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SMITHSONIAN COUNCIL REPORT

The Smithsonian Council convened in New York city on October 13-15, 1989 for its annual meeting to discuss the plans of the Cooper-Hewitt, National museum of Design, and to tour facilities of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.

Discussions about the Cooper-Hewitt with Dianne Pilgrim and her staff centered upon refining and reworking a concept of design as the basis for future efforts. The council was impressed by the resourceful exhibitions and original educational programs of the musum despite continuing storage, research and exhibition space limitations. In view of these constraints, the need for further espansion in programming was urged through the coordination of exhibit and education projects with the activities of adjacent and related museums along New Yorks Museum Mile. Foundation support for this effort was proposed to aid in expanding links to the New York museum scebe abd in nurturing the Cooper-Hewitt's national visibility. Related reccomendations included more conferences involving design proffesionals and scholars, closer ties with the Smithsonian's Traveling Exhibition service (SITES), and a borad effor to reach the city's design industries, as well as its scholarly community, to further the museum's role within the design community.

The Council sees the need for further disciplined disscussion within the Cooper-Hewitt so that the goals can be articulated with greater precision. Greater emphasis upon the practical and contemporary arts was proposed, along with better expression of the multi-cultural character of design in the world today. To these ends, future collecting might be oriented more strongly toward utility and object intrest than toward the existing fine arts dimension of the museum's holdings. Another aspect is the present system of advice and counsel avaibile to the director that needs expansion to further the pursuit of a firmer identity, enhanced programs, fund raising, and developing a multi-cultural staff. These tasks require different forms of advice, and the director is encouraged to form advisory groups appropriate to the museums needs. Finally the constraints of space and other resources led the Council to suggest some upward adjustment in direct Smithsonian funding support and for more help in subsidizing the museum's efforts financed through fund raising. The rental of space was also mentioned for storage, educational and conference activities to meet interim needs. 

Tours of the museum of the American Indian and its Research Branch elicited applause for its collections, its devoted staff, and for the initiative of te Congress and the Smithsonian in creating a National Museum of the American Indian. The council also endorses the concept of exhibition space in the custom house in lower Manhattan to ensure a continuing prescence for portions of the collections in New York City.

In honoring the First Americans, the national museum of the American Indian should become botha symbol of esteem to the indigenous peoples of the hemisphere and a center for surverying their social experience and historical transformation. In pursuit of string research, teaching, and publication programs the National Museum of Natural History/Museum of Man's department of Anthropology should be encouraged to contribute to and interact with these programs and to consider ways that it and the National Museum of the American Indian can together nuture programs in areas of common intrest.