

 tional Museum of Ametican History. Focuses on housework 

 with an emphasis on the changing practices of cleaning car- 

 pets and floors. 



October 1 7 



■ Exhibition "Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur" 

 opened at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The exhibition of- 

 fered a rare look into the traditions of royal life and death in 

 Mesopotamia nearly 5,000 years ago. Among the 150 objects 

 on view were jewelry in gold and semiprecious stones; ancient 

 musical instruments; tools and weapons in precious metals; 

 and cylinder seals depicting royal celebrations and rituals. 



October 21 -November 4 



■ Study tour Smithsonian Study Tours, a division of The 

 Smithsonian Associates, journeyed to Saudi Arabia for the 

 first time on a study tour rhat included visits to Riyadh, 

 Medina, andjeddah. 



October 22-January 3 



■ Exhibition "Edward Hooper: The Watercolors" opened at 

 the Smithsonian American Art Museum to large crowds that 

 continued for the entire run of the exhibition. This was the 

 first major exhibition in 40 years of Hopper's watercolors. 

 The exhibition, co-organized with the Montgomery Museum 

 of Fine Arts, featured 56 watercolors made between 1923 

 and the mid- 1940s, ranging from early scenes of Gloucesrer 

 and Cape Cod to works painted on trips to Mexico and 

 Charleston. These rarely seen masrerworks are the body of 

 work that brought Hopper, then in his forties, his first criti- 

 cal and financial success. An on-line virtual exhibition that 

 looks at Hopper's life and art was created by museum staff 

 and remains on the Web site. Senators Bob Kertey (D-Neb.) 

 and Robert Bennett (R-Utah), both longtime atts advocates, 

 are honorary patrons for the exhibition. 



October 26 



■ Exhibition "Two Views of Venice: Canaletto and Menpes," 

 Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. 



October 1 8-22 



■ Professional outreach In collaboration with George 

 Washington University's Museum Studies Program, the 

 Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education 

 offers the firsr of a series of courses on properties and preser- 

 vation of cultural materials, for an audience of students in 

 the art appraisal program. This firsr course, and a subsequent 

 one (November 1—5) dealt with the technology of furniture 

 making; two more week-long courses in July 2000 dealt 

 with technology and preservation of paper, glass and ceram- 

 ics, and metals. 



October 1 9 



■ Benefit The Archives of American Art honors American 

 artist Ellsworth Kelly at its annual gala benefit dinner in 

 New York City. 



October 1 9 



■ Exhibition The Archives of American Art opens the exhibi- 

 tion "Ellsworth Kelly: Selections from His Archives" in the 

 Gallery Space of the Archives' New York Regional Center. 



October 20 



■ Management excellence The Board of Trustees of the 

 Archives of American Art meets at the Metropolitan Mu- 

 seum of Art, New York. 



October 26 



■ Public program Reception and screening of documentary 

 film They Served with Pride. Cosponsored by the Organization 

 of Chinese Americans. 



October 26-27 



■ Symposium "American Indian Origins: Cultural, Hisrori- 

 cal, and Scientific Undersrandings" explored the origins of 

 indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. The distin- 

 guished panel of Native and non-Native presenters for this 

 symposium included elders, archeologists, anthropologists, 

 histotians, and linguists, who will share perspectives on 

 American Indian emergence from their particular culture 

 and knowledge traditions. 



October 27 



■ IMAX®film Galapagos, a new 3-D IMAX® film, co- 

 produced by the National Museum of Natural History and 

 featuring its scientists, premiered in the museum's Samuel C. 

 Johnson Theater. The film explores a place few people have seen 

 — the Galapagos Archipelago and the sea around it. Galapagos 

 captures on film some of the Earth's most remarkable animal life, 

 including deep-sea species discovered during filming. 



October 29-30 



■ Conference Michael Lang, Smithsonian Scientific Diving 

 Officer in the Office of the Undet Secretary for Science, 



