Associates Advisory

Smithsonian Wide Virtual Volunteer Appreciation on April 7 to kick off Volunteer Appreciation Month

by Joann Stevens, Guest Blogger

The April 7th Smithsonian Volunteer Appreciation Day was a virtual joy, a love fest to volunteers who kept the institution afloat during years of closures forced by the global pandemic. We enthusiastically await their in-person return to the Mall.  

Some 124 Smithsonian Associate volunteers, for example, provided over 8,100 volunteer hours for 1,100 programs in 2021.

Appreciations ranged from accolades by museum administrators and Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III to graphic “thank you” notes, a digital gallery featuring volunteers’ artwork, several from Smithsonian Associates, and leadership discussions about emerging and long existent Smithsonian museums. 

“You are truly the unsung heroes of the Smithsonian,” said Secretary Bunch offering his personal thanks to volunteers’ who supported SI during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Some 15,000 volunteers participated in enrichment programs, he said, and one million pages of collection objects such as letters, newspapers, and other material objects, were transcribed.

With the country “in need of finding common ground” for issues such as racial injustice, climate change, and engaging rural communities, the Secretary said Smithsonian volunteers are helping forge new pathways to diverse learners across the nation and the globe.

He cited the Smithsonian Rural Initiative which fosters engagement with history, SI collections, and rural communities, as well as the Smithsonian Climate Action Plan that practices sustainability at SI even as it advances learning about biodiversity, climate change and sustainable living.

Museum staff, curators, and educators are being encouraged to expand outreach to diverse religious, cultural and social institutions, fraternities and sororities, to build greater diversity among volunteers, said Secretary Bunch, “to make us more responsive and inclusive, to show that the Smithsonian embraces all Americans.” 

A Q&A session with volunteers across SI prompted discussion about the Smithsonian’s future in digital learning, community advocacy to bridge divides among “those who believe in science and those who don’t,” and to showcase the Smithsonian as a place that models “leadership and ethical standards.”

Secretary Bunch’s responses were direct and hopeful as he talked about the Smithsonian’s “ability to accelerate technology” for digital learning in response to the pandemic, thus enabling the Smithsonian “to serve” more people digitally than the 30 million who visited the brick-and-mortar complexes.  

Believing “We are a better nation when we embrace the totality of our past,” Bunch said “this is an opportunity to help people understand themselves and their history.” He cited the roles of the emerging museums and the recent repatriation decision to return Benin Bronzes to Nigeria stolen in the late 19^th century. 

“My goal is to make sure we’re modeling the (museum) profession globally” as responsible stewards, the Secretary said.

The exchange with Secretary Bunch was followed by a conversation with leaders developing two emerging museums on the mall: Eduardo Diaz, Interim Director, the National Museum of the American Latino, and Lisa Sasaki, Interim Director, The Smithsonian Women’s Museum.   

Three breakout content sessions were preceded by an exhibition of fine and abstract art of various mediums created by volunteers. Smithsonian Associate volunteers Rebecca Rose, Gretchen Whitney, Helen Silberminz, and Kim Carter among those showcased.

Jenna Jones, Volunteer Coordinator, Smithsonian Associates, facilitated a discussion and viewer Q&A with Matilda McQuaid, Acting Curatorial Director of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, in New York City.  Their session “Stories for NY: Sarah & Eleanor Hewitt, Designing A Modern Museum” offered stories and photographs highlighting the mission and methods used by the granddaughters of the founder of The Cooper Union to amass collections for and open the museum.

A video of the Smithsonian Appreciation Day celebration events will be available online soon, so stay tuned!

Also - On Monday, April 25th at 4 pm the Smithsonian Associates is hosting a special Volunteer Zoom with all our hiatus volunteers. It will be an opportunity for these longtime pre-Covid volunteers to reconnect with programming staff and the membership team. Invites will go out by email. This is not for remote or in person volunteers who are currently actively volunteering. We hosted a volunteer appreciation for remote volunteers in November, the "Thank-a-Thon." 

