Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
Speaker 1: I am super duper excited because I was recently fortunate
Speaker 1: enough to visit the Smithsonian American Art Museum and sit
Speaker 1: down with the director, Stephanie Steepish for a chat. And
Speaker 1: this interview isn't focused on anyone's specific thing. We talk
Speaker 1: about Stephanie's work and some of the museums exhibit, but
Speaker 1: also just what museums offer the world and how they
Speaker 1: fit into history. Stephanie has a passion for her work
Speaker 1: and for sharing art with a public that's completely infectious,
Speaker 1: and what she really cares about is how people engage
Speaker 1: with the museum. So when she first sat down with
Speaker 1: Holly for the interview, she asked Collie a question right
Speaker 1: out of the gate. Find out what Holly thought of
Speaker 1: the time at the museum this morning. Yeah, she's a
Speaker 1: little embarrassing because I might have cried in front of
Speaker 1: some art um. We're going to pick up this interview
Speaker 1: with my answer, and then we'll start off my Inner
Speaker 1: You with Stephanie, which quickly opens up into the history
Speaker 1: of the building that houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Speaker 1: So it's been amazing. I um mentioned to you before
Speaker 1: we came in that I had my little tearful moment
Speaker 1: with the Edmonia Lewis sculpture because I'm a great admirer
Speaker 1: of her in her life story is very inspiring. Uh
Speaker 1: So that in and of itself was my great thing.
Speaker 1: And because we're here before it opens, and to like
Speaker 1: have private time with a piece of art like that
Speaker 1: is beyond special to me. What I want to hear
Speaker 1: about from you, though, is there are some things that
Speaker 1: you showed me that we walked around together doing and
Speaker 1: some things that I walked around on my own experiencing,
Speaker 1: which I will ask you about in a bit. But
Speaker 1: before we get to any of that, I want to
Speaker 1: ask you how you landed here, Like, how does one
Speaker 1: become the lead of a place like this? Well, I
Speaker 1: would tell you, Holly, I have the greatest job possible.
Speaker 1: Uh it is a job where every day I'm working
Speaker 1: with really talented, aative people. And I'm not just talking
Speaker 1: about my phenomenal staff, but artists who come here, people
Speaker 1: who have a passion and collect people who want to
Speaker 1: write about what we present, art critics and thinkers, uh,
Speaker 1: and also people who have never been here before, as
Speaker 1: well as people who love this place deeply and and
Speaker 1: have their five favorite objects, favorite places in the museum.
Speaker 1: So how do you grow up and become a museum director? Well,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you the Smithsonian is in many
Speaker 1: ways the Harvard of Art museums, because we are this
Speaker 1: big family of museums. Were the largest research and museum
Speaker 1: complex in the world. We are these sort of official
Speaker 1: national museums of different subject matters. So in my case
Speaker 1: it's American art as well as I run the Renwick Gallery,
Speaker 1: which is the National Museum of Craft uh. And then
Speaker 1: you go through the National Museum of African Art and
Speaker 1: the Cooper Hewitt and on and on, all these specialties.
Speaker 1: I grew up in museums. I fell at home in museums.
Speaker 1: I studied art history and UM. There are different pathways
Speaker 1: I could have taught. I could have worked at an
Speaker 1: auction house or a gallery, could have written. But when
Speaker 1: you work in a museum, you get to touch that
Speaker 1: many more lives. Uh. You get to constantly learn. It's
Speaker 1: a graduate seminar with every special exhibition we do. When
Speaker 1: we make really tough decisions about which works of art
Speaker 1: we're going to accept or with limited dollars purchase, we
Speaker 1: are making an important statement about time and place. And
Speaker 1: I like to say, in museums we're in the forever business.
Speaker 1: Oh that's beautiful. So there's a there's a sacred duty.
Speaker 1: And I would tell you I often tell my staff
Speaker 1: that museums are a team sport. Yes I have the
Speaker 1: good luck of being the director, but it's really a
Speaker 1: nobody can do this work alone. It's just it's just
Speaker 1: too many facets to um to have any single person,
Speaker 1: even even our curators who think up these wonderful projects.
Speaker 1: It depends on so many arms and legs to get
Speaker 1: something done here. I love it. And I mean, just
Speaker 1: in our short time walking around with some of your staff,
Speaker 1: that's abundantly clear that just everyone here one is incredibly smart,
Speaker 1: incredibly engaged, like trying to even like just the people
Speaker 1: that are walking through doing maintenance stuff. Nobody is like
Speaker 1: just clocking in and doing their joke like they all
Speaker 1: seem to really holly. Museums are generally happy places, right.
Speaker 1: Just people come with some leisure time, They come with
Speaker 1: their friends, they come with their family, they come on
Speaker 1: special occasions, they come to share things that are deeply
Speaker 1: meaningful to them. They come for fun, they come for surprise.
