The Smithsonian is a national institution that depends on tax resources appropriated in the name of all the people. New facilities are the most tangible expression of the important new directions the Smithsonian must take from time to time. I don't think the Smithsonian has any business developing, or ever had any business developing a political agenda.
I do not remember what the words are that apply to the specific question of Indians in the United States.
AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM
SUPPORT FOR ONGOING AND NEW INITIATIVES
Looking at the priorities that came out of the planning process in 1992, and I've only been at the Smithsonian for a short 4/2 months, but we've had an opportunity to look at the planning process and, I think, recognize that we're making progress with putting a planning process in place with management. Much of the really positive stuff in our country can be found, for example, in the Library of Congress and in the Smithsonian. You indicate that they like new projects better than trying to save some of the old ones.
Because of the statement that he made and Senator Stevens' attention, direction—we're going to look at some of these other things.
That problem will also arise in the future, if you know what I mean.
SENATOR GORTON'S CONCERN REGARDING SMITHSONIAN PROGRAMS
QUINCENTENARY THEMES AND PRESENTATIONS
It is not always the case that you can say, in these difficult conditions, we must turn inward and do nothing that is not already in our hands. The Hispanics – and then from the 19th century, the incoming Americans, as they met, mixed and coexisted and developed a new. The basic answer to my question is that the only exhibit you're planning or the only process you're planning that has to do with Columbus could also be properly described as revisionist.
I share your and Senator Stevens' views, as well as the views you have just expressed.
DAMAGE TO ANTIQUITIES DURING MDDEAST WAR
Therefore, it was really only some of the religious shrines in the major cities that are younger than the great cities of antiquity that suffered. There is a drag on the curves that you see here, which comes from the fact that we don't get our budget return from the Office of Management and Budget until sometime in November and sometimes as early as December. I mean, we're not talking about - there's not another line item in the budget that has an increase like that.
Chairman, let me use as an example something in the fiscal year 1991 budget that the so-called
SECURITY GUARD VACANCY RATES
SMITHSONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTER
This one, without taking up too much of your time, this area on the lower part of the watershed near the water was acquired through gifts and through purchases with trust funds mainly in the 1960s and early 1970s. We are now concerned about development pressure in the middle and upper area, especially this area here [indicating]. We commissioned a study by the Trust for Public Lands and are making recommendations on how.
We are still talking about 2,000 hectares that we need to protect in some way.
RESEARCH CENTER IN KENYA
GENERAL POST OFFICE BUILDING RENOVATION
The chair that was done before—it was all introduced before I came to the Smithsonian—was for a number that was, I think, dangerously or unrealistically low even for its time, which I believe was 1983 or 1984. We' we tried to put in there a number that starts to be realistic, but we know we don't have authorization for that num-.
SAO SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY SITE
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS Budget Priorities
The Smithsonian is recapturing an additional 131 new positions in FY 1992 and again the bulk of the new VEs (63 percent) will be spread across three areas: the National Museum of the American Indian (64 positions); the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (12 positions); and research related to global climate change. However, the Office of Management and Budget exercises a review and approval of future year's "planning targets" for the Smithsonian as part of its annual review of the Institution's budget directives. This model was effective in the development of the National Museum of the American Indian and was prominent in the building program planning.
Furthermore, as custodians of national biological collections, we already serve as one of the world's most important reference sources for this type of activity. What is the exact nature of the collaboration between Princeton and the government of Kenya. What is your current estimate of the Smithsonian contribution and the University of Arizona contribution.
Answer: Our current estimate of the Smithsonian contribution is the same as in the budget justification: an upper limit of. It is absolutely essential to the continued growth and strengthening of the national collections that the federal acquisition budget be restored. What is the status of the City and State shares dedicated for the Custom House.
How do you and the National Park Service work to mitigate the impact of the annual festival on the Mall? It's important to the Smithsonian that the festival stays close to the museums, as the Smithsonian's outdoor extension is on the Mall, historically known as the. The Smithsonian benefits from the free flow of people in and out of museums to and from the festival.
Mitchell and the status of the GAO review of the Smithsonian's use of $300,000 in appropriated funds to provide outside legal counsel.
