This November is for History and STEAM!
Scroll down for a bite-sized classroom activity connected to Native American Heritage Month AND get some great behind-the-scenes access to our art conservators.
In this season of gratitude, please know how thankful I am for you!
Elizabeth
DeinesE@si.edu |
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| | Native American Heritage Month Doing History with Comics? Share this web comic with your 5th-12th graders to get them thinking about and doing history. Invite students to connect with their own community history, as Wendy Red Star did. What ideas do they get from the comic about connecting past and present? What part of their own community identity is preserved? Updated? What more might they discover? |
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| | STEAM in Action x 2
Drop-In Learning Smithsonian American Art Museum
Meet in the G Street Lobby
FreeDrop in on Thursday and Friday afternoons through December 16 to see SAAM’s conservators as they care for a delicate (and monumental!) artwork. James Hampton transformed tin foil, light bulbs, cardboard and other everyday items into the incredible The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly. |
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| | Technology as Access
Art Signs: Musical Thinking Tour in ASL Smithsonian American Art Museum
Meet in the G Street Lobby
FreeSpend the evening of November 30 with us! Deaf collaborators from Motion Light Lab at Gallaudet University will lead an American Sign Language (ASL) tour of our exhibition Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies. The tour will focus on the haptics (that bump on your smartphone that tells you that you’ve pushed the button!) and captioning tech. The tour and discussion engage with selected artworks from a d/Deaf perspective. Voice interpretation is provided for hearing participants. Space is limited! |
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| | Meet Leah Bright
Objects Conservator in the Lunder Conservation Lab
Lunder Conservation Center What is your job? Art conservators are like doctors for artwork! Just like a primary care doctor, we use science and research to prevent damage to artwork as well as take care of a piece if something bad happens. What kind of training is needed to do your job? In general, most art conservators in the USA have a graduate degree in art conservation and some kind of undergraduate degree in art, science, or history. In graduate school conservators specialize in a type of artwork like objects (3D things), paintings, textiles, photographs, paper, books, etc.
What skill do you use most often? Observation and close looking. I can learn a lot about the materials, history, and condition of an artwork by examining it closely with different kinds of light and magnification, which helps me decide how to best preserve and care for an artwork.
What’s something that has surprised you about working in museums? I have been pleasantly surprised to find that working in museums requires extensive collaboration between departments. No exhibition can happen without the collaboration of a team with diverse and unique skills. What’s something you’re most proud to have done? I am most proud of my work when I am able to collaborate successfully with other departments to creatively solve a problem. Also working with artists and making them feel comfortable and that their artwork is in good hands! |
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Image Credits: Photo by Mary Tait
Cover of the comic "Wendy Red Star: Crow-Centric." Illustration by Ana Parra
James Hampton, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly, ca. 1950-1964, mixed media, dimensions variable, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of anonymous donors, 1970.353.1-.116
Conservation photo of James Hampton's Throne, Photo by Anna Nielsen
Installation photography of Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies showing Martine Gutierrez's Clubbing and the haptic dance floor, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2023; Photo by Albert Ting |
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