Viewing page 170 of 260

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

34

well as recognized scholars working in various areas of American art and history, By virtue of the richness and diversity of the Smithsonian's collections and its documentary and staff resources, the Instituion has become, in fact, a major center for the study of American art and material culture. This center can and should be strengthened by building up its individual parts, including research programs, exhibitions, teacher-training, lectures, and courses, primarily at the Museum of American Art, the Portrait Gallery, the Museum of American History, the Archives of American Art, and the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum. Toward this objective, the Institution will continue to seek the funds needed to permit balanced programs presentations. In future years, increased support for exhibits productionand scholarly positions, as well as for expanded publication, both on collections and for exhibitions, will be requested. In the future, if the Trade (Tariff) Commission Building becomes available to the Institution, it would serve as the central focus for these activities in the American studies. Although the availability of the building is in question, the Institution remains hopeful of securing it eventually for this important purpose.

A central part of the Insitution's exposition of American culture is the Museum of American History. Building on recent improvements in collection management, inventolry, conservation and storage programs, and energized in its public aspect by new major exhibitions (the first of which was a major retrospective of George Washington on the occasion of his 250th birthday in February  1982), the Museum will be very active in all aspects of its programing during thsi five-year period. Early in  1982 , the Museum finalized tis ten-year exhibition plan. The objecvtive of this exerceise was to balance the exhibition programming of the Museum against its other management objectives and to tailor the lengthy process of conceiving, designing, and producing exhibitions to the resources projected over the ten-year period. with this process in place, the Museum was able to turn to its longstanding commitment to public education, beginning a planning process which will yield preliminary results over the next fiscal year. Stressing the fundamental importance of the management of its collections through its programs in conservation, inventory, archives and storage, the avilability of new conservaion laboratory spaces and more accessible reference/storage facilities at the Museum Support Center and Suitland will privde an opportunity to begin the systematic identification and treatment of deteriorating arifacts and materials.

By June 1983,  the Museum will finish the shelf inventory of the collections, begun under Congressional in 1978, and has designed and begun to implement a computer program of collections management, capitalizing, on the inventory's achievements. Along with this initiative, the Museum had addressed its long-term storage needs by planning its use of the Museum Support Center soon to open at Silver Hill. Meanwhile, three of the existing storage buildings at Silver Hill have been renovated, and this effort to improve existing storage facilities will continue until all are brought up to the standard set by the Museum's storage plan.