The roof and rafters are down and one window remains.	Compare to the photos below of the finished hut scene.	The roof panels on the pallet. The rafters are already stored.	The windows waiting to be stored on top of the walls.	The pallet is complete and ready to be pushed under the stage. Sheets of paper are put between the wall panels to prevent the paint from sticking.
The pallet fits within the opening available.	The pallet and to its left, the rafters, where they will abide until November, 2009.

January 6, 2009:  Corrections made to events page

Christmas 2008

The Christmas exhibit this year showcased our newly restored szopka.  This szopka was in a sorry state and had never been on display since it was donated.  Loyola University last year wanted to borrow a szopka from us for their Christmas display at their Downtown campus.  They decided they wanted the largest one and agreed to generously cover restoration expenses.  This is its first appearance at the Museum since the restoration.

Each year we invite different groups to come in and decorate our Christmas trees with traditional home-made ornaments.  The first group this year was a Polish School class from Holy Trinity Church.  Below are some photos, courtesy Malgorzata Kot, of the group and their handiwork.  Click on a thumbnail for a larger view.

November 6, 2008

Work continues in the Paderewski Room.  Three of the five window plugs are installed and the HVAC ductwork has been reoriented.  The second generation of windows were installed in the late 1980's were not completely sealed air-tight.  As a result, because of our close proximity to the Kennedy Expressway, soot infiltrated into the room.  When we packed display items away for the construction period, the cotton gloves we used very quickly became black with the oily soot.  Everything will be cleaned before the display is re-opened.  It was decided from this experience to seal the windows and then install a wooden cover over the windows on the inside.  This tactic has several advantages; It gives extra protection from air infiltration, completely blocks sunlight (the bane of all museums), provides added insulation for better temperature and humidity stability and, finally, provides additional display surfaces.

As part of the re-design, the committee paid a visit to the Chicago History Museum.  There we noticed their display of Lincoln's "death bed" was very well done.  The bed is elevated and additional display space was then available without blocking the view of the object.  We unanimously decide to use the same approach.  The HVAC ductwork, intended as a security wall and extra display area, would now be laid on its side and incorporated into the new raised floor.  A laminated glass partition will then be installed from the new floor to near ceiling, allowing a very high level of security.

Yes!  We will have a temporary display available for visitors in late November!  Take a look at the latest photos. 

Link to Paderewski Webpage

As noted previously, our busy season has begun.  We opened our UNESCO exhibit on October 19, just a week after the Heritage Program.  The opening was not open to the public.  About 300 students from the local Saturday Polish School programs.

Ready for the UNESCO Opening	Ready for the Dinner	Another View of the Dinner Set-Up

The following Thursday, October 23, we hosted the Advocates Society annual meeting and dinner.  Next the floors will be cleaned and preparations made for our benefit formal dinner on November 7.

---

October 9, 2008

Work is scheduled to begin in the Paderewski Room tomorrow, October 10.  Finally!  I do not have an estimated date for re-opening yet but should have one in the near future.  The board appointed a committee to organize the renovation effort and under the leadership of Geraldine Coleman the project has started moving forward.  Thank you Geraldine!  I intend to start posting photos of the construction progress on the Paderewski webpage.

As I have previously noted, our busy season has started.  The Great Hall has been re-configured for the Polish Heritage event on Sunday October 12.  As of this writing, we have only a few slots open for the dinner.  We are so very pleased that Polish-Americans continue to honor their cultural heritage.

 

Next week, the Great Hall will be again re-configured, this time to host the annual dinner for the Advocates Society.  There are usually around 300 people that attend this event!

Following that, we prepare for the big Lifetime Members benefit dinner.  Then to the annual Gift Show and the Christmas "Wigilias."

 

September 30, 2008

We are continuing our efforts with the Paderewski Exhibit renovations.  We hope to have in November one of the new exhibit cases viewable with examples of the new exhibit concept; "The Three Paderewskis."  This is a concept first introduced in the 1920's by a close friend and brilliant artist, Malvina Hoffman.  She was commissioned to make sketches at the League of Nations for publication in periodicals (photography was prohibited inside the meeting hall.)  She got to know Paderewski and they became good friends.  With an artist's keen power of observation, she recognized that Paderewski exhibited three distinct personalities when engaged in his three chief activities; Statesman, Artist and Friend.  She produced three busts of him that showed these three manifestations of his character.  The revised exhibit will key off of this theme and will have three areas that explore each of these.

Fire at the Chinese American Museum:  In the afternoon of September 19 a fire broke out in the Chinese American Museum.  It started on the fourth, uppermost, floor and quickly spread to the third floor.  The building is salvageable but the collection losses were substantial.  As a member of the Chicago Cultural Alliance (as is the Polish Museum), its Partner organizations rapidly came to its assistance.  In particular The Field Museum and the Chicago History Museum sent expert staff to help pack and move items to temporary storage.  Other partner organizations helped unpack the items and spread them out for air-drying.  This is very important to prevent any mold development.  I helped in this latter activity last Friday.  Very sad to see their losses.  We all send our condolences to the Chinese American Community for their losses.  We hope our visitors will do likewise.  You can find out more about the Chicago Cultural Alliance by clicking here.  If I hear from website visitors, I'll post photos I took at the Museum and at the temporary storage.

