the National Museum of American History to present a sym- 

 posium, "Currents of the Spirit in the African Diaspora." 



In addition, OSEC supervised the special events coinciding 

 with the openings of the following Smithsonian International 

 Gallery exhibitions: "Talents of the Brush," "Sculptures from 

 the Flames," and "The Power of Maps." Other special events 

 coordinated by OSEC included the Small and Disadvantaged 

 Business Utilization Program Reception, the "Black Family 

 Reunion," and the Latino Task Force and Economic Impact 

 Study press conferences. 



Office of Telecommunications 



Paul B. Johnson, Director 



The Office of Telecommunications continued to produce 

 award-winning programs in all media — radio series, videos 

 and interactives in support of exhibitions, and programs 

 for broadcast over public, cable, and commercial outlets. In 

 addition, in FY 1994 the office focused on the Institution's 

 next steps in the development of multimedia projects. Fol- 

 lowing production of two new CD-i titles on blues music, 

 OTC identified appropriate partners and potential funders, 

 researched content development with Smithsonian bureaus, 

 and served as liaison with the electronic media industry for 

 the Smithsonian. 



Pursuing greater outreach to multicultural audiences, OTC 

 and NMAH released three short educational videos inspired 

 by the NMAH "American Encounters" exhibition under an 

 agreement with the government of New Mexico. Focused on 

 cultural traditions of Latino and Native American people, 

 these programs will be distributed to schools through curricu- 

 lum kits and to general audiences. The new videos are "Only 

 Death Will Take Me from This Place," a look at village life in 

 northern New Mexico; "Spreading Beauty Wherever I Go," 

 on the lownder cars of New Mexico; and "Corn Is Who We 

 Are," dealing with Pueblo Indian food. 



The Arts and Entertainment cable network broadcast two 

 programs in a new prime-time series, "Smithsonian Expedi- 

 tion Specials," produced under a collaboration between Hearst 

 Entertainment and the Smithsonian. "The Elephants of Tim- 

 buktu" premiered on Sunday, May 29, and explored the cycle 

 of life for a little-known herd of 500 elephants, who annually 

 migrate 1000 kilometers to their wet-season sanctuary. The 

 second program, "Tree House People: Cannibal Justice," aired 

 on Sunday, July 10, and with Dr. Paul Taylor of NMNH stud- 

 ied the hidden world of the Korowai, an indigenous Indones- 

 ian people untouched by modern times. With Dr. Taylor, 

 viewers discovered elements of Korowai culture, which cen- 

 ters on the construction of houses high in the forest canopy, 

 and may recently have included cannibalism as a method of 

 capital punishment. 



Radio Smithsonian became one of the leading suppliers of 

 programs for public radio, with an annual output of approxi- 

 mately 50 hours of original programming and 30 hours of re- 

 peat broadcasts. Its newest series, "Jazz Smithsonian," 

 premiered in January on more than 170 stations in the United 

 States and on national netwotks in Australia and New Zea- 

 land. Hosted by Lena Home, the series features performances 

 by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and excerpts 

 from |azz oral histories collected by the Smithsonian. 



The fourth season of "Folk Masters," a series of 26 one-hour 

 performance programs of traditional music of the America's re- 

 corded at The Barns of Wolf Trap, aired on more than 75 

 tadio stations in the United States and on BBC Scotland. 

 Again this year the Corporation for Public Broadcasting pre- 

 sented Radio Smithsonian a Silver Award for Performance Pro- 

 gramming and a Gold Award for Special Achievement. 



The Corporation for Public Broadcasting awarded Radio 

 Smithsonian $144,000 for a new series entitled "Black Radio: 

 Telling It Like It Was," exploring the history of black- 

 oriented radio in the United States. Public Radio Inter- 

 national will distribute the series, scheduled to air in 1996. 



Radio Smithsonian recorded chamber music concerts at the 

 Freer and Sackler Galleries and performances by the Smithson- 

 ian Chamber Music Society for broadcast on the National Pub- 

 lic Radio daily program, "Performance Today," heard on more 

 than 100 stations throughout the country. Funding for record- 

 ing of the Freer/Sackler concerts was provided by The Island 

 Fund in the New York Community Trust. 



Under an agreement with public radio's acclaimed docu- 

 mentary series "Soundprint," Radio Smithsonian produced 

 the first of six planned half-hour radio documentaries on 

 Smithsonian scientific research. "Tides of Maine" accompa- 

 nied Marine Systems Laboratory director Walter Adey to vari- 

 ous research facilities and on an expedition to the Gulf of 

 Maine. The program aired twice in 1994 on more than 200 

 public radio stations. The remaining five programs in the col- 

 laboration are in development and will air in early 1995. 



In the area of exhibition programs, the office produced five 

 video portraits to accompany "Reporting the War: The Jour- 

 nalistic Coverage of World War II," which opened at NPG in 

 April, 1994. Featured were cartoonist Bill Mauldin, broad- 

 caster William Shirer, field artist Bernard Perlin, and writers 

 John Hersey and Robert St. John. 



OTC also produced the audio-visual elements for a SITES 

 exhibition, "Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy." The com- 

 pleted products are three short videos and two compact discs 

 that appear at various stations throughout the installation. 

 The exhibition, which premiered at the Queens Museum in 

 New York in fall, 1994, will travel to Dallas, Chicago, Charles- 

 ton, New Orleans, Rochester, and Savannah over two years, 

 ending its run in Washington at NPG. 



OTC collaborated with V1ARC to produce an updated ver- 

 sion of the theater video and the interactive orientation to the 

 Smithsonian museums. The expanded information disc, 

 which now includes the new National Postal Museum and the 



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