Mar

SWC funds everything from elephants to ecosystems

The Smithsonian Women’s Committee has announced its 2012 grant awards. Grants Chair Pat Fiske reports that this year the Committee will fund 18 grants, totaling $367,898, at 12 individual units, supporting a broad range of projects and activities within the Smithsonian Institution. Since 1966, the SWC has raised $9,689,664 in grants and endowments to further the Smithsonian’s mission.

Since 1966, the annual craft show has provided more than $9 million to fund Smithsonian projects.

The 2012 grants range from a project involving hormonal analysis of captive elephants led by the National Zoo’s Conservation Biology Institute to contractor design and fabrication planning for the exhibition Reclaiming the Edge: Urban Waterways and Civic Engagement at the Anacostia Community Museum. Net proceeds from the 2011 Smithsonian Craft Show, along with earnings from the fall Craft2Wear event, provided the funding for these projects through the SWC’s grant program.

As part of this grants process, requests for proposals are solicited annually from all Smithsonian units. Funding is highly competitive and awarded only after thorough research by members of the SWC and approval by the full membership. Applications for next year will be available in April, 2012.

Other projects funded in this year’s cycle include a free virtual conference for educators featuring the American Art Museum’s new website, Oh Freedom! Teaching the African-American Civil Rights Movement Through American Art at the Smithsonian; the new Spark!Lab Interactive Cart program at American History; a new multimedia program for Science on a Sphere in the Sant Ocean Hall at Natural History; support for four interns at the SI Archives; and an interpretive exhibition on the endangered whooping crane at the National Zoo.

The 30th Anniversary Smithsonian Craft Show, which will help fund the 2013 grant cycle, takes place April 19 – April 22, 2012 at the National Building Museum. It will feature 121 craft artists, 44 of them new to the show this year, working in 12 different media ranging from furniture and ceramics to glass and wearable art. Daily admission tickets are $15 each, with a two-day pass available at $20.

For more information on the show, including a number of special events, and a complete list of 2012 grants, go to www.SmithsonianCraftShow.org or contact Heidi Austreng, Program Coordinator for the SWC, at austrpr@si.edu.