It did serve as a "wake-up" call, however.  Yesterday I made a quick audit of our situation and found considerable room for improvement both in our fire security and our disaster-recovery planning.  We are moving very quickly to correct the shortcomings.  We have so many things that demand our attention, we sometimes neglect the most important simply because they aren't often the ones yelling for our attention.

Polish Genealogical Society of America Annual Conference:  September 19 and 20 the Museum Gift Shop had a "Booth" at the PGSA Annual Conference.  Mary Jane Robles and I both attended, as usual, and did fairly well selling various items.  It's always fun to attend this conference as it gives us the opportunity to help attendees with their questions concerning Polish genealogy.  About 150 attended this year's conference.

It appears that very soon we will be getting additional computer equipment so that, finally, the equipment sharing problems will be eased.  We still have a shortage of capable staff and volunteers.  It has become very difficult to make time for translations from English to Polish.  If anyone wants to volunteer to do this, please let me know.  You can work from your home computer and just email translations to me.

The Museum, as part of the Chicago Cultural Alliance and the Cultural Connections program, has had a close relationship with the Field Museum of Natural History.  Beginning last year, the Field Museum offered two new courses to teachers in the Chicago Public School system.  The courses were intended to help teachers in the system deal with cultural diversity in their classrooms and schools and to promote a better understanding of different cultures among their students.  In general, cultural diversity is a "hot" issue right now and few teachers have had a chance to get some formal training on the matter.  Most of the available courses are only a few years old and many are considered post-graduate work.  There was a very strong response to the offerings and first classes filled immediately.

The Museum and other cultural institutions were invited, for the second set of classes, to participate as "Cultural Resources" for the classes.  I volunteered to represent the Museum for these classes which started in February and ended with four intense sessions in July.  (Another reason for missing my July update target.)  This experience was a lot of work for me but well worth it.  I interact with the teaching community quite frequently, usually through school field trips and it has been difficult for me to figure out what and how to present to various grade levels.

Coming from a technical/ business training and background, the Field Museum classes were my first real opportunity to hear and discuss with teachers their needs and experiences.  Some of these teachers are really amazing and creative in developing lesson plans.  A far cry from the rigorous routine with which I was taught.  Moreover, the experience has not just affected my work but also my personal life.  I have a much better understanding of my interaction with "others" in general.

I've also been spending time working with a variety of professionals on how to renovate to Paderewski exhibit space.  After the much needed air conditioning and heating system was installed, it was decided to completely redo the entire exhibit; plaster repairs, new paint, new carpet, new exhibit cabinets, new exhibit technology, etc.  It was also decided to address some very serious conservation issues.  Because so many items in this collection are unique and historically significant, the issue of conservation can get very controversial.  For example, should an artifact be cleaned if it contains both "historic" and "non-historic" dirt?  In some cases, certain items that had previously been on display will, in future, only have replicas on display; The originals have become too fragile and can no longer take public exposure.  While I'm not an expert in conservation, I do have the understanding of a trained Chemist.  But, more importantly, my understanding of Paderewski and how his story should be told usually gives me the deciding vote. 

Case in point, his piano stool.  It was decided to conserve the deteriorating leather on the seat.  When the stool was returned after conservation, I refused to accept it because the top of the seat was now "domed" instead of having a slight depression.  I was advised that this "domed" effect was standard procedure because it allowed the leather to last longer.  I advised that the slight depression was a critically important feature and that a "domed" surface was historically incorrect and visually contradictory to the story behind this special chair!  The "domed" effect was removed and I accepted the chair.  This story illustrates that, here at the Museum, every action contemplated must be thoroughly researched before being taken.

June 16, 2008

Just back from  a short vacation and now trying to get caught up on a few things.  I hope to be updating this page at least monthly to give you various bits of information as well as some candid information on happenings at the Museum.

My return this morning brought unexpected activity.  The building that houses the Museum is owned by the Polish Roman Catholic Union.  The person responsible for building maintenance has been on sick leave for some time now.  This morning, the person taking over his responsibilities decided to take a vacation day so it was a rather chaotic start to the day.  The responsibility to get everything open and started up fell to our IT person, Kevin Ryba who also had to confront an outage of our internet services this morning!  Not a nice way to start the day.

For various reasons, I start my work usually by 7:00 a.m. with a session at the computer.  This allows me to have at least an hour at the terminal which I share with five other members of staff.  Typically on Monday mornings other staff members come in later so I usually have more time to work on the computer.  This may give you some insight as to why it's taking so much time to get the Museum's website fully up.

Within the next few weeks there will be a change to our email address.  The old address will continue to work for some time but will be completely eliminated probably in early 2009.  There are several reasons for this change, not the least of which is for the Museum to more clearly establish its identity.  All of your have been made aware of the website's new address but, in order to make this website show up prominently during searches, the Museum has registered a total of six addresses; polishmuseumofamerica.org, .edu, .com and thepolishmuseumofamerica.org, .edu, .com!  The email address change will also make us more clearly identified.  So, check back in a few weeks for the announcement.  You will also have noted by now that there are no email addresses for any individuals.  This will continue to be the case for the future.  You will continue to send emails to the general address with a notation, preferably in the "Subject" line, of to whom or where it is to be directed.

Rich