In the Land of the Head Hunters

Don't forget to buy your ticket to see In the Land of the Head Hunters at the Moore Theater, Tuesday June 10.

More about the event found here.

Celebrate the fungus among us!

Posted by: Julia Swan

Mad about mushrooms? Fanatic for fungi? Pleased by portobello? OK, I’ll stop trying to over-alliterate and get to the point. The Burke is bringing the Puget Sound Mycological Society* to the museum this Sunday, May 4 to celebrate the fungus among us. Mushroom Maynia! is a first-time event for the Burke and it should be a lot of fun. Check out the event details on our website.



*Mycology = the study of fungi.
Photo by Patrice Benson

Sensing a bit of Husky pride...

Posted by: Julia Swan

The sun is shining (for now), cherry blossoms are blooming, and Washington Huskies, past and present, are flooding the UW campus. This weekend is the biggest showcase of University of Washington achievements of the entire year—Washington Weekend. Just about every campus department has something exciting going on! Check out the schedule for a full listing of events.

Of course, the Burke Museum is eager to get in on the fun. We’ve decided to offer free admission to all UW alumni and their families for the whole weekend (Friday-Sunday). So for all those UW alum out there who miss the perks of being a student, this is the perfect time to come visit the museum for free! All you need to do is bring your Alumni Association membership to the front desk.

We’ve also got a major event happening Saturday here at the museum. The Plateau Native Arts Celebration is going on from 10 am – 4 pm. We are bringing nine distinguished artists from the Yakama, Cayuse, and Nez Perce nations to demonstrate their crafts. If you liked what you saw in Peoples of the Plateau or This Place Called Home , then this is the perfect opportunity to witness the living arts of the Plateau region. And if you haven’t yet seen these two wonderful exhibits, why not come when you can meet practicing artists in person?

I’ve got my fingers crossed that the nice weather persists and that we have lots of sun for Washington Weekend. Come see the UW campus in all its glory, and while you’re at it, check out the Plateau Native Arts Celebration.

- Julia

Photo by Storms Photographic.

The Burke loves UW student research!

Posted by: Julia Swan

One of my favorite things about the Burke is our connection to the University of Washington. As a campus museum, we are privy to some of the region’s best researchers in a number of different fields. The relationship between the University of Washington and the Burke Museum is a mutually beneficial one. Many of our curator’s teach classes at the University of Washington, and university researchers have easy access to our collections. But it’s not only the seasoned professionals whose research impacts the Burke—it’s also a home to many students, both undergraduate and graduate, who work at, visit, and study the collections of the museum.

A great example of the student-museum partnership is the upcoming Bill Holm Center “Spring Lecture Series” happening at the museum. Starting this month, five graduate students holding Bill Holm Center Research Fellowships, will be presenting their research about Northwest Coast Native art to the public. Each lecturer will highlight their graduate research. Topics range from Chilkat tunics to Haida jewelry to Tlingit daggers! For full details about the spring lecture series, click here.

- Julia

Burke Members: Come see our cool stuff!

Posted by: Julia Swan

Not everyone realizes that the objects and specimens they see when they visit a museum exhibition are just a teeny tiny fraction of the entire museum collection. Nearly all museums keep and care for hundreds, thousands, or even millions of items that the average person rarely has the opportunity to see.

The Burke Museum‘s permanent collections include over 12 million specimens and artifacts (holy cow that’s a lot of stuff!), and for obvious reasons, we can’t manage to put all of it on display in our public galleries. It’s a shame too, because with nearly a dozen different collections departments, ranging from ornithology to archeology to arachnology, we have a lot to show off!

That's why one of the most rewarding perks of having a Burke Museum membership (other than free entry to the museum all year, of course) is having the chance to attend the annual Burke Members’ Behind the Scenes Night. At Behind the Scenes Night, members are invited to take an exclusive look at what goes on beyond public view. Each of our departments brings out the best of their collections for members to tour. Our curators and collections staff are there all night to talk about the collections and brag about their cool research. All in all, it’s a really fun night! And this year it’s all happening Tuesday (that’s tomorrow!) from 6 – 9 pm.

Don’t miss this members’ favorite!

- Julia

Photos by Storms PhotoGraphic.

