We are mourning the loss of a wonderfully creative and supportive collaborator, Jane Nebel Henson, who passed away last week. SITES had the great fortune to have partnered with her on the incredibly popular traveling exhibition, Jim Henson's Fantastic World, on the road from 2007 to 2012. The exhibition celebrated the creative genius of Jane’s late husband and creative partner, Jim who is known world-wide as the force behind Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, the Fraggles, and so much more. As we worked with Jane, it became clear that although she was promoting Jim’s legacy, his genius didn’t stand... Continue reading

After a long winter with historic storms hitting many parts of the country, we’re looking forward to ditching our coats to celebrate spring and Earth Day on April 22nd. Exhibits about the Earth and the natural world are popular topics for SITES, and the following exhibits help museums and cultural organizations connect their communities with this vital subject matter. Nature’s Best Photography: Windland Smith Rice International Awards features 48 stunning images of animals and landscapes from around the world. With the national tour beginning in April 2014, the exhibition showcases amazing animal behaviors and dramatic natural landscapes through award-winning oversized... Continue reading

It's not often that I'd walk down the hallway of our Washington, DC, offices mouthing the word "Sweet!" and freely delivering high fives to any hand that might be within reach. But, it also wasn't any old day. This was the moment that we found out that we'd received funding to build our first exhibition-specific app--joy, excitement, anticipation. Oh, the possibilities! Fast forward 16 months. The excitement is still there, knowing that we delivered an engaging and educational product, but the lyrics from that old song "Ooh La La" by Faces (1973) keeps playing on my iPhone: "I wish that... Continue reading

February is officially Black History Month, but SITES has a strong commitment to presenting exhibitions that celebrate and explore the African American experience which you can host any time of the year. Share with your audience Romare Bearden’s vibrant collages that reimagine Homer’s "The Odyssey" or the expressive figural paintings and landscapes of seminal artist William H. Johnson. And in Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight, the story of African American pioneers in aviation like Bessie Coleman and the Tuskegee Airmen is brought to the forefront as an important chapter in American history. IndiVisible traces the histories and experiences of... Continue reading

Recently, we said farewell to a trusted and respected member of our staff. Jeffrey E. Thompson, a project director at SITES for some 20 years, will be missed by many, including those who shared these thoughtful rembrances of our friend Jeff: "What I will remember most about Jeff were his precise, artful and almost loving movements in preparing his loose-leaf green tea, filling his stylish, white ceramic teapot, soaking the tea and then cleaning his utensils, several times a day in our small kitchen at SITES. It was like being an accidental witness to a calming and deliberate tea ceremony... Continue reading

You know the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." We're happy to report that the trash-to-treasure phenomenon can now be applied to Smithsonian traveling exhibitions! The Centro de Ciencias y Artes A.C, Planetario Alfa in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, is preparing a Spanish presentation of SITES’ digital exhibition, Green Revolution, to open on March 15, 2013. Planetario staff members, school groups and general visitors recently created an 8 x 79 foot mural on the exterior of their building, made entirely of 60,000 bottle caps. One complimentary entrance pass was given for every 50 bottle caps... Continue reading

Feedback is great. We do what we do because we believe that somehow our work makes a difference to people, and when folks take the time to tell us that we're doing a good job, we can't help but take it in and flash a small but satisfied smile, knowing that someone out there has been enriched by our work. Here's a letter one of our project directors recently received in reference to our FREE poster exhibit "Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Project, 1942-1964." Dear Amanda, I can't begin to tell you the effect the Bracero Posters have had on me.... Continue reading

This weekend, SITES newest exhibition Mail Call opens at the Spartanburg County Public Library in South Carolina. Mail Call explores the vital connections between military service members and their family and friends--as told in letters penned over the centuries, from the American Revolution through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At its heart, the exhibition is a homage to the power of words and to human communications at times of distress as well as triumph. Some of the most compelling letters in the exhibition were written by members of the Walters family during the Civil War. Private David Walters (Company... Continue reading