Speaker 1: Hopefully they leave remembering something that they saw. That that
Speaker 1: that I like to think that, Um, the gift artists
Speaker 1: give us when we encounter to their work and really
Speaker 1: spend time with the work, is uh that artists change
Speaker 1: the way we see the world. Yeah, one one object,
Speaker 1: one artwork at a time. So the building we're in
Speaker 1: as well, you gave me a quick version earlier. You
Speaker 1: took us into the secret room, which is off of
Speaker 1: what appears to initially be a very standard sort of
Speaker 1: coat room, and then there's a secret room which has
Speaker 1: some really cool insights into the building's history. Will you
Speaker 1: talk about this building's history and how it how it's
Speaker 1: evolved over the years to where it is now. Sure,
Speaker 1: it's a spectacular building. It spans too city blocks seventh
Speaker 1: to ninth Street, and uh is boundaried by F and
Speaker 1: G Streets, and so we have entrances on both sides.
Speaker 1: And that secret room you'll find on the F Street entrance.
Speaker 1: As you perhaps hang up your code or leave your bag,
Speaker 1: you'll see there's a little chamber in the back where
Speaker 1: we have left uncovered the um the structure of the building,
Speaker 1: because this was built as the Patent Office for the
Speaker 1: United States, the third federal building built after the White
Speaker 1: House and the Capital, and you have to imagine this
Speaker 1: must be a very important building. It's where American entrepreneurship
Speaker 1: and creativity is at home, and it's a pretty good
Speaker 1: choice to locate the National Museum of American Art. So
Speaker 1: the building originally housed shelves, rows and rows of shelves
Speaker 1: of patent models. President Andrew Jackson signed legislation about around
Speaker 1: patent law which mandated that as an inventor, you had
Speaker 1: to bring forward a model of your of your invention
Speaker 1: plus drawings and explain how this was made, and that
Speaker 1: future inventors could come and look and say, oh, actually,
Speaker 1: what I have is an improvement, is a variation on
Speaker 1: an existing patent. Again, you have to be your patent
Speaker 1: has to be review. Even today, and recently I heard, Holly,
Speaker 1: you might find fascinating the ten million US patent was
Speaker 1: issued recently, ten million. It's astonishing to think about all
Speaker 1: of the ingenuity that the preceding UH numbers all contained.
Speaker 1: In many cases, like it's it's just such a great
Speaker 1: deal about the never ending quest to make new things
Speaker 1: and fill gaps that we need. And it's sort of
Speaker 1: beautiful indeed. And and this historic building also went through
Speaker 1: some transformations. It was built to be fireproof, so that
Speaker 1: meant originally, you know, stay away from wooden beams and
Speaker 1: work with iron tresses and such. And built in the
Speaker 1: Greek Revival style. It during the Civil War housed hospital.
Speaker 1: Walt Whitman would come here and UH read to injured soldiers.
Speaker 1: UH and UH in its incarnation as the Patent Office,
Speaker 1: the very important to Clara Barton worked here. We would
Speaker 1: know her for two important reasons. Of course, she was
Speaker 1: the founder of the American Red Cross, and in today's
Speaker 1: important conversation about gender equality, she was the first government
Speaker 1: um employee who was given equal pay for equal work.
Speaker 1: Clara Barton here at the old Patent Novice And it
Speaker 1: also housed earlier iterations and collections of the Smithsonian, and then,
Speaker 1: thankfully in nine after a significant restoration, was the official
Speaker 1: home for UH, the Smithsonian, American Art Museum, and our
Speaker 1: sister museum, the National Portrait Gallery. And it's so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Walking around, I spied something very cool which has been
Speaker 1: retained despite updates and things being renovated. There is a
Speaker 1: tiny piece of graffiti that you guys kept in now
Speaker 1: it's almost its own little secret artwork exhibit. Will you
Speaker 1: talk about that a little bit? Yes, I I think
Speaker 1: museums have wonderful objects that we caretake and hopefully we
Speaker 1: display it in intriguing, in beautiful ways, provocative ways sometimes.
Speaker 1: And yet let's not forget the house in which we sit,
Speaker 1: whether it's a contemporary building. And they're wonderful star architects
Speaker 1: for building great museums these days, but many museums are
Speaker 1: located in historic buildings, you know, repurposed. And so if
Speaker 1: we can bring a little bit of the magic out,
Speaker 1: if we can remind people that UM that these great
Speaker 1: UH facilities had important roles. Not only we were a
Speaker 1: Civil War hospital, but we were the home for Abraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln's second inaugural ball, because it was one of the
Speaker 1: largest spaces in Washington City for such an event. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do we have any insight into who the mystery
Speaker 1: HF that I wish I could tell you. I wish
Speaker 1: I could tell you that it was Walt Whitman himself. No, UM,
Speaker 1: not the case, however, Walt Whitman. Uh, there are echoes
Speaker 1: of women around the city. So I invite you to
Speaker 1: go to the du Pont Circle train metro exit and
Speaker 1: etched in the entry and exit tunnel is the Walt
Speaker 1: Whitman poem about his days reading to Civil War. Um,
Speaker 1: you know injured. Yeah, I love it so for listeners.