Mmm...donuts

Posted by: Julia Swan

What’s better than a buffet of delicious snacks with everything from finger sandwiches to donuts? A FREE buffet of delicious snacks, of course!

And what’s even better than snacking on a rich, delicious buffet? Snacking on that buffet at the Burke Museum where you can also peruse beautiful handcrafted clothing from the Columbia River Plateau, contemplate the intriguing photographs of Plateau Native Americans that U.S. Major Lee Moorhouse took at the end of the nineteenth century, and watch documentary films from the UW Native Voices program.

UW students can do it all tonight at the Burke Museum Student Open House from 7-9 pm.

See you there!
Julia

Albertosaurus says...

"See you at Dino Day!"

This is how we do it

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

Q: How does a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex premaxilla get from this point:

to this point?

A: With hours and hours of careful work done by fossil preparators:

Most vertebrate fossils are found enclosed in solid rock, with just a little bit of bone exposed. While it can take days to carefully collect a fossil in the field, it can often take weeks, months, or years to uncover enough of the fossil back in the lab so that it can be studied or exhibited!

At this year’s Dino Day event on Sat., March 1, fossil preparator Bruce Crowley (pictured above) will be up in the galleries working on the T. rex bone live in front of visitors. You can watch him up close as he uses miniature jackhammers, sand blasters and chisels to remove the enclosing rock and expose the fossil. It’s a fascinating process and one that rarely gets the spotlight in the glamorous world of fossil hunting. Don’t be afraid to ask him about his work – he doesn’t bite!

More on the fossil…

The premaxilla was put through a CAT Scan to produce this neat all-around view (the white parts are plaster):

Join us at Dino Day for a glimpse at this hunk of T. rex (actual fossil portion highlighted in brown below) and lots more dino and fossil goodness.

- Rebecca

Photos:

Top: Burke paleontologists uncovered the T. rex fossil in Wyoming, 2007. Photo by Christian Sidor.
Middle: Example of a T. rex premaxilla fossil, National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan. Photo by Christian Sidor.
Bottom: Bruce Crowley prepares a brontothere fossil bone. Photo by Rebecca Durkin.

Let us feed your stomachs and minds

Posted by: Julia Swan

UW Students: Come to the Burke for free food, films, and new exhibits!

Calling all UW students! Have you been to the Burke this quarter to see Peoples of the Plateau and This Place Called Home—two new exhibits about the arts and culture of the Columbia River Plateau region? If the answer is yes, then you’ll definitely want to come back to meet the curator (coincidently, he’s a UW student!) and talk to him about his experiences putting together the exhibit. If the answer is no, then you really need to come see the beautiful, hand-crafted objects we have on display, like rawhide saddle bags, intricately beaded cradle boards, elkskin clothing, and a lot more.

I bet you are wondering, “when might I do all this?” Of course as a student, you can come to the Burke for free any day, but why not come on Wednesday, March 5, from 7 -9 pm, when the museum will be open late just for students? On top of that, we will be serving a delicious buffet of rich hor d’oeuvres with Mighty-O Donuts and coffee for dessert.

Finally, when you’re done checking out the exhibits and munching on yummy treats, you should stay for two screenings of films from the UW’s own Native Voices documentary film program. White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men and American Red and Black: Stories of Afro-Native Identity (pictured left) will be playing at the Burke with special appearances by filmmaker Alicia Woods and Native Voices rep Jonathan Tomhave.

So take a break from studying and mosey on up to the Burke Museum to meet new people, indulge in tasty (free!) food, and learn something new about the Native cultures of Eastern Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

See you there!

- Julia

History Detectives Ahoy!

Posted by: Karyn Gregory

Treasure hunters – it’s here again: the Burke’s annual Artifact ID Day, Sat., Feb. 9, 1 - 4 pm.

At ID Day, you can bring in your treasures for identification by our curatorial staff (no appraisals though!) and find out more about them. If this year is anything like last, we’ll be sure to see all sorts of amazing things dug out of local attics – from Native American baskets to Asian weapons, fossil bones to gemstones.

In fact, if you’d like to hear about last year’s Artifact ID Day, check out our first podcast from 2007 (just scroll down to the bottom of the page).

Hope you can make it!

