Summertime!

Mimi and I have been busy working in two directions: 1) getting ready for our fall meetings with our 2018 SFF Cohort when they will be implementing their projects with their students and 2) developing the theme for 2019. The latter  means we have been spending lots of time visiting  museums to see what exhibits might work with the theme ideas we have considered. We have been downtown on some of the hottest days of the summer, had a number of meetings with Sara to brainstorm, have been in contact with our partners at the Smithsonian and are in the final stages of getting ready to share the 2019 theme. We are really excited and know  it is going to be another great theme, one that we can see working for faculty from all disciplines across the college.

What museums have we visited? National Museum of American History, National Museum of the American Indian, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of Air and Space and the National Portrait Gallery.  We talked to museum visitors we met along the way. We were interviewed by students from NOVA who were on the Mall working on a school project. We ran into MCTV who were filming as we explored some of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.  We’ve also visited various museums in other places both in and out of the U.S. as we have combined our vacations, with some additional idea gathering. Amazing what trips to the Petroglyph National Monument near Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Settlement Exhibition of Iceland in Reykjavik, generated in terms of ideas that are finding their way into our theme. Only a few more weeks until the theme will be revealed. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from our “explorations on the mall”.