Volunteer Sherri Watkins Fosters Life Long Learning & Living Through Global Studies, Art & Technology

by Joann Stevens, Guest Blogger

Sherri Watkins lives and learns for personal growth, embracing each day as an adventure in self-discovery and human engagement for the common good that enriches her life and relationships.  A longtime volunteer with museums in the DMV, she has been with the Smithsonian for two decades, volunteering with the Folklife Festival, Museum of African Art, and the Museum of Natural History. Since 2008 Sherri has volunteered with Smithsonian Associates, where studio art classes in book binding, pottery and jewelry making—along with supporting many other types of programs—have supported her personal and professional development.

“I have learned so much about programs and program design from Smithsonian Associates,” she said in homage to the in-person and virtual education she has gained and shares with family members, friends, colleagues and most importantly students at the elite, private Bullis School in Maryland where she is Director of Publications and Design.  Now her passion for lifelong learning and cultural engagement has taken her and the school virtually global, helping young studio arts learners and social studies students make important personal and cross-cultural discoveries.

With collaborations between academic colleagues at Bullis and EDU Africa, a nonprofit that has facilitated in-country student learning experiences in Africa since 2003, Watkins developed three different types of virtual global exchange experiences between Bullis students in grades 6 and 9-12 and South Africans—all of which were supported by Parents Association grants designed to fund innovative and out-of-the-box approaches to education.

When the pandemic began, 13 Bullis students were scheduled to travel to South Africa under Watkins’ leadership for a trip titled, Demystifying South Africa, Apartheid and Beyond, the school’s first-ever global studies trip to the continent. To date over 225 Bullis students have participated in the virtual South Africa exchanges, a group size that never would have happened with an in-person trip.

At the height of the Covid-19 global pandemic, the virtual global exchanges created cross-cultural dialogues between South African and American students, community leaders, activists and artists who engaged with people they might otherwise not have met. 

Among the activities were: peer-to-peer student exchanges; a discussion with Lionel Davis (https://www.bullis.org/news/article/~board/bullis/post/pa-grant-studio-art-partnership-with-edu-africa), a former inmate of Robben Island Prison where Nelson Mandela spent 27-years before his release and election as South African president; and conversations with and art mentorship from contemporary storyteller/visual artist/activist Njabolo Hlophe, who gives voice to diverse and marginalized people.  

Learning and issues taken from “real world, life experiences,” created a marriage between “the virtual and the real world to make learning successful,” says Watkins. “I told the EDU Africa people that I use my museum skills to think about constructing experiences as they’d happen in 3D.”

The Bullis virtual exchanges became a pathway to student self-discovery, leadership development and activism that benefitted participants in both countries as well as EDU Africa, who has asked Watkins to co-present a case study of the experiences with their co-founder at the Global Education Benchmark Group’s (GEBG) https://gebg.org/ Global Educators Conference in San Diego this April.  The Benchmark group develops skills and knowledge to establish model practices in global education. “We’re addressing the question: Virtual Exchange: Is it Worth it?” and Watkins says she will discuss how skills she learned at museums contributed to creation of the virtual engagements.

The learning experience embodied the Bullis school mission, which in part, says it “inspires students to be critical thinkers, lifelong learners, and impactful global citizens” in a “student-centered” community that “embraces diversity, honors integrity, and fosters belonging.” All to facilitate a Bullis vision to have “students thrive in their pursuit of self-discovery, broaden their horizons, and ultimately transform our world.”

Lessons Learned

As Watkins talks about the lessons learned her enthusiasm is palpable, her delight infectious and hopeful, as she reflects on continuing participant transformations.

“I want to read you a quote,” she says excitedly and then shares the following from a Bullis art student:

“Through the virtual artist exchange, I have gained a sense of culture and creativity that I would not have been exposed to where I live. I have learned how different and unique art is for everyone and how they (people) are influenced from where they live.  Jay brought a sense of unique energy that radiated even virtually…not everyone is as lucky to have such a bright character as their artist exchange.”

