popular exhibition Family Folklore came to rest at this 

 summer's Festival of American Folklife, where the Smith- 

 sonian celebrated Iowa's 150th anniversary. In honor of the oc- 

 casion, SITES donated Family Folklore to the people of Iowa, 

 marking the end of the exhibition's 115-stop tour through the 

 Western Hemisphere. Family Folklore, developed by SITES 

 and the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife Programs & Cul- 

 tural Studies, will now circulate among towns in Iowa under 

 the management of the Iowa Humanities Council and the 

 state's sesquicentennial commission. 



The International Gallery turned its attention to the 

 Institution's own family — the Smithsonian staff — by featur- 

 ing Artists at Work: A Smithsonian Celebration of Staff Creativity, 

 an art exhibition organized by the International Gallery and 

 the Smithsonian's 150th Anniversary Committee. John Per- 

 rault, executive director of UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, N.Y., 

 selected 71 works from a pool of more than 150 staff entries. 

 The exhibition, which represented 21 museums and units, fea- 

 tured photographs, mixed-media works, sculptures, painting, 

 fabric art, ceramics, furniture, and other art forms, and was en- 

 thusiastically reviewed in the Washington press. 



The exhibition's introductory statement by Secretary 

 Heyman applauded creativity and artistic inventiveness 

 within the Smithsonian staff and marked highlights in the 

 history of Smithsonian artists and their work from the 

 Smithsonian's beginnings to the present day. Artists at Work 

 celebrated the artistic diversity of the Smithsonian's 

 employees — its curators, cabinet makers, designers, security 

 officers, educators, librarians, and other artist-workers. 



The International Gallery began the year with the debut of 

 Voyages and Visions: Nineteenth-Century Images of the Middle East 

 from the Victoria and Albert Museum. The presentation of the ex- 

 hibition, organized and circulated by SITES, coincided with 

 the annual meeting of the Middle Eastern Studies Association 

 and provided the context for numerous lectures, TSA classes, 

 and workshop demonstrations, all of which drew new audien- 

 ces and supporters to the International Gallery. 



Voyages and Visions and related educational programs are 

 made possible by a generous grant from the Boeing Company. 

 Funding in support of the exhibition publication (co-pub- 

 lished by SITES and the University of Washington Press) was 

 provided by Shell International Petroleum Company, Ltd. Ad- 

 ditional funding was provided by the Drue Heinz Foundation 

 and the British Council. Voyages and Visions, which proved to 

 be popular with Washington's diplomatic community, later 

 enjoyed a successful national tour and left a handsome legacy 

 through a book of the same name. 



Many other SITES publications maintain brisk sales for 

 years after their related exhibition tours have ended. With the 

 new millennium approaching soon, Yesterday's Tomorrous: Past 

 Visions of the American Future has experienced a recent surge in 

 popularity. The book, originally co-published by SITES and 

 Summit Books, a division of Simon and Schuster, was 

 developed to accompany a 1984 SITES exhibition. The Johns 

 Hopkins University Press has re-issued Yesterday's Tomorrous as 



a quality paperback edition in otder to meet public demand. 

 Since its telease, the book has garnered enthusiastic reviews 

 and significant press coverage from an increasingly future- 

 oriented nation. 



Like Americans everywhere, SITES and the International 

 Gallery are busily preparing to gteet the 21st century. While 

 the International Gallery continues to enrich Washington resi- 

 dents and visitors with strong, provocative, and increasingly 

 challenging temporary exhibitions and programming mixes, 

 SITES will serve the nation with ever growing vigor, spread- 

 ing Smithsonian scholarship and collections to the largest 

 cities and the smallest hamlets of America. Bold, resource- 

 stretching partnerships will pro|ect SITES into the next mil- 

 lennium, making Smithsonian resources available to larger 

 and more diverse publics than ever before. 



At SITES and the International Gallery, a 21st-century at- 

 titude has taken hold at every level of the organizations, ensur- 

 ing that Americans will feel more of the Smithsonian's impact 

 in their lives and communities, whether they live a mete three 

 or a full three thousand miles from the Smithsonian's home 

 on the National Mall. 



Office of the Chief Financial Officer 



Rick Johnson, Chief Financial Officer 



The Office of the Chief Financial Officer was established by 

 memo from the Under Secretary dated July 17, 1996. Rick 

 Johnson was named as Chief Financial Officer. The position of 

 Chief Financial Officer continues to be responsible for the 

 Finance area which consists of the Office of the Comptroller, 

 the Office of Contracting 2nd Property Management, the Of- 

 fice of Risk and Asset Management and the Office of Spon- 

 sored Projects. 



Previously the Assistant Secretary for Finance and Ad- 

 ministration served as the Chief Financial Officer of the 

 Smithsonian. That position and Office of the Assistant 

 Secretary for Finance and Administration were abolished. The 

 Finance Offices continue to report to Rick Johnson as they 

 had previously when he served as che Deputy Assistant 

 Secretary for Finance. 



The early part of the year found a great deal of time and ef- 

 fort devoted to attempting to manage Smithsonian activities 

 under the constraints and confusion of government-wide shut 

 downs and operating under Continuing Resolutions, rather 

 than a passed appropriations bill. Additional closings related 

 to weather. This period had a significant negative impact on 

 the finances and the financial management of the Institution. 



There was an attempt during the year to focus on staff con- 

 cerns. Strategies were developed to respond co specific results 

 of an employee survey from the previous year. Action seeps 

 were completed during the year that resulted in expanded 



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