ICYMI: Highlights from the week of Nov. 10 – Nov. 16, 2019
No one can keep up with everything, so let us do it for you. We’ll gather the top Smithsonian stories from across the country and around the world each week so you’ll never be at a loss for conversation around the water cooler.
You don’t need us to tell you what the big news was this week: Bye bye, Bei Bei!
Secretary Bunch
Interview | Lonnie Bunch on founding the Smithsonian’s African American history museum and drawing inspiration from Lincoln
As his new book is released, the new secretary of the Smithsonian Institution talks of extending its reach beyond Washington
The Art Newspaper, November 11
Lonnie G. Bunch III, “finding the tension between tradition and innovation” (Leah L. Jones)
Lonnie G. Bunch III is the new secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, a behemoth with 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, multiple research centres and 154 million objects in Washington. The secretary is the boss. A teacher and curator by training, Bunch has had multiple postings at the institution. He was the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), building it from scratch over 11 years into one of the Smithsonian’s most visited places. His new book tells the story frankly. A Fool’s Errand: Creating the African American History and Culture Museum in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump is a blend of autobiography and institutional history by a leader who knows how to manoeuvre in a large organisation. Read more.
Smithsonian Institution Secretary Testifies on Museums
C-Span, November 14
Lonnie Bunch, the new secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, testified on museum programs and operations before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. Secretary Bunch outlined his priorities for the institution and efforts to reduce the maintenance backlog. He was also asked about public-private partnerships, Smithsonian funding and the challenges with establishing a National American Latino Museum. Watch the video and read the transcript.
Art and Design
How the National Portrait Gallery’s gala tapped A-list celebrities to become a hot ticket
The Washington Post, November 15
Crowds are often huddled around the portrait of first lady Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery. Obama is scheduled to be a presenter at the gallery’s American Portrait Gala on Sunday night. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
Picture, if you will, the red carpet at Sunday night’s American Portrait Gala: Michelle Obama, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Anna Wintour and Jeff Bezos.
A former first lady, a Broadway genius, a legendary fashion editor or the richest man in the world (and, full disclosure, the owner of The Washington Post) would alone be enough to draw a crowd. But the National Portrait Gallery’s gala has managed, in a few short years, to produce a fundraising event that draws them all and rivals the Kennedy Center Honors for sheer star power. Read more.
Marcel Duchamp’s box of delights opens at Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Readymades, miniature reproductions, collaborations with Man Ray, and games of chess to feature in new show
The Art Newspaper, November 8
Marcel Duchamp
L.H.O.O.Q., 1919/1964
Graphite and gouache over color offset lithograph on paper
Edition: 12/35
Promised Gift of Barbara and Aaron Levine
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; photo: Cathy Carver
© Association Marcel Duchamp / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2019
When the art collectors Aaron and Barbara Levine came across a dark-green imitation leather box at New York’s Sean Kelly Gallery in the early 2000s, little did they know it would land their collection a home on the National Mall. The box was Marcel Duchamp’s La boîte-en-valise (1935-41/1963), an extraordinary compendium of miniature handmade reproductions of 68 of his own works. This weekend, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, celebrates the 18-year obsession that acquisition sparked with Marcel Duchamp: the Barbara and Aaron Levine Collection, the first stage of a two-part exhibition on the life and works of the French artist. Read more.
Gus Casely-Hayford, director of Smithsonian’s African art museum, to lead V&A East
The British cultural historian will take up his role at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s new branch in the spring
The Art Newspaper, November 8
Gus Casely-Hayford, the new director of V&A East Image: courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Gus Casely-Hayford is to become the inaugural director of V&A East—the Victoria and Albert Museum’s new branch which will be established on the former London Olympic site. He will be responsible for two linked projects: the waterside museum in Stratford and the nearby collection storage and research centre, which are both due to open in 2023.
Casely-Hayford, who is a Briton of Ghanaian descent, is a cultural historian and is currently director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC. He will take up his position as V&A East director next spring, under the overall museum director Tristram Hunt and the deputy, Tim Reeve. Read more.
