Archives
Web-cast lecture series to focus on museum studies
Andrea
Lynn, Humanities Editor
217-333-2177; andreal@uiuc.edu
6/12/2006
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —
Emerging developments in elite museum studies are now only a click away
for the faculty, staff and students at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
The work and world of the museum, as seen through the lens of one expert
at a time, is now available to anyone at Illinois, by means of the Smithsonian
Institution’s new G. Brown Goode Smithsonian Education Lecture
Series.
The lecture series and a myriad of other services and benefits are available
to the people and programs at the U. of I. because the university is
a full-fledged affiliate of the institution in Washington, D.C.
Illinois gained affiliate status last September. It is among a handful
of institutions of higher education that have been granted affiliate
status; most affiliates are individual museums.
The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, in collaboration
with the science education department of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics, launched the Goode Smithsonian lecture series in early
June. All lectures will be broadcast live on the Web.
A link at that site also includes lecture schedule updates.
Named after the Smithsonian’s earliest proponent of museums as
educational institutions, the series allows S.I. museum staff and S.I.
affiliates everywhere the opportunity to keep abreast of emerging developments
in education pertaining to many aspects of their work, from exhibit
design to outreach in schools.
Kevin Dunbar, Center for Cognitive and Educational Neuroscience at Dartmouth
College, delivered the first lecture in the series. His topic was “Designers
at the Exhibition: Balancing Aesthetics and Learning at the Museum.”
Three U. of I. units – the Krannert
Art Museum, the University
Library and the Sousa
Archives and Center for American Music (SACAM) – got the affiliation
process rolling. S.I. affiliate benefits are available to them, as well
as to all other U. of I. museums, galleries and collections and to all
other interested campus units and staff members.
For more information about the campuswide benefits of the Smithsonian
affiliation, contact Scott Schwartz, SACAM archivist and primary contact
between the U. of I. and the affiliates’ program.
For more information about the lecture series contact Bruce C. Craig,
Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies at 202-357-3148
or bcraig@si.edu.
