Center for Museum Studies 



Rex M. Ellis, Director 



The Center for Museum Studies (CMS) is an outreach office of 

 the Smithsonian that helps museums fulfill their public ser- 

 vice mission. Each year the center offers the museum com- 

 munity a series of workshops and seminars, fellowships, 

 internships and museology advice and information services. 



New initiatives in 1996: the center expanded its electronic 

 outreach with increased presence on the World Wide Web 

 and with the commercial service, America-On Line; began a 

 new fellowship program in Latino Studies; started a new in- 

 tern service with the SI Office of Government Relations to en- 

 courage Smithsonian interns to meet with their congressional 

 representatives; and welcomed Stephen E. Weil, retiring 

 Deputy Director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture 

 Garden as the newly created Emeritus Senior Scholar at the 

 center. 



Special 1996 CMS programming highlights: The center par- 

 ticipated in a pilot program with the Smithsonian Associates 

 to design and deliver unique museum programming co a 

 group of executives from Kraft Foods. The workshop, "Telling 

 Your Story with Stuff," June 7, engaged twenty Kraft Execu- 

 tives in constructing small-scale exhibitions about topics of in- 

 terest to them. CMS also coordinated a round table discussion, 

 October 12, for Smithsonian administrative and management 

 staff featuring recipients of the Robert A. Brooks Award for 

 Administrative Excellence. 



As with other Smithsonian offices, the major event of the 

 yeat for the center was connected to the Institution's year-long 

 150th anniversary celebration. CMS made a major contribu- 

 tion to the field of museum studies when it coordinated 

 "Museums for the New Millennium," a symposium for the 

 museum community held in Washington, DC September 5—7, 

 1996. A subcommittee of the Smithsonian's 150th committee, 

 formed in 1994, began planning the symposium. The Center 

 for Museum Studies agreed to be the organizing office for the 

 event and assumed full responsibility for program develop- 

 ment and faculty recruitment in May, 1996. The resulting pro- 

 gram brought together museum professionals from the 

 United States and abroad to explore the implications of radi- 

 cal social, economic, technological and political change on the 

 nature and structure of museums for the coming decades. 



Through plenary and break -out sessions, symposium 

 speakers and participants identified and interpreted sig- 

 nificant emerging issues in the field, disseminated new infor- 

 mation and divetse perspecti-ves, and examined the role and 

 function of museums in the 21st century. A special feature of 

 the symposium was a technology showcase held during the 

 afternoons of September 6 and 7. Museums from across the 

 Smithsonian, the US, Canada, and France made presentations 

 about innovative museum-related multimedia and Inter- 

 net/World Wide Web projects. 



Nancy Fuller, Research Manager for the Center for Museum 

 Studies, served as the Coordinator for the symposium with as- 

 sistance from Bruce Craig, Communication Manager, who 

 also, along with Magdalena Mieri, Program Specialist at the 

 Center, coordinated the Technology Showcase. Ms. Mieri, 

 along with Bettie Lee, Programs Coordinator, and Tiphanie 

 Richardson, Director's Secretary at the center, assisted in 

 overall symposium development, marketing and logistical 

 arrangements. 



In June, the center created a website (http://www.si.edu/ 

 cms/newmil.htm) for the symposium, including a preliminary 

 agenda, registration form and other information. In a first for 

 the Institution, the entire symposium was presented on the 

 World Wide Web. Complete proceedings and photographs 

 taken during the program were placed on the Web within 24 

 hours of the symposium, allowing anyone with Internet access 

 to "attend." Subsequently, electronic footnotes and other 

 materials have been added to the site, along with areas for 

 visitors to make comments and read those of others regarding 

 both the symposium and the Web site. The symposium Web 

 site has received hundreds of "hits" or visits and has already 

 been incorporated into the curricula of several graduate 

 museum studies programs in the US and Canada. The center 

 is now working with the American Association of Museums 

 on a publication of the symposium proceedings, to be teady in 

 early 1997. 



Despite two federal government shutdowns, winter 

 weacher, and 150th anniversary participation, the center main- 

 tained a full calendar of its regular offerings to the museum 

 community in seven areas: 



I. The center continued its role as a leader in Smithsonian 

 initiatives for the Latino/a community. Magdalena Mieri coor- 

 dinated "Intetpreting Latino Cultures: Research and 

 Museums," June 16—28, an annual partnership program with 

 the Inter Univetsity Program for Latino Research. A new fel- 

 lowship program, also under the coordination of Ms. Mieri, 

 began in 1996. The Graduate Student Fellowships in Latino 

 Studies, funded by the Smithsonian Institution's Latino Initia- 

 tive Pool, began in 1996. The center is currently seeking funds 

 from outside sources to make the program self-reliant. Fellows 

 selected for 1996 were: 



M. Lorena Chambers, University of Michigan Department 

 of History, who explored the gendered representations of the 

 body in visual images that targeted the Mexican communities 

 in the United States between 1919 to 1945. Fath Ruffins, His- 

 torian at the Archives Center, National Museum of American 

 History, and Marvette Perez, Curator at the same museum, 

 served as Ms. Chambers' sponsors. 



Alicia M. Gamez, Stanford University Department of 

 Modern Thought and Literature, investigated how the 19th 

 century American conception of race changes through the len- 

 ses of both textual and visual discourses. Linda Tucker, curator 

 in the Department of Biological Sciences at the National 

 Museum of American History, along with Fath Ruffins and 

 Marvette Perez served as Ms. Gamez s sponsors. 