-Karyn

The Maker's Story

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

If you missed the interview on KUOW yesterday, follow that link to hear This Place Called Home co-curator Miles R. Miller (Yakama/Nez Perce) talking with Sound Focus host Megan Sukys about the stories of the Plateau and the cultural differences across the Cascades. (The interview starts at around the 14 minute mark into the program from 1/29.)

The Plateau exhibits opened this weekend with a wonderful members’ reception on Friday night:

I'll be back soon with photos from the public opening this past Saturday.

- Rebecca

Focus the Nation

Posted by: Karyn Gregory

January 25th, 2008 saw the kickoff of Focus the Nation, a program dedicated to raising environmental awareness in America’s youth. Various programs are to be held throughout the week at multiple institutions, culminating in a synchronous nation wide teach-in on Jan 31. The University of Washington and Burke Museum are joining the national teach-in with an innovative panel called Climate Change Impacts on Indigenous Populations, moderated by former Burke curator Dr. Steve Harrell. The talk will be held in HUD 209A on the UW campus at 3pm. Come on by and hear what the panel has to say.

Focus the Nation at UW includes 11 panel discussions, an exhibit hall with over 40 participating organizations, and culminates at 7 PM with a panel at Kane Hall which includes Jay Inslee, Fred Jarrett, Greg Nickels, and Ron Sims, moderated by Steve Scher.

For more information on UW’s involvement, check out their page.

-Karyn

From the Deep

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

Squid Diversity specimen case, In Search of Giant Squid. On view now.

In Search of Giant Squid is closing on Dec. 31 and we are getting the mollusk out of our systems with some fun last hurrahs.

Next week kicks off our Films from the Deep series. We’ll be screening a classic ocean adventure at 1 pm each day from Wed., Dec. 26 – Sun., Dec. 30. The line up covers everything from the cuddly-cute (The Little Mermaid) to the melancholy (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). And best of all, you get to close out 2007 with the original 007 – Sun., Dec. 30 brings us Sean Connery’s Bond battling underwater in Thunderball.

Come for the movies but stay for the squid. We’ve added all new squid specimens to the exhibit that get you up close and personal with the diversity of squid anatomy (see photo above). Thanks go to the ichthyologists in our Fish Division who supplied the jars-o-squid.

- Rebecca

Homeschool Day was a hit

Posted by: Melissa Todd, School Programs Manager

The Burke hosted its first ever Homeschool Day on Dec. 4 and it was a resounding success! We had 104 students and 76 parents attend, most staying all 4 hours.

All the education staff came out for this great event. We had a series of staff-led activities in the Burke Room, staff and docents with fossils and artifacts in the exhibits for some hands-on learning, and a variety of experiments, crafts, scavenger hunts, and sketching to deepen students’ museum experience.

Dana led a presentation about giant squid, including building a life-size model of a giant squid, and then Keely led an activity to learn about salmon and make a model fish trap at the same time. Tim finished up the series with a great activity about the challenges of conservation in the context of the Yellowstone to Yukon exhibit. We had a full house for each activity, and parents were eager for more. It was a lot of fun. We can't wait for the next Homeschool Day!

Some comments from our visitors:

"A great field trip! Great hands-on lectures and knowledgeable lecturers."

"The docents were great!"

"To offer this again would be terrific!"

"Offer this from 9-4, there is so much to do!"

See our education website for info on more resources available to homeschoolers.

- Melissa

Photos:

Top: Students learned about salmon and made a model fish trap that they took home.
Middle: Educator Tim Stetter led a conservation challenge based on the Yellowstone to Yukon exhibit.
Bottom: Students made their own Northwest Coast masks in our Pacific Voices gallery.

Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

What do you get when you take one Seattle-born paleontologist, add one wacky Northwest artist, stick ‘em in a pick-up truck, and set them off on an adventure? Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, the new book by Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll, takes us on an “epoch” journey across the western states at 65 mph in search of fossils.

The hilarious duo will be reading from their new book and signing copies at the Burke tonight at 7 pm – tickets are $5 at the door and free to members.

Want a taste of what you’re in for? Check out their brief interview on NPR’s All Things Considered, discussing “Jurassic Pork” and “PNS” (Paleo Nerd Syndrome). Then join us tonight for the real scoop!

- Rebecca

After Hours @ the Burke

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin


On the evening of Oct. 4, the Burke opened its doors to 1000 UW students for a party like our museum has never seen before. With DJs Introcut and Kamui from Fourthcity, yummy food by Blue C Sushi, a screening of The Host, and access to exhibits all through the night, students had the chance to take over our usually quiet space and make it their own.