Speaker 1: It's a tiny little piece of like a window frame.
Speaker 1: It just has the initial C HF carved in it
Speaker 1: and then it stated August eight sixty four. And you
Speaker 1: guys have put this beautiful just a little glass over
Speaker 1: it and it It is sort of funny because when
Speaker 1: you look at it straight on, it almost looks like
Speaker 1: you just mounted a picture on the wall. But then
Speaker 1: when you see it from the side, you realize it's
Speaker 1: just protecting something that's part of this building's history. I'm
Speaker 1: so glad you found it, Holly. We uh want people
Speaker 1: to look closely at works of art and then also
Speaker 1: explore a little bit of the building. So when you're
Speaker 1: in the Great Hall, which was where Lincoln's inauguration was,
Speaker 1: and if you look at the floor, it feels different
Speaker 1: than in the rest of the building. You're not on
Speaker 1: marble floors. You're not even on wood gallery floors. You're
Speaker 1: on beautiful tiled floors. And because that is a completely
Speaker 1: different style, there was a fire in seven in this building,
Speaker 1: and so a new architectural style was added to our
Speaker 1: Greek Revival building, something called Neo Renaissance, and um, so
Speaker 1: a very different grandeur was was added to the building,
Speaker 1: gave it a bit of an update. I hope everyone
Speaker 1: who visits the Smithsonian American Art Museum seeks out that
Speaker 1: little bit of preserved graffiti that we talked about. It
Speaker 1: just feels so unique and special, and it tethers the
Speaker 1: building to its past. Coming up, Stephanie will share two
Speaker 1: stories about places in the building. She thinks they're extra
Speaker 1: special and that visitors should make sure to visit. But
Speaker 1: first we will take a quick sponsor break. You mentioned
Speaker 1: that this was at one point the U. S. Patent Office,
Speaker 1: and you still have on display some unique pieces that
Speaker 1: are you know, old patents and their models. Uh. Will
Speaker 1: you talk about some of those? Are some of your
Speaker 1: fate one or two of your favorites, perhaps, sure, Holly.
Speaker 1: I I always invite visitors to explore this really large building,
Speaker 1: the three different floors, and then uh, make a bee
Speaker 1: line for two very special places. One is called the
Speaker 1: Loose Foundation Center for American Art, which is where we're
Speaker 1: located right now, and there are a couple of mezzanine
Speaker 1: levels of shelves and open storage as we like to
Speaker 1: call it. There are three thousand works of art on
Speaker 1: view across all media. And then tucked in another corner
Speaker 1: that you and I spied and walked over a little
Speaker 1: bit is the London Conservation Center, the first visible conservation
Speaker 1: center in a museum. So the patent models we thought
Speaker 1: would be important to still show, and we have an
Speaker 1: understanding with the Patent office that a couple of delightful
Speaker 1: I would say, both failed models and things we still
Speaker 1: enjoy today, like a butter churn or I think you
Speaker 1: spied a sewing machine. Did so, these wonderful models are
Speaker 1: tagged with a wonderful calligraphy indicating their number, a little
Speaker 1: bit of their history. We have reproductions of some of
Speaker 1: the drawings that talk about process and use, and we
Speaker 1: also have a timeline of of the of the usage
Speaker 1: of the of the museum. So it's uh in Bay
Speaker 1: twenty one. When you're up on the sort of mezzanine
Speaker 1: level of the loose Um Center. Yeah, it's there are
Speaker 1: so many wonderful little nooks and crannies all over this building.
Speaker 1: But so I'm glad that you directed people where to
Speaker 1: go if they want to see that, because it might
Speaker 1: be tricky to find it if you don't know the
Speaker 1: building terribly well. One of the things I really wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to you about is an exhibit that you
Speaker 1: guys just opened, which is called Artists Respond and it's
Speaker 1: American Art in the Vietnam War One. That's a really
Speaker 1: impactful exhibit to walk through. It is not an easy
Speaker 1: exhibit to walk through. UM. A lot of those pieces
Speaker 1: are not what we would call like pretty art. Um.
Speaker 1: They're moving and visceral and very frightening in some ways
Speaker 1: and arresting. Will you talk about just that exhibit, why
Speaker 1: it is important, why you wanted to have it here
Speaker 1: at the Smithsonian Um, and also just you know, your
Speaker 1: thoughts on it and how the whole thing came together. Uh,
Speaker 1: thank you, Holly. I'm so glad you have um uh
Speaker 1: invited me to spend a moment on this exhibition. So
Speaker 1: this is a project that's been five years in the making.
