Archives for May 24, 2006

It’s not a museum site, but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has put together a nice slide show, with a voice over by self-described “taxidermologist” and Carnegie Museum of Natural History collections manager Stephen Rogers, on “The Art of Taxidermy.”

This multimedia piece is marked by lovely photography and Rogers’s clear passion for his subject.

That said, I must take issue with one of Rogers’s assertions: he claims it’s only in the past 50 or 100 years that taxidermists began mounting habitat groups–that is, groups of animals represented in their environments. In fact, Colorado resident Martha Maxwell was crafting habitat groups in the third quarter of the 19th century; she exhibited a large habitat group of flora and fauna at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. Rogers’s statement is just another example of how women “get disappeared” from the history of natural history in the U.S.

I’d like to see more museums make transparent the processes by which they produce their exhibits and conduct research. Doing so, of course, garners the attention of foundations and big donors, but it also can make visible those workers who tend to be rendered invisible by the ways we talk about science: technicians, assistants, and women (even those of some stature, such as the early 20th-century curators I’m writing about in my dissertation).

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has unveiled a series of podcasts created by students. New media content producer Cassandra Good explains:

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a special project here at SAAM in which Advanced Placement Art History students from the Holton-Arms and Landon Schools here in Washington, D.C. visited our Renwick Gallery of American Craft. Their assignment was to research one of our artworks and produce a podcast about the piece they chose.

Hearing the students’ unique interpretations was an interesting experience for the Eye Level team. Watching them view the art with fresh eyes was one thing. Hearing what they had to say and how they developed their voice, well, we were impressed. And we have picked five podcasts we think you’ll find interesting.

The podcasts include a closer look at Grant Wood’s Victorian Survival and Lilies of the Alley, William Morris’s Raft, Binh Pho’s Journey of Destiny, Norm Sartorius’s Spoon From a Forgotten Ceremony, and Wendell Castle’s Ghost Clock.

Definitely worth a listen; there’s some real thoughtfulness in these productions. Go check them out.

One subject that has long been close to my heart is the experience of girls in environments of informal science learning. I’ve conducted interviews and presented papers on the subject, as well as designed and taught an all-girls summer class at a science center.

I was excited, then, to listen in today on “Exploring the Impact: Informal Science Experiences for Girls,” a webcast and teleconference presented by Lynn Dierking of the Institute for Learning Innovation and Dale McCreedy of the Franklin Institute. Unfortunately, I had to leave halfway through the presentation, but the work presented to that point was definitely thought-provoking.

Dierking and McCreedy pointed out that most studies of girls and informal science learning are limited by the term of a single program’s funding, typically three to five years. In contrast, their research looks at longer-term returns on the investment in girls. The two researchers are catching up with participants in five key programs targeted at girls, including one program that began back in 1982.

The session was well-attended. At the time I checked out, there were more than 50 participants. I’d love to see more such (free of charge!) research and professional development opportunities presented live online. A big thanks to Dierking and McCreedy for sharing their ongoing research.

The program was recorded and should be made available eventually–good news for those of you who missed the entire program, and for me, too, since I’m looking forward to hearing the second half of the webcast. When I locate the recording, I’ll let you know how to access the program.