Museum News October 1–December 31, 2009

December 21, 2009

Typically, the days before Christmas are very slow and this year seems to be no exception. This morning the "rush hour" never developed on the Kennedy Expressway. Just shortly back from a consultation with an orthopedic surgeon about my elbow. He confirmed that it's a tendon tear and will take 4 to 6 weeks to heal. Hope all of you have the happiest of Holidays.

Merry Christmas to all! Wesołych Swiąt! Bożena Narodzenia!

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December 15, 2009

A photo album from the Rowe School visit was created and posted this morning. The kids seemed to have a good time during their visit. The PRCUA auditors have left so the crew will do the last reconfigurations of the Great Hall and the Social Hall for this year.

I mentioned previously that the northwest 'burbs of Chicago got hit with some nasty weather. I struggled with getting my driveway and sidewalks clear in the aftermath. It turns out I struggled a bit too much and unknowingly weakened a tendon in my left arm. Friday morning it tore while I was performing a simple task. I had not before experienced anything like this and I don't want to experience it ever again! The pain just about sent me to the floor. For the near future I've been instructed to use a sling and try and keep my left arm at rest as much as possible. Fortunately, I have a good array of capable volunteers to help with the physical work that needs to be done.

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December 10, 2009

The weather has been very bad the last several days. The city of Chicago didn't get much snow but farther to the northwest, where I live, and beyond got hit with quite a bit of precipitation. Now, we are all suffering from brutally cold temperatures and high winds.

I've posted a new photo album from the Family Wigilia event on December 5. There are also some photos there of the Gift Sale and mini-Book Sale.

We are moving along at a rapid pace with the new Museum Website design, PMA 4.0. I've gotten some new tools from the Microsoft Website and have started exploring them. David Majkowski continues to build new page and transferring content from the English version pages. New volunteer Darian Oliszewicz has now joined the Website team. Darian is a recent graduate from the University of Illinois Chicago campus with a major in sociology and criminal justice. He is fluent in the Polish language and much interested in Polish/ Polish-American history. He will be helping move content to the new Polish version pages and will be translating and creating content for the Paderewski Room touchscreens. I really appreciate all this new help I'm getting. I mentioned in a November blog about David and Kevin Ryba towering over me when we meet. Well, Darian is also over six feet tall. I will get some photos posted later of all four of us together; Should be pretty funny.

Those of you interested in taking a look at a beta version of PMA 4.0 please click on this link. As I have mentioned before, we are open to comments and suggestions.

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December 2, 2009

We are ready for the first Christmas Wigilia event tomorrow. Our big Christmas Gift Show will be on December 5 & 6.
As soon as the Holidays are over, I will begin working hard on the next projects; the new Royal Sleigh exhibit (see link below) and the new website version, PMA 4.0. My faithful volunteers, David Majkowski and Pawel Opalinski, have scouted out some new design tools and techniques that should make 4.0 easier and faster to create and more user-friendly than the current design. I will also continue to add content to the Paderewski Room touchscreens using the new tools and techniques.

It was less than one month ago that we re-opened the new Paderewski exhibit space. As we go forward I would like to discuss some of the new features incorporated into the design of this space. If you take a look again at the photo gallery posted November 9, 2009, you will note that most of the exhibits are now behind glass. Moreover, this glass, and now nearly all of the glass used in the Room is of a kind of glass that filters out 96% of UV light. All of the old cabinet interior lighting was replaced with exterior lighting to take advantage of this filtering effect. In those case where interior lighting was necessary, LED fixtures were used to take advantage of their no UV-light and no heat characteristics. Another thing to note is our use of the window spaces to display large photographs of things significant to Paderewski and Chicago's Polonia. But, these are not ordinary photos and no longer ordinary windows. The old windows were updated with new seals and insulation then a full glass "over-window" was created as the new surface exposed to the Room. The same UV filtering glass was used for these "over-windows and they hinged for maintenance and lockable. Next the large photographic transparency was applied to white translucent plastic and then suspended between the two windows. The treated plastic filters out about 98% UV light so virtually no UV light enters from the window but still allows some natural light to enter the Room. This whole approach to the window treatment has the added benefit of dramatically reducing both heat gain and heat loss. The Room is now the most environmentally stable location in the building and offers a near-perfect museum environment. In the past it was necessary for a member of Staff to be in the Room with visitors. Now, since nearly every thing in the Room behind this special glass, this requirement can be eased a bit.

A new feature I've noted a few times are the "touchscreens." These two devices are quickly becoming a favorite feature of the Room. It is, as with nearly all museums, impossible to put on display all items in a given collection. We tend to display only those items that have a particular significance or story. Even then it is nearly impossible to present sufficient text to explain the item on display and usually requires Staff or volunteer to provide verbal explanations. In some cases certain aspects of an exhibit item simply could not be shown, i.e., dedications inside of book covers. Touchscreen technology changes all that. With the touchscreens additional information can be presented to the visitor as the visitor has an interest. In our case, additional biographical information can be presented as one example. As noted in the case of dedicated book inscriptions, scans have been made of these and are available for viewing if the visitor wishes. The visitor is advised of the fact that more information is available by a small card with a number. The visitor takes note of the number, goes to one of the touchscreens, presses an "index button" and chooses the number which brings up the additional information. Of course, in the case of Paderewski, we have samples of his music available for listening and this feature can be used as background music as the visitor wishes. From a technical perspective, it was decided early on to use our own programming approach so that I could use the same tools on the touchscreens as I use on the website. Our IT guru, Kevin Ryba, was given a budget not to exceed $3,00 and he came in just under that budget for two complete systems! The toughest problem for him to solve was the audio portion of the installation in terms of cost, quality and heat build-up (these are housed in semi-enclosed cabinets. In a flash of inspired creativity, he one morning realized that automobile after-market audio amplifiers would fill the needs perfectly. For the non-techies reading this, they run on a 12 volt feed and thus do not generate much heat. Brilliant!