Speaker 1: Really takes that long to identify works, to hone your
Speaker 1: your theories and your messages, to uh write catalog entries
Speaker 1: and essays, um, and to ship everything here and uh
Speaker 1: and also raise the funds to make it all happen. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is an exhibition that is a window into a moment, uh,
Speaker 1: a moment of the American experience. The Vietnam War, by
Speaker 1: any definition, one of the most contested moments in American life.
Speaker 1: It touched our political life, our military experience, our social understanding,
Speaker 1: and artists were among those who were grappling with. UM.
Speaker 1: This war that for many people arrived in your living room.
Speaker 1: It was sort of the first sort of televised war
Speaker 1: and UH, so you would be sitting down to dinner
Speaker 1: with your family and uh there would be the on
Speaker 1: your screen, the notices of how many people were killed
Speaker 1: or injured. Uh. And that is reflected in a fabos
Speaker 1: piece by Edward keene Holtz that we have on display.
Speaker 1: This exhibition looks at a unique time period T. Seventy five,
Speaker 1: the sort of key moments, the escalation of the war
Speaker 1: as well. And UH it is fundamentally an anti war exhibition.
Speaker 1: I think it is. It is not designed to be
Speaker 1: UM anti American and I don't see the artists make
Speaker 1: that statement. They may question the American government, they may
Speaker 1: question the the ideals that are not being upheld. Um
Speaker 1: in this moment, there is uh a moment where this
Speaker 1: conflict would forever change American art. Why because if you're
Speaker 1: making pop art or abstract expressionists art in the preceding decades,
Speaker 1: that's not the language where you can talk about loss.
Speaker 1: That you can talk about the body, that you can
Speaker 1: talk about ideals or American identity or atrocities or places
Speaker 1: far you know, far far away. It's really interesting because
Speaker 1: I feel like um one growing up in a military
Speaker 1: family where my dad was in the Vietnam War and
Speaker 1: never wanted to talk about it. It's really enlightening. Again,
Speaker 1: I was tiny at that point, so it wasn't as
Speaker 1: though I have my own memories of it. But it
Speaker 1: is enlightening even for me who I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: I study history and I read up in these things
Speaker 1: and have personal connection. But even so, it really captures
Speaker 1: what was going on socially in a way that I
Speaker 1: think we don't often see. Um. You know, it's an
Speaker 1: education in and of itself about what what it felt
Speaker 1: like to be an American during the late sixties and
Speaker 1: early seventies. That I think is incredibly important. UM. I
Speaker 1: wonder what the reception has been in the short time
Speaker 1: it's been open. It's only been open like a week
Speaker 1: and a half, right, yes, yes, I think people have
Speaker 1: understood that this is an important topic. It's really the
Speaker 1: first and sort of largest, most comprehensive view of this
Speaker 1: moment in time. It is both feels very contemporary, and
Speaker 1: the artists were making work in response to that moment.
Speaker 1: And again the exhibition has worked only from that a decade.
Speaker 1: Much is of course, we we offer some interpretation spaces
Speaker 1: and and and talk about, you know, the Maya Lens
Speaker 1: Vietnam War Memorial, because we are of course here in
Speaker 1: washing d c. And is something that in many ways
Speaker 1: brought the country back together again, you know, after the
Speaker 1: shattering experience of the war. The exhibition also feels very historic, uh,
Speaker 1: in terms of moments that speak to the Democratic Convention,
Speaker 1: also a tough moment in Chicago. It's an exhibition that
Speaker 1: invites a lot more voices into the story than we
Speaker 1: were used to both at the time UM and even
Speaker 1: sometimes today. So many more works by women artists, by
Speaker 1: UM people of color are included. I think people will
Speaker 1: be surprised how many works by veterans are in the exhibition. UH,
Speaker 1: and they to grapple with their dual identity as an
Speaker 1: artist and as a veteran. It's also show that confronts
Speaker 1: you with different media. So there'll be an environment, there
Speaker 1: will be graphic posters, there'll be some photojournalist images, there
Speaker 1: will be big, bold paintings. There are photographs of performances
Speaker 1: UH included. And I would tell you a lot of
Speaker 1: these artists weren't necessarily making the art for art world.
Speaker 1: They weren't necessarily expecting the works to be displayed, and
Speaker 1: a lot of dealers really didn't want to show this work.
