Jane Kies, Seed to Sound (c) 2011

Funding for King County-based Arts, Heritage & Preservation Projects

Five funding opportunities in the fields of arts, heritage and historic preservation have upcoming deadlines in February and March. Special Projects and Cultural Education funding is available for Heritage projects; Landmark Rehabilitation funding is available for Preservation Projects; and both Individual and Group Artist project funding is available through our Arts program. We encourage you to visit the funding program pages, read about eligibility and review past grantees. Free, weekly public workshops are scheduled throughout King County, offering prospective applicants an opportunity to meet with program staff and other applicants, understand specific guidelines, and go through a step-by-step review of the application process. These workshops are really helpful in the preparation of successful applications and we encourage you to attend if you can.

Applications and guidelines for each opportunity can be accessed online through 4Culture’s funding calendar or by going directly to the program websites listed below.

HERITAGE SPECIAL PROJECTS – February 29, 2012

Supports projects by organizations and heritage specialists that focus on King County’s historic resources and cultural traditions 

HERITAGE CULTURAL EDUCATION – February 29, 2012

Supports K-12 curriculum enhancement projects that focus on King County history and meet Washington State Assessment Standards

LANDMARK REHABILITATION PROGRAM – March 7, 2012

Provides funds to stabilize, assess, rehabilitate and restore designated King County Landmarks outside the City of Seattle

GROUP ARTS PROJECTS – March 7, 2012

Provides support for innovative arts projects by organizations and ensembles, and/or programs or events that stimulate cultural development

INDIVIDUAL ARTIST PROJECTS – March 14, 2012

Provides support for projects by artists working in all disciplines

Century 21 Exposition, study for the Space Needle restaurant, ca. 1960, by Earle Duff, courtesy of University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections

The Washington Museum Association Conference at Seattle Center, June 13-15, is shaping up to be an exciting event. From the opening reception and exhibit, Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs, at Pacific Science Center, to the awards program and keynote address at EMP, rare opportunities to experience the 1962 World’s Fair grounds turned vital cultural center await conference goers. But, the conference will not be complete without your input.

With the conference theme, “The Next 50: Innovation, Inspiration and Sustained Futures for Museums,” the WMA is seeking session proposals that explore subjects concerning museums today, and pose concepts for museums of tomorrow. The conference provides a chance for you to showcase your expertise and experience in the museum field among your peers from around the state and region. To access the Session Proposal form, go to http://washingtonstatemuseums.org/annualconference. For more information, contact Angela Neller. The deadline for session proposals is February 25, 2012.

Section of triptik map showing transportation options in Des Moines, 1921, published by Automobile Club of Western Washington (AAA)

Join the Des Moines Historical Society at the Des Moines IOOF Hall, Wednesday February 8th at 7pm to hear the fascinating story of “Des Moines Transportation From the Beginning” as told by Al Ramey, President and Founder of the Northwest Public Transportation Historical Group. Mr. Ramey will present a program on the history of public transportation between Des Moines and Seattle, from early boat travel to motor vehicles and road development. Bring your questions, and stay for refreshments and stimulating conversation afterwards.

“Des Moines Transportation from the Beginning” lecture by Al Ramey
IOOF Hall, 728 S. 225th Street, Des Moines, WA
Wednesday, February 8th, 7 – 9 p.m.
Questions? Call (206) 824-52226

Somebody's Grandma exhibit © 2010, photo courtesy of the Nordic Heritage Museum

The guidelines are up! The applications are open! 4Culture’s 2012 Heritage Special Projects and Cultural Education opportunities are now available online. Open to individuals and organizations, these programs fund creative and innovative proposals that document and interpret King County’s history. The Cultural Education program provides funding for the development of classroom-based heritage education projects in partnership with K-12 schools. The deadline for both programs is Wednesday, February 29th, 5pm PST.

An example of projects funded through the Heritage Special Projects program is the Nordic Heritage Museum’s 2010 exhibit “Somebody’s Grandma.” The exhibit strove to reveal the Norwegian-American experience and capture the living heritage of a vibrant multi-generational community through first-person interviews, portrait photography, and film. 4Culture funding supported the planning costs, cultural specialists’ fees, and direct project expenses for developing the exhibit, which was on display July through September 2010 at the museum. For more information about the exhibit, contact the museum.