The folks here are SITES are, well, diversified. We've got experts on just about everything from putting together 100+ object traveling exhibitions to writing press releases to developing and designing poster sets for mass distribution. SITES' Director of Strategic Communications, Andrea Stevens, is our woman on the ground in the last catogory. She's been at the forefront of producing a cache of free, educational poster sets that are, in turn, distributed to thousands and thousands of teachers, librarians, and community leaders across the country. Her latest project tells the little-known but fascinating story of the Bracero Program--the largest guest worker... Continue reading

Yep. It's an official homecoming for Elvis at 21, Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer this week. The national traveling exhibition is now open for business at the Pink Palace Museum in Elvis' hometown. What can you say about Memphis? It's food, it's music, it's an iconic American city to be sure. Here's a bit of background about the destination from our Elvis at 21 co-curator Warren Perry, a writer and researcher at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery who also happens to be a Memphis native: "Before Elvis came along, Memphis was a cotton town and built on river commerce. Alongside and... Continue reading

A few months ago, my mom sent me an old homework assignment that she had found--a paper that I wrote and illustrated in the second grade. The topic: my hero, Sally Ride. It was 1983, and Ride was about to become the first American woman in space. For a little girl, it was exciting. And Ride's amazing first space flight sparked my imagination, inspiring a life-long interest in the space program. From that day on, I wanted to be an astronaut. I loved science and tuned in for as many shuttle launches as I could. I even went to Space... Continue reading

Our traveling exhibition William H. Johnson: An American Modern is currently on display at Morgan State University’s James E. Lewis Museum, in Baltimore, Maryland, through June 31st. While you might be familiar with the artist William H. Johnson, you may not know the story behind how Johnson’s artwork came into the Smithsonian's collection. The Institution was among three pivotal and inextricably linked players in the history of Johnson’s artwork, the others being Dr. James E. Lewis and the Harmon Foundation. A bit of background: William H. Johnson was born in Florence, South Carolina, in 1901, and is considered an important... Continue reading

So, I determined that garage sales and flea markets are to many museum people what water and bread are to everybody else. We love old stuff. And, what passionate art collector, what red-blooded American historian hasn't tuned in to PBS' "Antiques Road Show" at one time or another, only to be flabbergasted by someone who paid .25 for an item at a rummage sale and discovered that it was a piece of Newcomb pottery or a Chinese jade from the 16th century? That didn't exactly happen to me (I wish), but I did manage to pick up a gem of... Continue reading

In the fall of this year, SITES launches a new exhibition that tells the story of Americans at war--gathered not from the accounts of generals or historians but from soldiers who fought on the front lines during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and all the other major conflicts, leading us right up to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mail Call is slated to open at the Spartanburg County Public Library in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and reveals the quiet, sometimes agonized words of soldiers as they articulated matters of love, life, and death. Often soldiers penned letters to fill... Continue reading

Sometimes, less is more. After considering a number of high-tech ways to engage with our Suited for Space exhibition audiences, we decided on three very basic tools--pens, pencils, and sticky notes. Yes, the exhibit itself is about innovation and technology, but no modern device has the universal ability to convey information like a good, old-fashioned writing implement and a tiny slip of paper. There's nothing to download here; it's not device specific and runs on an hOS. (That's the hand operating system.) But, really, in this age when mobile is hot, and paper is not, why did we go with... Continue reading

By now, you may be aware that something big, really big has come to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. In fact, it's so enormous that it arrived in six separate crates, each weighing about 500 pounds. I was lucky enough to be in the weeds as the Smithsonian Pennsy Facilities team, SITES project director Jennifer Bine, and our registrars, Cheryl Washer, Ruth Trevarrow, Viki Possoff, and Juana Shadid put this 48-foot thing together. Even before the crew heaved Titanoboa out of those crates, I was quietly amazed by the texture and coloration of the serpent's scales--so supple that... Continue reading