Speaker 1: And it was work that in many ways was not
Speaker 1: always fully formed, was still in process. So you'll find
Speaker 1: people you know like Judy Chicago and Chris Burton, and
Speaker 1: you'll find people you may know less like Jesse Trevino
Speaker 1: um And and Kim Jones, both vets, or somebody as
Speaker 1: impactful as Rupert Garcia. So incredible mix. Yeah, the breadth
Speaker 1: of artwork in that exhibit. As I was walking through,
Speaker 1: I kept going, wait, is there's more down here? Like
Speaker 1: it's huge. It is a big show, and I believe
Speaker 1: it or not, we had to we we we did
Speaker 1: a pretty good job of editing not not everything you
Speaker 1: want to borrow is available, and yet people also are
Speaker 1: very generous in their loans, and you have to kind
Speaker 1: of track down who owns something because it may change
Speaker 1: hands during that time. I would also say that art
Speaker 1: critics have picked up that this is an exhibition that
Speaker 1: is worth writing about and hopefully encouraging people to visit.
Speaker 1: So we had early previews in the Washington Post, in
Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal, and a complimentary review in the
Speaker 1: Washington Post calling it a must see exhibition. And I
Speaker 1: hope it is an exhibition you see with other people,
Speaker 1: and that you can both respond to the works of
Speaker 1: art and also to your memories or your understanding of
Speaker 1: that of that moment again conveyed through art. This I
Speaker 1: have to keep reminding people, Holly, it's fundamentally in art exhibition.
Speaker 1: Much as we are pausing and trying to remember what
Speaker 1: exactly happened in that year of nineteen sixty nine and
Speaker 1: what changed again in one I mean, well, we offer
Speaker 1: timelines and other moments of context for our visitors, but
Speaker 1: it's really the art that we want you to encounter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you guys have a unique little setup, uh where
Speaker 1: people can kind of process where they're at in terms
Speaker 1: of like what they've experienced and how they're thinking about
Speaker 1: it when you talk a little bit about that, because
Speaker 1: it's fascinating, Yes, I uh More and more we ask ourselves,
Speaker 1: how do our visitors get ready to see an exhibition
Speaker 1: and how do we give them a space for for pause?
Speaker 1: So I have asked the curators to uh plan for
Speaker 1: each exhibition to have a video a brief moment where
Speaker 1: you can stand. You don't necessarily to say we're not
Speaker 1: making black box spaces, but some kind of moment where
Speaker 1: we can talk about the artist or at the time
Speaker 1: period or what was going on historically. Just preparing visitors
Speaker 1: and letting every visitor come in sort of at a
Speaker 1: a at a same same level of information that that
Speaker 1: we're offering. And then in you go through the exhibition
Speaker 1: and and the rooms are thematically laid out their numbers.
Speaker 1: So we do think that there is a story to
Speaker 1: be told as as you move from room one to
Speaker 1: to five or so, and then at the end comfortable
Speaker 1: seating a pencil, catalogs, books, a timeline, images, revisiting the
Speaker 1: artworks in a chronological sense instead of in a thematic sense,
Speaker 1: updating the story a little bit, reminding you what has
Speaker 1: happened since, and then asking you which works of art
Speaker 1: spoke to you, which works about Will you not forget
Speaker 1: which works were familiar to you or artists that you
Speaker 1: you know in one context but did not ever think
Speaker 1: that they would be making art that would speak UM
Speaker 1: to the Vietnam war experience. Yeah, it's an amazing thing.
Speaker 1: I kind of wish every museum exhibit had it more
Speaker 1: and more. I think we, UM, we want to know
Speaker 1: more about how our visitors come into the museum. What
Speaker 1: is their frame of reference, what is their frame of knowledge? Uh?
Speaker 1: And how do we give them uh quiet space for
Speaker 1: uh for interpretation, for um, for sorting through before you
Speaker 1: again jump into another gallery, a different time moment of
Speaker 1: different material. We want people to to rest their eyes too. UM.
Speaker 1: I want to shift gears a little bit because I
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier to me before we started your favorite
Speaker 1: piece here, and I would love for you to talk
Speaker 1: about that a little bit. Oh, Holly, I I have
Speaker 1: a favorite piece of the day at the at the museum.
Speaker 1: Here we have forty four thousand works of art, and
Speaker 1: I'm constantly learning something new. I have the pleasure of
Speaker 1: meeting artists and then seeing the work maybe through their eyes,
Speaker 1: or when we purchase something UM, that becomes a new favorite.
Speaker 1: So remind me, what did I tell you was my
Speaker 1: favorite thing that Helen Keller owned? Ah, but it is
Speaker 1: not my object. I'm happy to tell you about a
Speaker 1: work in the Smithsonian's collection. Again, as I mentioned the
Speaker 1: American Art Museum, we hold forty four thousand works of
Speaker 1: art interests. But the story so this smith Sony Institution UM,
Speaker 1: which is supported by your tax dollars as well as
Speaker 1: private contributions, holds a hundred and fifty five million objects.