History, Culture, and Education
Sound Portraits from Bulgaria: A Journey to a Vanished World review – songs rescued from the edge of history (Review)
Martin Koenig’s wonderful collection, recorded in rural Bulgaria between 1966 and 1979, is quietly heroic
The Guardian, November 15
Life-giving … Sound Portraits from Bulgaria: A Journey to a Vanished World
On the edges of eastern Europe, Anatolia and the Black Sea, an incredible wealth of folk music kept flowing long after other countries saw their traditions decline. This fascinating release from Smithsonian Folkways compiles music recorded in rural Bulgaria between 1966 and 1979. This is tradition in the raw – diverse, complex and moving by turns – and the story behind it is quietly heroic. Read more.
Recognizing the long history of Native Americans in the US Armed Forces (Op/Ed by Kevin Gover)
The Hill, November 11
On Veterans Day, our country pauses to remember those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Yet how many Americans know of the exceptional contributions of American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, who have served in the military at an extraordinary rate in every major military conflict since the Revolutionary War.
Many people may find this record of service astonishing, given the painful history of violence, marginalization and injustice Native Americans have endured. Or, as veteran Kurt V. BlueDog has said, “Some might say we have many reasons not to participate in the armed forces, given that the government overran our homelands, suppressed our cultures and confined us to reservations.” Read more.
‘Brewing A Revolution’ Brings Craft Beer History To The Smithsonian
Forbes, November 13
Washington, D.C., November 8, 2019 — Charlie Papazian, the man who founded the American Homebrewers Association and the organization that preceded the Brewers Association trade group, photographing one of his first mash paddles in a new Smithsonian craft beer exhibit called “Brewing a Revolution.” HERLINDA HERAS
If John F. Kennedy had lived a few decades longer … and appreciated the legacy of craft beer … and attended the Last Call celebration to inaugurate the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s new craft beer collection Friday night, he may have riffed off his 1962 quote by observing of the invited speakers, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of DIY talent, of bootstrap innovation, that has ever been gathered in Washington, D.C. – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” Read more.
Science and Technology
Gene Regulation Gives Butterflies Their Stunning Looks
Distantly related, lookalike Heliconius species arrive at the same appearance using the same few genes, but regulated differently, according to recent studies.
The Scientist, November 14
Heliconius butterfly
As early as 1879, naturalist Fritz Müller noted that many of the Heliconius butterflies he found in the Amazon shared the exact same blazing black, red, and white wing color patterns, although they were different species. He reasoned that the butterflies had come to resemble each other’s striking coloration—indicating to birds that they were toxic and not to be eaten—aiding the species’ survival because the more individuals with these colorations, the faster predators learn to avoid them, an idea that became enshrined in textbooks as “Müllerian mimicry.” Read more.
Porcupette born at National Zoo
The Washington Post, November 9
(Courtesy The National Zoo_
In a city where so many come and go, something seemed satisfying about the appearance at the National Zoo last week of a member of the third generation of prehensile-tailed porcupines to dwell at the National Zoo.
In a birth announcement issued Friday, the zoo reported that Beatrix, a 2-year-old female, gave birth to what is known as a porcupette. Read more.
Meet the new porcupette born at the Smithsonian National Zoo
The Zoo welcomed a prehensile-tailed porcupette at the small mammal house on Wednesday.
WUSA-9, November 8
There’s no reason to be prickly when you’re this cute! The Smithsonian National Zoo announced Friday that 2-year-old Beatrix, a prehensile-tailed porcupine, was a new mom. Beatrix gave birth overnight between Nov. 5 and 6, to a porcupette weighing less than a pound, whom appears to be healthy.
Beatrix mated with the zoo’s adult male porcupine, Quillbur, six months ago, and zookeepers had been monitoring Beatrix closely for several weeks after noting her weight gain, which indicated she was likely to give birth. The porcupette is Beatrix’s first birth. Read more.
Bei Bei’s Departure
Bei Bei’s big move and what it means for the National Zoo
WJLA Good Morning Washington, November 14
Grin and Bear It: Events Bid Farewell to National Zoo’s Panda Bei Bei
NBC Washington, November 13
Here’s how the National Zoo will FedEx Bei Bei the giant panda
WUSA9, November 13
The end of an era as a zookeeper and her giant panda say goodbye
The Washington Post, November 12
National Zoo launches week of farewell celebrations ahead of Bei Bei’s departure for China
Fox5 Washington, November 11
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Posted: 19 November 2019
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Categories:
African Art Museum , American History Museum , American Indian Museum , Hirshhorn Museum , Portrait Gallery
