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Cooper-Hewitt Museum

No action has been taken on H.R. 2815 or S. 1749, introduced by Senator Moynihan on October 2, 1987, to construct, expand, and renovate facilities for the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. The Regents' continued support for this legislation ought to await the anticipated re-appraisal of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum's needs by an as-yet unnamed new director.

[[underlined]] SMITHSONIAN AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRAMMING [[/underlined]]

Mr. Adams drew the Regents' attention to the following report which he said represented the very considerable efforts of the Smithsonian's bureaus and offices to comprehensively take into account Afro-American interests with regard to programming. He added that a copy of this report had been forwarded to Chairman Yates who had focussed on such questions of programming at the Institution's recent appropriations hearings; urging that the Smithsonian move more quickly in this area, Mr. Yates indicated he would be monitoring the Institution's progress. Mr. Adams added that the Chairman had also directed the Institution to conduct a systematic study within the next six months on whether there should be an entirely separate Afro-American museum, a separate museum complemented by additional Afro-American programming in other bureaus, or the creation of a specialized unit within an existing bureau of the Institution.

* * * * *

The Secretary recently queried Smithsonian bureaus and major programmatic offices on the extent of their Afro-American collecting, exhibiting, and public programming. A summary of their responses is presented in the Appendix, and copies of the complete responses are available upon request. What follows is a compendium of thoughts on those reports and the strengths and weaknesses they reflect.

It should be noted at the outset that it is virtually impossible to generalize upon the track record and planning in Afro-American programming at the Smithsonian. An examination of the responses of more than two dozen major organization units reveals an abundance of relevant activity, a great variety of approaches, and unevenness in commitment. For instance, the fact that the Smithsonian's science research operations, the Astrophysical Observatory, the Environmental Research Center,