Speaker 1: Imagine that. Now, let's let's imagine that most of those
Speaker 1: are maybe bugs in the Natural History Museum. But among
Speaker 1: those incredible UM objects that tell us about ourselves, our time,
Speaker 1: about um UM, about what we're thinking and feeling, is
Speaker 1: an object that I'm very interested in, which is Helen
Speaker 1: Keller's watch. Okay, so pause for a second and imagine
Speaker 1: what you would think it would look like. It's not
Speaker 1: a risk watch. It's a pocket watch. Okay. Was it
Speaker 1: made for her? No? Actually it was a gift. Who
Speaker 1: would have a watch that would be useful to Allan Keller?
Speaker 1: If I told you it was a diplomat, if I
Speaker 1: told you it was a pocket watch, if I told
Speaker 1: you it was a watch that you could feel the
Speaker 1: time on, so that there was an you know, internal
Speaker 1: mechanism that where time would be represented on the outside,
Speaker 1: so that the diplomat would be diplomatic in ending a
Speaker 1: meeting or um being on time someplace. And this was
Speaker 1: a gift to Helen Keller that she treasured, and um
Speaker 1: makes us think differently about timekeeping and how uh somebody
Speaker 1: who overcame so much would find use in something that
Speaker 1: other people would could also own and would have routinely.
Speaker 1: I love that. It's just such a fascinating little I
Speaker 1: don't know, is it a piece of trivia to know
Speaker 1: that it's just wonderful? Let me, can I tell you
Speaker 1: why I'm interested in the subfcase so I wear another
Speaker 1: hat or two or three. At the Smithsonian, aside from
Speaker 1: running the American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery, there
Speaker 1: are pan institutional or Smithsonian wide initiatives, and one of
Speaker 1: them is the American Women's His Your Initiative. I'm the
Speaker 1: co chair of this and we are spending the next
Speaker 1: five years to pull the threads together of all the
Speaker 1: stories of American women through science, through history, through natural history,
Speaker 1: through art, through politics, every which way that remarkable women
Speaker 1: and also everyday women have contributed to the American experience,
Speaker 1: to American history. So there are two cornerstone anchoring exhibitions.
Speaker 1: One opens coincidentally on March twenty eight here in the
Speaker 1: old Patent Office building, my sister museum, the National Portrait
Speaker 1: Gallery is doing a Votes for Women exhibition, obviously years
Speaker 1: towards the anniversary of suffrage, which did not give all
Speaker 1: women the right to vote. You have to remember, uh
Speaker 1: in in the South during the gym Crow period, black
Speaker 1: women were not um enfranchised. They would um. Also have
Speaker 1: the book end to that opening exhibition in the coming
Speaker 1: years is an exhibition called Girlhood It's Complicated, which talks
Speaker 1: about growing into your own identity as a woman. So
Speaker 1: the phases of um myth making and reality of American
Speaker 1: girlhood and so the Helen Keller story is part of
Speaker 1: that exhibition, which will travel nationally. That's wonderful, maybe half
Speaker 1: a dozen museums. Wow, that'll be fantastic coming up Stephanie
Speaker 1: is going to talk a little bit about how even
Speaker 1: the frames that art is displayed in are an important
Speaker 1: part of an object story. But first we're gonna pause
Speaker 1: and have a word from one of the sponsors that
Speaker 1: keeps this show going. I know that you are obviously
Speaker 1: keenly interested in history. There was also another little bit
Speaker 1: of trivia that you told me as we were walking
Speaker 1: around talking about conservation and picture frames. Will you talk
Speaker 1: about that a little bit? Sure? Uh. One of the
Speaker 1: uh special places here at the museum is the Lender
Speaker 1: Conservation Center that I may have mentioned earlier. And when
Speaker 1: you are up in that space, what you encounter our
Speaker 1: floor to ceiling window panes. It is basically a glass box.
Speaker 1: And we have five conservation labs that are visible to
Speaker 1: UM to anyone who who comes up there. So our
Speaker 1: conservators are working diligently away in a framing studio, in
Speaker 1: an objects laboratory, in the time based Media space, in
Speaker 1: the painting UM lab, and we try to reveal a
Speaker 1: little bit about the magic of UM, of of how
Speaker 1: we present works of art, how artists create things, and
Speaker 1: so in the framing studio you'll see different styles of
Speaker 1: frames UM that will explain you know how they're crafted.
Speaker 1: Close to the window, you'll see a little sampler of papers.
Speaker 1: So there's a gold leaf, there's still relief, there's copper relief,
Speaker 1: things like that and UM. More and more, we want
Speaker 1: to try to encourage our visitors to understand that there's
Speaker 1: something very special to a historic frame, that perhaps the
Speaker 1: artist was very intentional about the frame that they wanted,
Speaker 1: maybe they even created the frame, or maybe it was
Speaker 1: important for a collector to have UM frames that really
Speaker 1: showcased UM and and uh showcase the artwork and and
Speaker 1: guilding was often for the distinctive purpose of making the
Speaker 1: artwork glow with limited UM domestic lighting it would reflect
Speaker 1: the lighting and the painting better. So uh, in the future,
Speaker 1: we will be adjusting our labels and pointing out to
Speaker 1: our visitors when it's an original frame that so much
Speaker 1: won't won't won't that I think maybe start or maybe
Speaker 1: even stop a conversation. Wait, did you see that original frame? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think about There are a couple of
Speaker 1: art pieces I have bought fairly recently in New Orleans
Speaker 1: where the frames were made out of refuse from the hurricane,
Speaker 1: and to me, like that's exactly kind of the same thing.