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY SENATOR DON NICKLES Infrastructure Requirements
The institution plans to seek grants in FY 1993 to begin planning for the alterations to the Arts and Industries Building to accommodate the new museum. Removal of the obsolete buildings at the Garber facility once the expansion of the National Air and Space Museum is completed;. Expansion of the Statens Natural History Museum Vestre Ret to accommodate increased programming and construction of a new restaurant pavilion.
Answer: The removal of the south gallery, required to create the new Experimental Gallery, cost approximately $250,000. Based on this experience, the Institution estimates that dismantling the other three galleries will cost approx. Answer: Authorization for the transfer and renovation by the Smithsonian of the old General Post Office building was signed in 1984.
Answer: The renovation requirements for the General Post Office building are not included in the backlog of essential maintenance and repair of existing buildings. Answer: The artifacts are currently stored in the research department of the National Museum of the American Indian in the Bronx. Answer: The collection storage areas in the Museum Support Center (MSC) are not yet fully occupied.
No estimate has yet been made of the additional financing required for the 'Growth Move' activities. Specific floor load and utility requirements for the compact equipment will be included in the building design.
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY SENATOR PETE V. DOMENICI New Mexico Projects
In late fall, Smithsonian staff and New Mexican curators will review all the interviews, videotapes, photographs and ideas generated by the research and decide on specific themes and traditions to feature on the Mall. Question 105: Can you tell the Subcommittee generally how you intend to lay out the New Mexico Exposition. Question 106: How many craftsmen, artists, dancers and others would you expect to host from New Mexico during the Festival.
National Park Service and has ranged from about 1.1 million to over 1.5 million in recent years. In FY 1992 the Smithsonian plans to devote approximately $300,000 in federal base and trust funds to the New Mexico program in salaries, infrastructure, publications, documentation, and the like. Funds for the Festival and for the Quincentenary that could have helped support the New Mexico program were originally requested by the Office of Folklife Programs, but were cut in the 1992 budget process.
Question 111: A major theme of this exhibit will be to depict the multi-ethnic cultures and values that necessarily had to co-exist in the Rio Grande Valley. Question 112: Will there be specific aspects of the exhibit that seek to link the New Mexico experience to the Columbus quincentenary and to the national experience during these early colonial days. A series of temporalities will correlate the events discussed in the exhibit with other events in American and world history.
Of this amount, we gratefully acknowledge a $1 billion grant from the State of New Mexico. This amount will continue in the base and must be appropriated again in FY 1992, assuming no statutory reductions in the budget.
SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS
To ensure an effective presentation of this information, we have conducted audience surveys in the museum so that we know clearly what our visitors already know and what they would like to learn more about and can balance this against what we as curators would like to say . them. As historians, we bring our own expertise to the documentary and artificial evidence we have collected. Through a series of video stations, we will engage our visitors in a “dialogue” with various members of New Mexico's multicultural society who will discuss, in their own words, the tensions and benefits of living in a diverse community.
Answer: The exhibit begins with an explanation of how the voyages of Columbus and other Europeans initiated a series of meetings between groups previously unknown to each other on a worldwide basis. Our exhibit focuses on one of these encounters, which took place in New Mexico (originally part of the Spanish colony of New Spain), and examines the interrelationships between the descendants of the original colonists and the original Indian inhabitants as they developed over the past. 500 years. This area was chosen to illustrate the Colombian meeting because it tells us an American story - a heroic one of the struggle and determination of many of our citizens to preserve their heritage and identity, while at the same time becoming active participants in the modern world.
Of course, the colonial experience is one that developed through the relationship between the Indians and the Spanish when New Mexico did not become the United States. However, we believe it is important for all Americans to know that in the earliest days of our republic, important cultures and trade centers existed in the west, in what would eventually become the United States. As one writer put it, in the WPA Guide to New Mexico, “At the time Jamestown was founded and thirteen years before the Pilgrims set foot on the Massachusetts shore, New Mexico not only boasted a teacher of music... but also possessed an organ."
Question 113: Finally, for the record, will you provide an overall estimate of the cost of this exhibit. Answer: As of FY 1991, the exhibit production budget for "American Encounters" will be approximately $2.2 million.