For current funding program guidelines, project criteria, and how to apply visit 4Culture’s Heritage Program page, www.4culture.org/heritage, and click on “Heritage Special Projects” or “Heritage Cultural Education.” Staff are also offering FREE workshops throughout King County about these programs, the locations and dates of which are available on the funding program’s web page. Feel free to ALSO contact Eric Taylor, Heritage Lead, directly at 206.298.8688 or eric...@4Culture.org, for a one-on-one chat about your proposed project.

You will have noticed by now that Blog4Culture has a fresh new design. We’ve revisited both the look and the functionality of the blog with an eye to getting the reader more quickly and intuitively to the content they want to see. We’ve also simplified and updated our enews to read more clearly on mobile devices as well as on your computer. Let us know what you think.

Don’t receive the enews? We can fix that. Sign up  here to have the monthly enews delivered to your inbox. While you’re there you can also sign up for our public art opportunities and Site Specific event notifications.

Some of you follow us on Facebook – we’d love to see more of you in the house. On our 4Culture Facebook page we post reminders, events, links to the blog and general goodness. We welcome posts on our wall from the cultural community that share what’s happening in Arts, Heritage, Preservation and Public Art in the county, and projects generated by those who live here. Have you received a grant from us? Project funding? Our project managers love to hear your good news but we encourage you to post it on Facebook as well.

Have you discovered the info-stream that is Twitter? Some folks find Twitter overwhelming but really, it’s just conversation, community and links to things you might want to know about, 140 characters at a time. That’s bite-size. We have two Twitter streams where we tweet about our programs, share links of interest, make friends and converse with our folks. If you’re looking for an update about what we had for lunch you won’t find it on either stream, but if you want to discover what all the fuss is about or if you are already on Twitter, follow us up. Come on in, the water’s fine.

@4Culture (Arts, Heritage, Preservation and Public Art content) and @pa4culture (Public Art’s stream that features design, technology, architecture and public art).

Twitter illustration by Philip E. Pascuzzo, 2010

Have you heard of  Tumblr? This micro blogging site has hosted Public Art’s informal studio blog for the last year or so – what’s new, what’s in process, things we’ve been thinking or talking about. We will maintain the Tumblr site for the next quarter and may then move such content over to our other sites. In the meantime, check out our current and archived posts, and if you are on Tumblr give us a follow. You never know, we might be encouraged and stick around on this platform.

And finally, let us speak of Google+. Though we admire its circles, its clean design and its lack of overt advertising we are holding steady with the social media we already have going. Are you committed to Google+? Do you think we should build a page and presence there? Let us know, our outreach is always evolving.

Of course, if you don’t hold with things digital (or even if you do) you can always find us in the office. Visit Gallery4Culture and watch the e4c screens, browse our resource room, help yourself to the brochures and cards at the front entrance and say hello to staff.

101 Prefontaine Place South in Pioneer Square is an especially robust platform, and it’s not going anywhere.

]]> http://blog.4culture.org/2012/01/find-4culture-online-were-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://blog.4culture.org/2011/12/announcing-2011-cultural-facilities-awards/ http://blog.4culture.org/2011/12/announcing-2011-cultural-facilities-awards/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:21:34 +0000 4Culture http://blog.4culture.org/?p=17903 4Culture is pleased to announce 37 cultural facility projects across King County have been approved to receive funding awards. A total of over $970,000 will be invested in the creation and maintaining of public, cultural ... Continue

4Culture is pleased to announce 37 cultural facility projects across King County have been approved to receive funding awards. A total of over $970,000 will be invested in the creation and maintaining of public, cultural facilities serving residents and visitors to King County.

Through 4Culture’s first combined Arts & Heritage Cultural Facilities program, nine organizations each requesting over $30,000 of support were awarded funding, providing a total of $535,000 for larger-scale projects:

Funding for Heritage projects included the City of Tukwila Parks & Recreation Department for  land acquisition to expand the Duwamish Hill Preserve; and Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association for renovation of collections storage and classroom space following a year of  monitoring environmental conditions in the existing facility. Four arts projects were supported, including Historic Seattle’s restoration of Washington Hall as a performance venue and community arts facility; and Pratt Fine Art’s renovation to create a dedicated Youth Arts space and improved Woodshop.