Speaker 1: It's just historically oriented. In a hundred years, someone will
Speaker 1: have that tag on and they'll be like, oh, it
Speaker 1: will add weight and depth to their understanding of that
Speaker 1: piece of artists they're taking it in. So yes, and
Speaker 1: and framing Holly is ever evolving. Museums will take frames
Speaker 1: off um and say, you know what that frame is
Speaker 1: speaks more to the collector and their desire to have
Speaker 1: one type of frame versus what was really more typical
Speaker 1: for this kind of of an object. Museums go to
Speaker 1: great lengths to restore, in some cases recreate frames to
Speaker 1: again honor honor the work of art. I love it,
Speaker 1: uh you obviously because of your position. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't want to get too heavy or make you feel weird.
Speaker 1: But obviously you are the steward of a place that
Speaker 1: is maintaining and you know, bolstering history and how it's told.
Speaker 1: So I wonder is it too weird for you to
Speaker 1: think about in a hundred years when someone looks back
Speaker 1: on your directorship, what would you like them to remember. Uh? Well,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that you understand that these jobs are temporary,
Speaker 1: that we're all stewards that Uh, it's UMM. I'm doing
Speaker 1: my very best to make sure that I advocate for
Speaker 1: visitors that that what we have to share uh is
Speaker 1: meaningful to the people who come through our doors. And
Speaker 1: I'm happy to report that museum visitation is that at
Speaker 1: an all time high. Last year we welcome some two
Speaker 1: million visitors and this past year three million visitors as
Speaker 1: a huge uptick. Of course, it's a special exhibition, it's
Speaker 1: a it's things that capture people's imagination that they want
Speaker 1: to see and UH, and we're delighted when when that happens. UH.
Speaker 1: And of course we keep asking ourselves who are we
Speaker 1: not speaking to? UM? Who who needs different works of
Speaker 1: art to feel welcome at the museum and be represented here? Uh?
Speaker 1: And I think mostly my impact will be which works
Speaker 1: of art I had the good luck of bringing into
Speaker 1: the collection and encouraging our curators to be bold and
Speaker 1: inviting people to be generous to help us purchase things.
Speaker 1: Hopefully my legacy will be some special exhibitions that will
Speaker 1: be groundbreaking, like our artists respond American art in the
Speaker 1: Vietnam War to nine project or a Burning Man exhibition
Speaker 1: at the Renwick Gallery. UH. To ensure the exhibitions are
Speaker 1: bigger and bolder. I want to make sure that I'm
Speaker 1: educating the next generation of scholars and in our in
Speaker 1: our fellowship program, which is going to be fifty years
Speaker 1: old next year, oldest largest, uh and premier program in
Speaker 1: American art and visual culture, that we care take these
Speaker 1: objects in the London Conservation Center, and that mostly Holly
Speaker 1: people feel at home, that this is there a museum,
Speaker 1: that the Smithsonian American Art Museum is deeply meaningful for
Speaker 1: people throughout their lives. I feel like your legacy is
Speaker 1: going to be that you opened the doors wider. Well,
Speaker 1: that's certainly my charge. Because we are free. That is
Speaker 1: an amazing thing to offer all of this for free.
Speaker 1: We are open every single day of the year. I
Speaker 1: didn't except Christmas and so uh. And in this building,
Speaker 1: the old Patent Office, we have later hours. We're open
Speaker 1: till seven o'clock at night. The only Smithsonian was such
Speaker 1: late hours, and it gives us a different vibe and
Speaker 1: a different energy. Uh. And I'm happy to report we
Speaker 1: are also among the favorite of the Smithsonian museums in
Speaker 1: the sense that after the National Zoo, we have the
Speaker 1: highest repeat visitation fifty Our visitors come again, and we're
Speaker 1: not on the National Mall. So yeah, we're a destination.
Speaker 1: I love it. It speaks to the amazing work that
Speaker 1: you've been doing. I cannot thank you enough for having
Speaker 1: us today like this has been dreamy well, Holly, I
Speaker 1: I tell you, this is a place for the people
Speaker 1: of curious minds. This is a place for fun as well.