In the 2020 peer-to-peer exchanges, Watkins says they learned that South African students really did not know much about the United States but were eager to learn. “They (South African students) get their information from social media, so their South African teachers were eager for this connection with real Americans.  I feel there was an equal amount of learning on both sides.  We learned that we face the same issues in our different systems.  How law enforcement agencies work in both countries; what progress is being made; and that apartheid is not over.”

Most recently, Artist Njabolo Hlophe https://www.timeslive.co.za/ideas/2021-06-16-youth-speak-growing-up-as-young-black-man-in-post-apartheid-sa-i-find-myself-living-as-a-hybrid-being/ who goes by the nickname “Jay” proved to be the right artist to engage with our students says Watkins pronouncing his name easily, even musically, the result of studying Xhosa (virtually, with UBuntu Bridge) since 2020.  

Jay offered inspiration, criticism, and learning videos, as pathways into his life

and activism in impoverished communities in Soweto and Johannesburg. The U.S. students were deeply affected witnessing “a whole other way people live, take a public stand, create public art, and have political discourse in ways that are different from their own experiences.”

Watkins says Jay’s goal was not to teach “art technique” but to use the model of his “street art” as an example of storytelling to inspire student engagement in history, self-expression, and political discourse.

Raising the issue of climate change, for example, Jay presented a mural he’d created as a catalyst for conversation.  Bullis students responded by creating Zines, a small batch of magazines, using Adobe Illustrator to create artwork and narratives.  Zines were up to eight-pages in length, with each page offering three facts about the topic under discussion—topics ranging from health to racial justice, religion, rainforests, and more.

Watkins later printed and bound the completed Zines into booklet format for distribution to each student and created a limited edition graphic box to display them.

“Jay was blown away by their (students) work,” she says, impressed by students’ willingness to address real world problems and “not shy away” from difficult topics.

“He kept talking about how he had never taught kids at this level before… and how he learned how to get involved with other people in their process and not to project his process onto them,” through this experience.  

The mutual learning continues to expand participants, including Watkins’ nonprofit partner EDU Africa.  Prior to the pandemic the nonprofit had not used Edtech for program delivery.  They had focused exclusively on international, face-to-face transformative experiences.

Continuing the Learning

Watkins also delights in the expansion of her personal development through Edtech experiences.  Her parents are advocates of lifelong learning and the arts, setting her artistic direction early in life with ballet lessons beginning at age three, followed by piano lessons at age six and later flute and bass clarinet.

Studio arts eventually captured her imagination and talents, with glasswork becoming her primary medium. “I love creating functional works of art—round forms like bowls, plates, paperweights.  I even have my own kiln,” she says chuckling.  Making jewelry and experimenting with sculptural forms rounds out her pursuits. “I love things touched by the hand.”

Learning that touches the heart, soul and mind are not far behind in keeping family connections close and creativity strong and evolving.  

Her parents, now in their eighties, and a sister who’s an insurance company nurse, live in Watkins’ home state of Ohio, while a brother in music (e.g. Opera) lives in New York.  In-person gatherings have been infrequent since the pandemic, but the small, close-knit clan meets weekly via Watkins Family Zoom (“FamZoom”) where they catch up on family news and discuss films, music, books, and other learning pursuits being explored together or independently. 

“As of now we’ve watched and discussed over 70 films,” she says.  “My dad’s an engineer and loves action films so I push myself to suffer through them to learn something about the genre. Everyone is into learning new stuff.”

In 1998, when Watkins founded the African Voices Literature Group to share her passion for literature from continental Africa with like-minded readers, her mother often read along with the group. Although the once in-person group is no longer in existence, and some former members have since moved away, Watkins acknowledges that these virtual times make a resurgence of the group a real possibility.

While people have lamented loneliness and depression due to Covid-19 isolation,

“I did not have a horrible pandemic experience,” says Watkins “because I was connected to family, developing relationships virtually, and learning new things.”

That’s also what Smithsonian Associates does, she says.  “It connects you to learning and to people.”