The Sammamish Heritage Society was awarded funds to relocate and build a new foundation for the historic Reard House.
Andres Caldera © All Rights Reserved www.andrescaldera.com

Funding will assist Northwest Film Forum to replace seating in their Capitol Hill Cinemas.
Northwest Film Forum © 2011 Matt Daniels

Pratt Fine Arts Center will use 4Culture support to renovate their Blue building, creating a new woodshop and dedicated Youth Arts studio.
Pratt Fine Arts Center © 2011

The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation will use 4Culture support to rehabilitate interior spaces in the Stimson-Green mansion.
Stimson-Green mansion © 2009 courtesy of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation

The Northwest African American Museum will use 4Culture support to reconfigure their Museum Store, incorporating the Genealogy Resource Library to create an improved Learning Center.
Gallery © 2011 courtesy of the Northwest African American Museum

Evergreen City Ballet will use 4Culture’s support to create a retractable wall that will allow them to better utilize the Black Box theater at their Kent facility
Evergreen City Ballet © 2010

Additionally, two separate panels, one for Arts, one for Heritage, convened to review applications not recommended for funding by the combined cultural facilities panel, and requests $30,000 and under. The Arts Cultural Facilities panel meeting on November 8th recommended funding totaling $270,650 in support for 18 projects countywide: Grand Illusion Cinema will add air conditioning; Photographic Center Northwest will continue renovations to create digital color studios; the new Crown Hill Community Arts Center will be able to replace part of its roof; and Evergreen City Ballet will finish their Black Box theater.

On November 15, the Heritage Cultural Facilities panel recommended funding totaling $166,613 for 10 proposals. Projects recommended for funding included the Sammamish Heritage Society’s proposal to move the historic Reard House onto a new foundation; and the Northwest African American Museum’s reconfiguration of the Museum Store, incorporating the Genealogy Resource Library to create a mission-aligned Learning Center.

Panel recommendations were reviewed by 4Culture’s Arts and Heritage Advisory Committees and submitted to the 4Culture Board for final approval. For a full list of funded arts cultural facilities projects visit www.4culture.org/apply/artsfacilities. For a full list of heritage cultural facilities projects visit www.4culture.org/apply/heritagefacilities.

For more information on 4Culture’s Arts Cultural Facilities program, contact Deb Twersky at (206) 205-8558 or deb....@4culture.org. To learn more about 4Culture’s Heritage 4Culture’s Cultural Facilities program, contact Eric Taylor at (206) 296-8688 or eric...@4culture.org.

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Olympia 2008 ©, photo by 4Culture staff

Once again, Washington’s arts and heritage communities are combining forces to take their message to Olympia on Arts & Heritage Day, February 1, 2012. For a second collaborative year, the Washington State Arts Alliance [WSAA] and the Washington Museum Association [WMA] are leading the effort to make an impressive cultural community showing at the Capital during the legislative session. Through a series of scheduled meetings, arts and heritage advocates will have the opportunity to talk in person with their legislators about issues that matter most to them.

Arts & Heritage Day kicks off the evening before with a reception for elected officials and their constituency in the historic Lord Mansion at the State Capital Museum on Tuesday, January 31. The activities on February 1 begin bright and early with the Heritage Caucus in the John A. Cherberg Building at 7:00 a.m. Organized in 1990, the Heritage Caucus meets every Wednesday during the regular legislative session, and is a bi-partisan gathering of state legislators, staff from cultural agencies and nonprofit organizations, and interested citizens. The Heritage Caucus meeting on Arts and Heritage Day will include presentations by WSAA and WMA, showcasing the statewide work of the organizations’ membership.

In addition to meetings with legislators, Arts & Heritage Day also provides opportunities to network with likeminded colleagues while crisscrossing the Capitol campus, and at lunch and coffee breaks. Last year, arts turned out a sizable crowd, and heritage folks added a respectable number. This year, Arts & Heritage Day can be truly collaborative with equal representation from both disciplines. Mark your calendar for January 31 and February 1, 2012, and plan to turnout for Arts & Heritage Day in Olympia.

4Culture Workshop

This winter, 4Culture staff is pleased to offer free workshops to assist applicants interested in applying to our programs. Applications for artists, art groups, heritage specialists, landmark property owners, arts organizations and heritage organizations will be available in January 2012, with deadlines dates in late-February and March.  Join us to learn more about our upcoming opportunities to apply for funding, including:

Group Arts Projects
Individual Arts Projects
Heritage Special Projects
Heritage Cultural Education
Landmark Rehabilitation

Our informal workshops offer a general introduction to 4Culture’s funding programs, as well as provide step-by-step guidance through the application process and an opportunity to talk directly with staff and hear from other applicants.