Speaker 1: We want you to get get your hands dirty as
Speaker 1: well too. When we've got great family day programs. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you about one of my favorite programs if
Speaker 1: you don't If you don't mind, we do something that
Speaker 1: I've never seen in any other museum, because, believe it
Speaker 1: or not, we collect video games. We see video games
Speaker 1: as art in terms of the composition, in terms of
Speaker 1: the narrative, in terms of the of the elements that
Speaker 1: go into it, and they're often have a story component
Speaker 1: to them. So every year for some ten years or
Speaker 1: so now, we've been doing something called sam Arcade. You
Speaker 1: know what an arcade is? The museum, the Fabulous co
Speaker 1: Got Courtyard and other spaces in the museum are filled
Speaker 1: with all kinds of game and video games. They are free.
Speaker 1: We invite people to be polite and only use them
Speaker 1: for some fifteen minutes or so, and people are very
Speaker 1: good about that. And let me tell you. There are
Speaker 1: motorcycles parked outside the museum. There are vans parked outside
Speaker 1: of the museum. There are people you know, pouring out
Speaker 1: of the metro station, young and old English as their
Speaker 1: first language, as their second or third language. We feature
Speaker 1: new kinds of games, games that use historic elements and
Speaker 1: have a sense of chance, that relate to UH, to
Speaker 1: biblical stories. UH a piece about Walden Pond where you
Speaker 1: travel through the house and look at historic objects. How
Speaker 1: you go into the woods and have to chop down
Speaker 1: a tree to make the log cabin. Amazing kind of
Speaker 1: fantasy games that you play by yourself or with others.
Speaker 1: And UM, best of all, you wander through the rest
Speaker 1: the museum as you're as you're going on. It's a
Speaker 1: two day event. We have over ten thousand people come
Speaker 1: and UH it invites us to think about doing the
Speaker 1: next Art of Video Games exhibition, both at the museum
Speaker 1: and to send around the country. I will be here
Speaker 1: for that again. The American experience. You'll get tired of
Speaker 1: seeing an American creativity for sure. I love it again,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, what a delight for me my
Speaker 1: pleasure come back. I feel so spoiled. I'd like to
Speaker 1: say tell everyone, and I mean that not in the
Speaker 1: tell everyone to come, but tell everyone that you want
Speaker 1: to come with them. Here again, back to the social
Speaker 1: experience of museums, I feel like it is kind of
Speaker 1: impossible to not want to run to the Smithsonian American
Speaker 1: Art Museum after hearing Stephanie Stevish talk about it. If
Speaker 1: you'd like to run to the museum and you want
Speaker 1: to check out the exhibit that we mentioned in the show,
Speaker 1: Artists Respond American Art in the Vietnam War nine to nineteen.
Speaker 1: That exhibit is open now and it will run until
Speaker 1: August eighteen. We are also going to be sure to
Speaker 1: include a link to their way site with information about
Speaker 1: that exhibit in our show notes. Super big thanks once
Speaker 1: again to Stephanie for being on the show. I have
Speaker 1: a quick little bit of listener mail if you'd like cool.
Speaker 1: I'm on a roll where I really am enjoying our
Speaker 1: mails from from educators. So this is from our listener Jessica,
Speaker 1: who writes Hi, Holly and Tracy. I am a full
Speaker 1: time special ed teacher and a part time history buff.
Speaker 1: I started listening to your podcast a few months ago,
Speaker 1: and I'm constantly amazed by the amount of content stuff
Speaker 1: you missed in history classes covered. My goal is to
Speaker 1: be able to give you guys an idea for a
Speaker 1: show someday, but every time I come up with one,
Speaker 1: I find that you've covered it already, so then I
Speaker 1: quickly find it in the archives and listened voraciously. Recently,
Speaker 1: I was reading the book Brave Harriet by Marissa Moss
Speaker 1: with my students. This introduced them to Harriet Quimby, who
Speaker 1: was the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
Speaker 1: Not surprisingly, after a quick search of the archives, I
Speaker 1: found that Harriet was mentioned in a previous podcast back
Speaker 1: in so I quickly downloaded the show and shared it
Speaker 1: with my students and they were so excited to learn
Speaker 1: more about this American aviator. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: all that you do to keep stories like these relevant
Speaker 1: and interest younger generations of history lovers. Um, thank you
Speaker 1: so much, Jessica. Again, I have to say, um, thank
Speaker 1: you for being an educator because we need those and
Speaker 1: it is a noble endeavor. I certainly feel if you
Speaker 1: would like to write to us, you can do so
Speaker 1: at History Podcast at how ste works dot com, or
Speaker 1: you can come and visit us anywhere on social media
Speaker 1: where we are Missed in History. We're also at missed
Speaker 1: in History dot com as our website, and all of
Speaker 1: the shows that have ever existed can be found were
Speaker 1: right there. If you would like to subscribe to the show,
Speaker 1: you can do that on the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Stuffy
Speaker 1: Missed in History Class is a production of I heart
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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.