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The article presents information on museum studies in the U.S. and describes Internet resources helpful to those wanting to learn more. The author notes that degrees and certificates in the field, sometimes called museology, are offered at both graduate and undergraduate levels and cover the social, political, economic, and cultural context of museums and cultural institutions. Website information is provided under the categories of professional association and organizations; image collections; databases and information gateways; e-journals, discussion lists, and blogs; directories; technology and museums; employment opportunities; grants; and other resources.

Focuses on issues related to government aid to fine arts in the U.S. Effects of providing government aid on museum collections; Duties of any new government art project; Arguments against new government involvement in art; Implications of casual inspection of the chief Soviet museums of Russian art; Conditions for establishing a continuing government program for art on a non-emergency basis; Variations in American representation on the international scene.

Investigates the ideas surrounding the presentation and manipulation of works of art. Importance of museums over books and private galleries; Usage of advanced techniques of installation in the museums; Awakening of people and authorities to the problems of museums; Overview of the antiquity and evolution of museums in the U.S.; Requirement regarding building of museum collection and creation of the staff working in it.

Focuses on the touring exhibit, "Oh Seuss! Off to Great Places," from New York City's Children's Museum of Manhattan. Plans for the exhibit's premiére; Features of the exhibit; Intent of having children interact with the models; Difficulties creating the exhibit; Comments of Karen Snider, deputy director for exhibitions, and Rich Miller, manager of exhibitions and technical design; Enlistment of numerous experts by the museum; Development of a massive mechanical puppet.

The article features "Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya," an exhibition of some 130 artifacts on view until July 26 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and at San Francisco, California's Legion of Honor from September 4 until January 2, 2005. The curators of the exhibition have collected the best and brightest pieces--ornately painted vases, whimsical figurines, translucent alabaster bowls, and gleaming jade masks--from A.D. 650 to 800, a period when Maya art reached its pinnacle. Unfortunately, no photographs of actual court ruins accompany the pieces, save one shot of Palenque. The absence of such context will remind viewers that this is primarily an art show. Although many pieces on display were excavated from well-documented sites, some are of unknown origin.

When highway construction destroyed part of a prehistoric, seventeen-hundred-room pueblo in northern New Mexico in 1952, Fred Wendorf knew it was time to act. Wendorf, then at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe, pushed state officials to give archaeologists access to any sites uncovered by road crews. So began New Mexico's fifty-year-old Highway Archaeology Program. "Roads to the Past," an exhibition now at the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe until August 13, and running at the Silver City Museum from September 19 through December 5, chronicles the history of the country's oldest and most ambitious effort to save--or at least document--archaeological sites threatened by highway construction. Since 1954, archaeologists have studied more than ten thousand miles of land that lay in the path of New Mexico's roads, and in the process mapped nearly eight thousand years of the region's rich history. .

Discusses how children's museums in the U.S. are now targeting toddlers. Growth of children's museums; Intent of exhibits to reflect the latest thinking on how to help children develop cognitive and physical skills; Examples of museums and their exhibits; Reason for the shift to toddlers; Attitudes of youngsters between eight and 12; Parents' perceptions of the museums; Ways that adult institutions are adding spaces for toddlers as well.

Highlights "Treasures From the Collection," the debut exhibition at the Nancy and Edwin Marks Collection Gallery, at New York City's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Overview of the exhibition, which features selections by museum director Paul Thompson; Display of objects exemplifying the best of historic and contemporary design.

Describes how Cole Palen, owner of antique airplanes, cars and trucks in Dutchess County, New York, delivered and installed a 1929 Davis monoplane to the Brooklyn Museum for an exhibition called "The Machine Age in America: 1918-1941". Background on Palen's passion for antique airplanes and cars; Experience of traveling to Brooklyn aboard a 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville; Palen's previous experience in suspending airplanes from several ceilings; Process of suspending the Davis monoplane from the Grand Lobby's ceiling.

Focuses on Stan Grierson, a naturalist who teaches a college course in making museum exhibits at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Definition of museum taxidermy; Requirements of the course; Personal background of Grierson; Career highlights; Grierson's views on the importance of understanding the interrelationships among creatures on Earth.

The article discusses the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, a new permanent exhibition hall of the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The facility is devoted to an exhibition on the early evolution of humans, and various elements of the exhibits it contains are described by its head curator Rick Potts. The Web site humanorigins.si.edu, which is based on the exhibit and is operated by the Smithsonian, is also discussed, particularly its use in education programs.

Focuses on the touring exhibit, "Oh Seuss! Off to Great Places," from New York City's Children's Museum of Manhattan. Plans for the exhibit's premiere; Features of the exhibit; Intent of having children interact with the models; Difficulties creating the exhibit; Comments of Karen Snider, deputy director for exhibitions, and Rich Miller, manager of exhibitions and technical design; Enlistment of numerous experts by the museum; Development of a massive mechanical puppet.

Announces the showcasing of Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations 1979-2000 exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City. Wilson's museum experience.

Provides information on museum exhibitions focusing on guerillas as of May 3, 2004 in New York City. Majority Whip; Terrorvision; Tactical Action; American Idyll.

Features the art exhibit entitled The International Scene in the U.S. Focus of the art works featured; Artists' masterpieces; Evidences of the connection of these artworks to other form of artistry.

Presents the various works displayed at the UCLA Hammer Museum in the U.S. Painting mounted on the wall of the museum; Artists of the museum's small but permanent collection; Strategy of Dailey, a Los Angeles-based curator, writer, lecturer and book publisher, to add wattage to conventional wall labels.

Features the Frank and Sylvia Pasquerilla Heritage Discovery Center, a history museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Establishment developers; Technique used in the permanent exhibit America: Through Immigrant Eyes; Floor area of the museum.

Features the Butterfly Vivarium exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum highlighting the use and installation of a system that would provide a steady air temperature source to protect the butterflies. Use of the AirFog AFE atomizing humidification system; Living conditions for the species; Regulations pertaining to plants and creatures that are indigenous to exotic regions brought to the U.S.; Ideal habitat for butterflies; Equipment used.

In this article the author discusses how the right kind of space shuttle display could increase the number of visitors to the four sites permanently displaying a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration space-shuttle orbiter. He argues that the space shuttle would help promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics unlike anything else and discusses the challenges of deciding on the best launch configuration for each orbiter.

The article presents information on various exhibitions of preserved human bodies. The Body Worlds exhibit has proved extremely popular, with more than 17 million people around the world since 1996 coming out to ogle the collection of preserved human bodies. The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry stayed open around the clock on the final three days through Labor Day to give folks a final opportunity to visit the cadavers, which are preserved by a technique called plastination. The scene was similar in Los Angeles, where the exhibit's U.S. debut drew overflow crowds to the California Science Center.

Presents several exhibition shows held at different museums in New York. "2004 Biennial," held at Whitney Museum of American Art; "The Devonshire Inheritance: Five Centuries of Collecting at Chatsworth," held at Bard Graduate Center; "Corporal Identity--Body Language," held at Museum of Arts & Design.