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Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 2000 



Judges a Magazine Editor by His Cover. The renowned satirist 

 and graphic artist presented a slide lecture linking images 

 from NPG's exhibition of his work with his experiences 

 working with the press over the last 40 years. The program 

 was supported by The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz 

 Foundation. 



December 5 



■ Lecture For the seventh annual Mordes Lecture in Con- 

 temporary Art at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture 

 Garden, curator Madeleine Grynsztejn of the Carnegie 

 Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, gave a talk en- 

 titled "The 1999/2000 Carnegie International," in which she 

 discussed the process, problems, progress, and implications 

 of scouring the world to assemble a major exhibition that 

 summarizes international contemporary art. The Carnegie 

 International, a periodic survey, is one of the oldest such 

 exhibitions in the world. As the 1999 Mordes lecturer, 

 Grynsztejn joined a roster of such internationally respected 

 art-world figures as New York Times art critic Roberta Smith 

 and Director Nicholas Serota of the Tate Gallery in London 

 who have participated since 1994 in the yearly lecture series 

 under the sponsorship of patrons and contemporary art col- 

 lectors Dr. Marvin and Elayne Mordes of Baltimore. 



December 7 



■ Event The Smithsonian American Art Museum hosted a 

 press breakfast to announce the "Treasures to Go" tour. 

 Members of the media we invited on a behind-the-scenes 

 tour of the variety of activities necessary to organize one of 

 the most extensive art tours ever, including a visit to the 

 conservation labs and a demonstration of how to securely 

 crate and ship artworks. A number of artists were included 

 in the festivities: Jacob Kainen, Pepon Osorio, and William 

 Christenberry. 



December 7 



■ Special went The Annual Appreciation Reception for the 

 Visitor Information and Associates' Reception Center's Corps 

 of Volunteer Information Specialists included remarks by 

 Smithsonian Under Secretary Constance B. Newman. 



December 8 



■ Donation Winton M. "Red" Blount pledges $10,000,000 

 to the National Postal Museum for the creation and opera- 

 tion of the Blount Center for Postal Studies. 



December 9 



■ Exhibition "Digilab," at the National Museum of Ameri- 

 can History, offers a unique behind-the-scenes view into the 

 applications of modern technology, allowing visitors to view 

 the scanning of objects and photographs to create 3-D digi- 

 tal images, Web sites, and other digital archives. 



December 1 1 



■ Public program "Working and Playing with Robots: A 

 Family Robot Day" sponsored by the National Museum of 

 American History's Lemelson Center. A day-long exploration 

 of real robots. Akhil Madhani discussed his award-winning 

 robot inventions. NMAH Curator Steve Lubar discussed ro- 

 bots in the collection including one of the original C-3PO 

 costumes. The RoboCup teams of Carnegie Mellon and Cor- 

 nell Universities demonstrated soccer-playing robots. 



December 15 



■ Exhibition Featuring objects both extraordinary and 

 everyday and resonant voices from Africa and the African 

 diaspora, "African Voices" opened at the National Museum 

 of Natural History. The new permanent exhibition examines 

 the history, diversity, dynamism, and influence of Africa's 

 peoples and cultures. The African Voices Project includes the 

 permanent exhibition along with changing exhibits, an elec- 

 tronic resource center, a Web site, and on-going local and 

 national educational programs. The Web site was honored 

 with several awards. 



December 1 5 



■ SIRIS goes live The Smithsonian Library Catalog, part of 

 the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System 

 (SIRIS), moved to a new system, Horizon, after months of 

 intensive work by staff of the Libraries and the Office of In- 

 formation Technology. The catalog includes holdings of 20 

 of the Institution's libraries. 



December 1 7 



■ Award The Archives of American Art receives $25,000 

 from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. 



December 1 7 



■ Donation The National Postal Museum received a George 

 Boutwell Album of U.S. federal and private revenue proofs 

 (ca. 1862—74) from W Curtis Livingston. 



December 18 



■ Public program The National Museum of African Art 

 hosted a Kwanzaa celebration, cosponsored with the Smith- 

 sonian's National Museum of Natural History and Anacostia 

 Museum and Center for African American History and 

 Culture, which highlighted African and African American 

 collections at the Smithsonian, with many varied programs 

 for youth and adults. 



December 18-March 19 



■ Traveling exhibition "Teddy Roosevelt: Icon of the Ameri- 

 can Century," an exhibition co-organized by the National 

 Portrait Gallery and the National Park Service, U.S. Depart- 