Kent
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 – 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
4Culture workshop follows a monthly SOCO Culture Meeting from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Kent Senior Activity Center, 600 East Smith Street, Kent

Vashon
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 – 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Vashon Library, 17210 Vashon Highway SW, Vashon Island

Seatac
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 – 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Valley View Library, 17850 Military Rd. S, SeaTac

South Bellevue
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 – 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Newport Way Library, 14250 S.E. Newport Way, Bellevue

Black Diamond
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 – 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Black Diamond Library, 24707 Roberts Drive, Black Diamond

Woodinville
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 – 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Woodinville Library, 17105 Avondale Road NE, Woodinville

Seattle
Heritage Special Projects & Education – Deadline: February 29, 2012
Thursdays, January 26 and February 2, 9, 16
12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
4Culture, 101 Prefontaine PL S, Seattle

Landmark Rehabilitation (for landmarks outside the city of Seattle) - Deadline: March 7, 2012
By Appointment: Flo Lentz 206 296.8682 or flo....@4culture.org

Group Arts Projects – Deadline: March 7, 2012
Thursdays, February 2, 9, 16 and 23
1:00 to 2:00 p.m.
4Culture, 101 Prefontaine PL S, Seattle

Individual Artist Projects – Deadline: March 14, 2012
Tuesdays, February 14, 21, 28and March 6
Noon to 1:00 p.m.
4Culture, 101 Prefontaine PL S, Seattle

Application guidance is also available on-line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at: http://vimeo.com/album/1770197

Visit our calendar and opportunities page on our website for information about additional opportunities, offered by 4Culture and through other organizations and foundations.

We don’t want you to miss an opportunity so we’ll start posting any future employment listings to the Opportunities section of our website.

You may be used to scanning through the Opportunities section searching for funding and project support so it makes sense to include cultural employment listings there as well.

There you’ll be able to find both Arts + Public Art and

Heritage + Preservation related employment listings.

Click on the Professional Development radio button to view employment listings in any of the tabs above (4Culture, Local/Regional, etc…).

If you have an employment opportunity you would like to be considered for posting, please click on the Submit an Opportunity tab.

The Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center received 4Culture support to produce an educational documentary that weaves the testimonies and artifacts of local Holocaust survivors with contemporary issues of bullying, bystanders, and world genocides.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The documentary was created to provide teachers with material for Holocaust education units and social justice awareness. The project was funded through 4Culture’s 2011 Heritage Special Projects program. The entire documentary is available to educators through the center’s website, visit www.wsherc.org/teaching/withmyowneyes for order information and other stories of Holocaust survivors.

nominees for the 2010 AKCHO Awards © 2010, courtesy of AKCHO, photo by Kimberly Jacobsen

The Association of King County Heritage Organizations (AKCHO) is seeking nominations for their 2012 Awards, which recognize excellence and individual commitment to King County’s history. There are nine categories to choose from, and nominations can be submitted by an individual or group. Guidelines and additional information can be found on the AKCHO Awards website: www.akcho.org/awards. The deadline to submit nominations is Friday, February 17, 2011 at 4pm.

Many thought-provoking heritage-related exhibits, presentations, and other projects that identified and shared the unique history of King County were completed this year – so fill out a nomination to honor your organization, your staff, your colleagues, or your volunteers. 4Culture is a proud supporter and community partner of AKCHO. Don’t forget to ‘Save the date’ for the annual AKCHO Awards ceremony, which will be held on the evening of April 24th, 2012 at the Museum of History and Industry.

Black Bear Manufacturing Company workers, date unknown, courtesy of the Renton History Museum.

The Renton History Museum recently completed cataloguing and digitally scanning its oversize photograph collection, over 650 images representing important Renton industries such as coal mining, clay and coal processing, and logging. Digitizing this collection made this formerly inaccessible set of large photographs available for research and publication, while safely storing the originals in archival materials to protect them from light, dust and handling.

Andrea Cohen, a student intern, assisted with the cataloguing process and wrote short blog pieces about her research for select photos. These can be viewed on the Museum’s website www.rentonhistory.rentonwa.gov under the “News” tab. The oversized image collection contains many items of note, including a rare 1902 image of Renton’s amateur baseball team, a 1923 group portrait of the Central Council of the Pacific Coast Coal Company on the company’s first anniversary, and an image of women workers at the Black Bear Manufacturing Company around the turn of the twentieth century. Other images are of early school plays, the lumber industry, panoramas of Renton, and short-lived local businesses. With the completion of the oversize photograph collection, all 15,000 of the Museum’s historic photos are now catalogued and searchable from the Museum’s computers.