Sure, the Midwest boasts more than 30% of America's cropland, lakes and rivers galore, lots of cheese, and another Men's Final Four basketball title, but until now, it has been void of one very important thing--"Elvis at 21, Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer." Elvis, in all his black-and-white, twenty-one-year-old glory, will make his first appearance in the Midwest (at least in this century) at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum on April 7. If you're not already a fan of the national traveling exhibition, it covers just one pivotal year in Elvis' life, the year 1956, right smack-dab in... Continue reading

Tomorrow will be a historic day for the Smithsonian—it is the day we break ground for our 19th museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The museum was created by an Act of Congress in 2003, and it is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, art, history and culture. We will celebrate this milestone at a special groundbreaking ceremony that will take place on the site of the museum. We are honored that President Obama, Mrs. Obama, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), Gov. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), former First Lady Laura Bush... Continue reading

Cupid is pretty sneaky. One day, you're driving to a potential host site for a Museum on Main Street exhibition, just minding your own business, eyes on the road, brain cells in overdrive as you take advantage of a few quiet hours in the car to sort out your mental laundry. The next day, Cupid, sly and underhanded, is coordinating a meet up between you and your future husband. In 2006, Ann-Mary was just doing her job--making the trek from the Arizona Humanities Council's headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, up to the small but noteworthy town of Winslow. She was working... Continue reading

Our Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer exhibition has been swinging since Elvis' 75th birthday back in 2010. Enthusiasm for this exhibition, comprised of 56 black-and-white images taken by the acclaimed photographer Alfred Wertheimer, has never wanned. In fact, the buzz about Elvis has become something of a frenzy at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. A few weeks after throwing an incredible Elvis birthday gig attended by nearly 2,000 people, the museum hosted a screening of "Elvis '56," a 1987 documentary film narrated by Levon Helm, the Arkansas-born drummer-singer for "The Band." It was the first... Continue reading

All along, I had a hunch that this inconspicuous corridor in the belly of the Science Museum of Virginia was my "Elvis hallway." But, it wasn't always so obvious. In 1983, several years after the museum opened, the west side of the building was totally renovated to accomodate a new planetarium and theater: overhanging ironwork was removed, doorways and windows were closed off or totally modified. Matching up the features in the photo, like the intricate ironwork curving to the left side of the original image, the large industrial window, and those broad stone floor tiles was impossible. Other than... Continue reading

Do you know the difference between Nylon, Nomex, and Neoprene? What about the relationship between a full-pressure suit and a rubber bladder? Gearing up for space means more than donning a special suit--you've got to learn some special lingo, too! SITES' new Suited for Space exhibition is filled with stunning color photographs and x-rays of NASA spacesuits. But don't forget to read what's written next to the images, too--Suited helps skyrocket visitors' knowledge of astronaut argot with vocabulary lessons sprinkled throughout the show. So while you're stepping in Buzz Aldrin's iconic footprints, you can ask your friends what they know... Continue reading

So, Elvis had me running again. This time, I was off to Broad Street Station, once known as Union Station of Richmond, and now home to the Science Museum of Virginia. The word for this building is grand. With immense doric columns, a 105-foot-tall dome, and an broad oval lawn leading up to the structure, it commands respect. Designed by New York architect John Russell Pope, Broad Street Station opened on January 6, 1919, and at the height of operations during World War II, the facility saw thousands of riders and more than 50 trains a day coming and going,... Continue reading

If you read my first blog about Elvis in Virginia's capital city, you'll know that I was feeling a little lost, trying to determine where Elvis was when Alfred Wertheimer snapped the singer's photo in an unremarkable train station hallway on June 30, 1956. This much I did know: There were two major stations in the area during that period, and one was Main Street Station. Now just a few feet away from the gravity-defying ramps of Interstate 95, this stunning Renaissance Revival building opened in 1901 and must have been the Grand Dame of the city. Even today, it's... Continue reading