The results:

We're doing it again on Thurs., Nov. 1, 7-9 pm, with a Wild West theme, inspired by our Yellowstone to Yukon exhibit. Hot cider, a screening of Grizzly Man, music by DJ Nominal I... this event promises to be more intimate than the first, but every bit as great. UW student ID is required for entrance.

Art more your thing? Our friends over at the Henry are throwing a student party that same night, 5-8 pm. There's even time to start at the Henry and make it over to the Burke for the 8:30 movie screening!

- Rebecca

Music in video: "Concrete Mythology" by Deceptikon (from Fourthcity compilation album, "Butter")

Squids!

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

Desperate to know how squid mate? Curious to see the squishy innards of squid?

Well, maybe you weren’t always, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy the oodles of squid knowledge you’ll pick up on the opening day event of the Burke’s newest exhibit, In Search of Giant Squid, developed by the Smithsonian Institution.

Seafarers, pirates, and families will all find something intriguing in our schedule of activities for Sat., Sept. 22, 10 am – 5 pm:

11 am – Exhibit Tour with Alan Kohn, Burke Museum Adjunct Curator of Malacology (Malacology is the study of mollusks, and giant squid are, in fact, giant mollusks)

12 noon – Squid Dissection with the Seattle Aquarium

1 pm – Learn about cutting-edge, real-time ocean observation technology with Professor of Oceanography John Delaney

2 pm – Exhibit Tour with Alan Kohn, Burke Museum Adjunct Curator of Malacology

2:30 pm – Captain John Burke and Blue Peter present songs of the sea: shanties, ballads and other lies.

4:00 pm – Poetry Readings with the Cephalopod Appreciation Society

All day – The Artful Squid crafts with Port Townsend Marine Science Center

I'll be there taking photos, as usual. You'll know me by the giant camera around my neck. Be sure to say hi and let us know you're a Burke Blog reader!

- Rebecca

We're ready...

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

The last of the images are hung and labels are in place. Join us on Sat., June 16, 10 am – 5 pm for the opening day of Yellowstone to Yukon: Freedom to Roam.

Opening Day Schedule

10:15 am ~ Photographer Tour with Florian Schulz
11am ~ “The Origin and Status of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative”
12 pm ~ “The Columbia Highlands - Making the Rockies to Rainforest Connection”
12:30 pm ~ Photographer Tour with Florian Schulz
1:30 pm ~ “Wildlife Bridges Across Interstate 90”
2pm ~ “From the Cascades to Karakoram – a global exploration of bears”
2:30 pm ~ Photographer Tour with Florian Schulz
3 pm ~ “Bringing Critical Wildlife Conservation Issues to the Public”

I’m most looking forward to the tours with featured photographer, Florian Schulz (pictured left). I’ve been working with his images for months now in preparation for the show, but when I finally met him and heard him talk about trailing grizzlies through the mountains for 10 years, it struck me how deep the stories these pictures tell really are. Florian hangs off of precipices, dives underwater, tracks animals that could kill him in an instant, and sits still for hours and hours at a time just to capture that one glorious instant we see in an image on the gallery wall. It seems like there is so much wisdom living in those mountains, and it lives in him now too.

- Rebecca

Free Admission for Alumni this Weekend!

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin


Hey, UW alumni – you’re invited to a very cool, very FREE tour of the Burke Museum’s In the Spirit of the Ancestors exhibit this weekend, in celebration of Washington Weekend 2007.

Join curator Dr. Robin K. Wright on Fri., April 27, at 12:15 pm for a tour or catch the Sat., April 28th tours at noon and 2 pm with Burke docents.

Other activities include a scavenger hunt and live archaeology demonstrations in the galleries with our “Burke 101” learning lab on Sat. from 12 – 2 pm.

Admission to the Burke Museum is FREE to UW alumni and their families during Washington Weekend!

- Rebecca

Photos from Behind the Scenes

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

Missed Members’ Behind the Scenes Night? Here's a teaser we put together from images by photographer Jack Storms.




Our curators and experts kept the doors open late into the night, giving Burke members exclusive access to many of the Burke’s 5 million collections objects stored behind the scenes.

-Rebecca