Artist and cultural planner Theaster Gates will deliver the keynote address at a public forum, 6:30 p.m., Tuesday at Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave. The forum, which is free and open to the public, will also feature a panel discussion with Jacqueline Gijssen, senior cultural planner, city of Vancouver, B.C.; Cathryn Vandenbrink, regional director, Artspace; and other cultural space leaders. A question-and-answer session and reception will follow the forum.

As an artist, Gates transforms spaces, institutions, traditions and perceptions. When not making art for museums, Gates is committed to the restoration of poor black neighborhoods, converting abandoned buildings into cultural spaces that allow not only new cultural moments to happen in unexpected places, but raise the city’s expectations of where “place-making” happens and why. He is president and founder of the Rebuild Foundation, as well as director of arts program development at the University of Chicago.

Gates is the 2011-2012 recipient of the Seattle Art Museum’s (SAM) Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Fellowship. His solo show Theaster Gates: The Listening Room will open at SAM on Dec. 9 and run through July 1, 2012.

Cultural Space Seattle is designed to engage artists, arts and cultural organizations, elected officials, government leaders, arts administrators, creative business owners, investors, real estate developers and brokers, nonprofit organizations and interested citizens. For more information, contact the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs at (206) 684-7171, arts...@seattle.gov or www.seattle.gov/arts.

The event is supported by JPMorgan Chase, 4Culture, Seattle Art Museum, Town Hall Seattle and is presented in partnership with University of Washington College of Built Environments and ARCADE.

The Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs promotes the value of arts and culture in communities throughout Seattle. The 16-member Seattle Arts Commission, citizen volunteers appointed by the mayor and City Council, supports the city agency.

2011 © Tom Ikeda with Bill and Melinda Gates

4Culture would like to give a special shout-out to one of our Heritage Advisory Committee members, Tom Ikeda, who was recently honored by the Microsoft Alumni Foundation as a 2011 Integral Fellow. Congratulations Tom!

The Foundation fellowships celebrate former Microsoft employees who have used their talents, time, and resources to make a meaningful difference in the daily lives of others. Tom Ikeda was honored as the founding director of Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project, a digital archive committed to sharing the stories of Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. government during World War II. Densho uses digital technology to preserve and make accessible firsthand accounts, historical images and teacher resources, which allow users to explore principles of democracy and promote equal justice.

4Culture has been proud to support the Densho project through our Heritage programs for many years, and are thrilled to have Tom’s expertise and innovation as a regular contributor to our all-volunteer Heritage Advisory Committee. For more information about 4Culture’s board and advisory committee members visit our “Leadership” section under “Who We Are” on our main website.

Members of 4Culture's Board of Directors, photographed by Youth in Focus's Kari C. and Duy H.

Every arts and heritage organization relies on dedicated, willing volunteers for a host of tasks that are essential to fulfilling the mission of the organization they serve.

This message is a “THANK YOU” to all of those people who quietly toil to bring cultural experiences to life.

You are Board members, ushers, docents.   If you volunteer with a small arts or heritage organization, you may entirely run the organization.  You are tutors, art instructors, heritage exhibit designers, community choruses.  You are marketing and development interns, errand runners, work party volunteers.

In the case of 4Culture, you are the fifteen members of our Board of Directors; the thirty one members of our four standing advisory committees; the scores of jurors who serve on funding panels and dozens of panelists who help us select artists for opportunities such as Gallery4Culture exhibits, e4c, the Public Art Artist Registry, the Touring Arts Roster and Site Specific performances.

King County just adopted new district boundaries. Attached is a map of the old and new lines. The changes were based on census information and were approved unanimously by the Council on November 15^th. The new district plan is effective immediately.

Most 4Culture applications require that you correctly identify your council district, based on applicant address. Please check out the map and see if your district has changed.

Read more info

A National Historic Landmark, the Panama Hotel was built 1910 as a single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel, primarily serving newly immigrated Japanese. Designed by Sabro Ozasa, a Japanese immigrant and one of the first Japanese architects to practice in the Seattle area, the hotel retains much of its original character both inside and out. Visitors can stay in one of the single rooms, or tour the original Hashidate Yu bathhouse, a traditional Japanese-style bathhouse in the basement of the hotel, or explore the ground level retail. Approaching the hotel from the street, visitors will also see the original, beautiful worked, iron fire escapes located on the east and west exterior walls. 4Culture funds will go towards stabilizing these working fire escapes for continued use in the future. Extant features like these are what cement the Panama Hotel’s key position in historic Nihonmachi (Japantown) and as a contributing building within the International District.

