Thought I would take a few minutes to give you a quick update on the
development of New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music.

As you know developing an exhibition from scratch is a long, thoughtful
process.  Our curatorial team is comprised of Bob Santelli (curator) and
an
Advisory Group including Alan Jabbour, Kip Lornell, and Portia Maultsby, a
SITES project director and a writer. They are hard at work fine tuning and
articulating more precisely the conceptual thematic outline  and crafting
the text so as to tell a story. They are culling through and selecting
images, artifacts, instruments, lyrics, folk art and musical clips that
evoke the feel of and best illustrate the various musical styles included
in
the exhibition. This process will take six months or so more, then the
exhibition will be designed and go into full production in about an year
from now.  The exhibitions will open in five states in March 2007.

Simultaneously, a group of exhibit designers at the Smithsonian's Office
of
Exhibits Central are working on a design for a new structural system for
the
New Harmonies exhibition.   We are reviewing and evaluating design
concepts
that will be a new approach to MoMS exhibitions.  It is very exciting to
see
their creative ideas.  We have the opportunity to work with some of the
Smithsonian's best exhibit designers. This concept work will continue for
the next few months and then be applied and used for the New Harmonies
exhibition.

We have big plans for this exhibition and look forward to rolling it out
in
the next two years.  We will keep you posted with periodic updates.

Carol



Carol Harsh
Co-Director
Museum on Main Street
Smithsonian Institution, SITES
(202)357-1760
(202)465-5267 (cell)
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