Search

Comments on the need for the Smithsonian Institution to carefully set priorities for its international activities, in this era of downsizing. Areas of high priority include tropical biology and Japan; The major exhibit `The Smithsonian's America' in July and August 1994 in Japan; Other events.

Summarizes a study which examined the Smithsonian Institution's economic impact on the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Effect of payroll, local purchases, visitors' expenditures and more; Cultural institutions as strong contributors to their communities' economic health.

Touches on highlights of a new demographic study to learn more about the visitors to Smithsonian museums. Researcher Zahava Doering; Study findings on numbers of visitors, the most popular museums, busiest months, racial breakdown of visitors, their age and education, foreign visitors and more.

Reflects on the Smithsonian Institution's enduring characteristics, as the author's decade of service as its Secretary draws nearer. What has made the Smithsonian so special; Its spirited pluralism; Why the Smithsonian is a living institution; Commission on the Future of the Smithsonian; The Smithsonian's centrality in the cultural life of the United States.

Reflects on English scientist James Smithson's bequest to the United States to found the Smithsonian Institution `for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.' How these two chartered responsibilities are inseparably linked at the Institution.

Focuses on the 16th and newest of the Smithsonian's museums, the National Postal Museum, located in the Washington City Post Office Building, which opened in midsummer 1993. A rewarding, broadly informative museum; Unrivaled collections now easily available to the specialist; More.

Examines the exhibition `Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century,' in the Smithsonian's International Gallery until October. It tells a moving story of the emergence of new outlooks, concerns and energies out of an earlier preoccupation with elementary preservation and survival. Directions of growth and change a source of controversy; Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.

Informs on the reopening of the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art after a major renovation. Work of Ikuo Hirayama, who plans to establish an International Red Cross for Cultural Heritage; Destruction that occurs both to and in the name of cultural heritage; The horrors of `ethnic cleansing' in Bosnia; More.

States that the Smithsonian observes its 150th anniversary with an open welcome to visitors that has always prevailed. Smithsonian's commitment to `the increase and diffusion of knowledge'; Assurance that a shift toward a policy of admission fees is not in prospect; Reasons for holding fast to the principle; Problem of deficits; Need for carefully balanced trade-offs; Details.

States that the arrival of a new administration invites reflections on impending changes for the Institution as well. Limits to the direct impact on the transition on the Smithsonian; Institution an independent trust; Secretary an appointee of the Regents; Annual congressional appropriation; New mandated imperatives including environmental safety and handicapped access; More; Details.

Reports that recent acquisitions by one of the Smithsonian's museums have prompted reconsideration of the place to be accorded to folk arts. Acquisition of four hundred and twenty-seven objects from the Herbert Waide Hemphill Jr. collection by the National Museum of American Art; Alternative visions of museums; Power of folk art to create new bonds of identification and affection between cultural institutions and nontraditional audiences.