Also constructed in 1910, the West Kong Yick building was one of two twin buildings erected side-by-side in the I.D. by the Kong Yick Investment Company. The investment company pooled money from local Chinese American community members to fund the construction of buildings that would serve as the anchor of a “new” Chinatown. These buildings originally functioned as gathering spaces for the Chinese American community and as temporary residences for Chinese immigrants. 4Culture funds will be used to continue the owners’ massive rehabilitation effort by stabilizing the roof and south wall of the building. Work is currently underway, and if you have passed by the building recently, you will see 4Culture’s banner proudly displayed on the S. King Street façade.

In Seattle, the Murakami family stores have served as a social gathering place for Japanese patrons and community members in since Sanzo Murakami opened the original Higo Ten Cent Store in 1909 on Weller Street. In 1931 he relocated the store to a newly constructed building on S. Jackson Street, where the Higo Variety Store operated for the next seventy years. More than just a place to purchase traditional Japanese items/foodstuffs, locals would come to socialize, locate relatives, and get information about jobs and housing. The space currently holds a small gallery featuring Japanese crafts and design, yet the “Higo Variety Store” sign still stands as a physical reminder of the important role the Murakami store played in Seattle’s Japanese American community. 4Culture funds will be used to rehabilitate the sign, an illuminated steel and plastic design that was installed in 1957.

For more information on 4Culture’s Landmark Challenge Grant program, which funded these projects, contact Flo Lentz, Preservation lead, at flo....@4culture.org or 206 296.8682.

Images: 2011 © Panama Hotel, courtesy of Jan Johnson; 2011 © West Kong Yick building, 4Culture staff; 2011 © Jackson Building/Higo Variety Store, courtesy of Paul Murakami

The conference will take place from June 13-15, in and around the iconic structures that make up the vibrant Seattle Center campus. In the shadow of the landmark Space Needle, conference goers will participate in interpretive walks of the historic grounds and gather for the keynote address at the Experience Music Project Museum. The conference will provide other opportunities to explore the fair’s lasting civic center legacy that has spawned theatre, ballet, opera, and museums such as EMP, Pacific Science Center and The Children’s Museum. The Next Fifty, Seattle Center’s six-month long commemoration of the fair’s semi-centennial, will be in full swing during the conference, and will include a Century 21 retrospective exhibit, produced by the Museum of History & Industry. As an official partner with The Next Fifty, the WMA has even more in store for conference attendees.

The new Maxwell Hotel, just one block from Seattle Center, is offering reduced-rate lodging for the WMA. With conference sessions taking place in the Center’s Northwest Rooms, the Maxwell is within easy walking distance of all events, and provides free parking and free Internet access. In addition, the Maxwell is including a roundtrip Monorail pass for each WMA guest. Room rates are $125 + tax per night for single and double occupancy, and $145 + tax per night for triples and quads. The WMA block of rooms will be held only until May 16, 2012, and space is limited, so book early by contacting the Maxwell Hotel toll free at 866-866-7977, or by e-mail at rese...@staypineapple.com. When reserving a room, be sure to note that you will be attending the Washington Museum Association conference.

Over the past fifty years, Washington’s museum field has witnessed substantial change and exponential growth. But what will the next fifty bring? In posing that question, the WMA is counting on the museum community to initiate the dialog about the past, present and future of museums by submitting a conference session proposal.

Whether your involvement in the Washington Museum Association Conference is as session presenter or attendee, the 2012 meeting in Seattle offers numerous opportunities for information sharing and stimulating discussion with colleagues in the field. Come for the conference and experience Seattle’s exciting cultural environment.

© Original Space Needle illustration from Seattle World’s Fair Records, Washington State Archives, Puget Sound Regional Branch, Bellevue.

The American Association of State and Local History (AASLH) is offering its smaller institutional members the opportunity to apply for funds (up to $1,000) to hire a summer intern through their Alderson Grant Internship Program. The host institution must provide information on what they expect their intern to do and match funds at a 1:4 level (that is $1 for every $4 AASLH provides). Applications must be received by AASLH office by 5 p.m. on December 9, 2011. For additional program requirements or to download the application visit www.aaslh.org/alderson.htm.