In future I'll present more about the new features of the Room. And, incorporated in the new PMA 4.0 will be most of the content available on the touchscreens, the exceptions being the music. There are copyright issues and permission to publish would need to be secured.

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November 30, 2009

Preparations for the first Wigilia event on December 3 are nearly complete. I hope to get some photos of the main Christmas exhibit posted tomorrow. We will be closed on December 4 and December 7 in order to allow Staff some time off after the big events on this coming weekend.

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November 24, 2009

Some of you will have noted that yesterday the awkward email addresses that I had previously used were replaced with direct email links on some pages, including this one. The new links are said to be resistant to spiders, bots and the like. We'll see how long that claim holds up. I haven't changed all the email links because the changes must be made directly in HTML code with java script and is not always a simple change. I'll change more of the links later after the Christmas "fun" is over. I probably won't change all because our real focus is the change to PMA 4.0 which will incorporate the new style links from the beginning. In addition to that, I am curating the change-over of the Modjeska exhibit to the Royal Sleigh exhibit, scheduled for opening on February 26, 2010, just before Pulaski Day on March 1. I had thought of delaying that event but frightening events of last Friday have demonstrated that the Sleigh (Link to Archives) needs to be moved from its current temporary storage to more secure confines as quickly as possible. Museum work is always amazingly fast-paced and we must always be super-aware of what can go wrong, because it surely will. I can only reflect back to the tragic events at the Chinese Museum last September (Link to Album) to realize we had a narrow escape.

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November 19, 2009

You can find photos of the Polish Consul's Polish Independence Day (November 11) reception at the Museum at: http://www.qwickguide.com/index.php?qw=1&pg=66&al=143

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November 17, 2009

Paderewski Room Opening Gala Photos

A photo gallery was posted today of the grand re-opening of the Paderewski Room.

Website Upgrade

Notice! While the website is less than two years old it has some difficulties. We are now in the process of preparing PMA 4.0! Your suggestions are welcome. Please send them to any of the addresses that appear on the website.

School Group Visited November 16

Carmel High School visited the Museum on November 16 for my lecture on Polish immigration. Very nice group of people.

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November 9, 2009

School Group Visited November 6

Paderewski Room Reopened November 6

The Paderewski Room reopened the evening of November 6, the 149th anniversary of the birth of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Close to 100 people attended the invitation-only event. The party was very elegant with minimal remarks. Everyone had a good time. More importantly, our guests were awed by the renovated space. Details of the renovation project have been kept under wraps since about April. This was a promise to our sponsors that they would be the first to see the completed project. Now that the exhibit Room is officially re-opened to the public I will be posting photos here and on Facebook (search Polish Museum) over the next several weeks.

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November 6, 2009

The Paderewski Room, after two years of hard work, officially re-opens tonight with a very big party!

The past two weeks have been very difficult as we prepared for this event. While the Room is officially open to the public on November 7, 2009, much work remains to be done regarding exhibit content. Having said that, we are all most excited that significant Paderewski materials will be on display that have never before been seen by the public! If you have previously visited this exhibit, please plan to visit again and allow sufficient time! You will not be disappointed. November 9, 2009 I will begin publishing more information about the new exhibits along with photos. Also, I wish to acknowledge those individuals and businesses whose contributions and generosity made this project possible. The Museum and its members are deeply grateful to these people.

The Polish Museum of America and Its Members Extend a Very Big

THANK YOU!

To All The People and Businesses That Contributed to the Recent Renovation of the

Paderewski Room

Your Generosity is Most Sincerely Appreciated!

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November 2, 2009

New film showing at Copernicus

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October 26, 2009

Announcing "Review of 1989 Events" at University of Chicago, November 4-7

This week is going to be a very busy one. Today, Monday, we have 75 third grade students scheduled for a visit. Wednesday we host a reception sponsored by the Kosciuszko Foundation. Thursday we host the annual Advocates Society dinner (about 300 expected!) Next week, of course is all about the Paderewski Room re-opening. Expect several new photo galleries to be posted over the next three weeks. After November 6, I hope to get the transcription discs recording project started. A reminder that November 1, 2009 we have concert featuring David Troiano. Click here for details.

I posted several new photo galleries this morning. Take a look! 1 2 3

Rich

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October 13, 2009

Nice to have a long weekend! I want to welcome new volunteer John Rdzak. John is working with Monika Nowak on the graphic arts cataloguing project. Look for his bio in the near future. Our volunteers are of great importance to us. In the eleven years I've been here I've seen our volunteer corps grow substantially and through them we have become a much more successful institution.

Next weekend is our Polish Heritage Program featuring Bygida Bziukiewicz and her students in a vocal music program.

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October 2, 2009

The Membership Form page was changed this week to include instructions on how to pay for a membership by credit card. Also, a printer friendly option of the form was added.

I am working very hard now on finishing up details of the new Paderewski Room. We hope to begin re-mounting the exhibits next week. One new feature of the Room is going to be a surprise. Its content is being created by me and so far I'm really excited about it. I've said this before and I'll say it again, the renovated Room will contain some of the most advanced exhibit space in Chicago. We do hope you will visit after the re-opening on November 6.

Please be sure that you have eliminated the old @prcua email addresses for Museum personnel. Very soon that old format will no longer be accepted. Please convert any Museum addresses you have to @polishmuseumofamerica.org. Also please make sure that you have changed the Museum's mailing address to the new ZIP code 60642. Very soon the US Post Office will not deliver to the old ZIP code.

Richard Kujawa

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