

For the first time ever, Burke Museum educators traveled across the state to present programs to K-12 students in a new education outreach program called Burkemobile.

In a new effort to share knowledge about the museum’s exhibit, events, and collections, the Burke Museum communications staff started a monthly trivia night at the College Inn Pub, quizzing contestants about the natural and cultural world. Each trivia night exceeded our expectations, filling the College Inn to maximum capacity and creating an environment filled with lively competition.

Coffee: The World in Your Cup was an exhibit at the Burke Museum from January through September of this year that shared the stories behind global coffee production and consumption. Nearly each weekend during the run of the exhibit, coffee vendors from around the Puget Sound shared their knowledge of and passion for coffee at free tasting events.

Two Fridays ago, over 550 members and friends of the Burke gathered at the museum to celebrate the opening of Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, an exhibit featuring the art of Ray Troll and fossils from the Burke’s paleontology collection.

Working alongside Olson Kundig Architects, Burke Museum staff and board members entered the first phase of expansion planning – a pre-design study to determine future building needs.

Christian Sidor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum, was in the news a number of times this past year for his research on prehistoric mammals and mammal relatives, such as Kombuisia antarctica, a pre-mammal recently discovered in Antarctica.

In September, a totem pole carved by Tsimshian artist David Boxley was raised at the UW Tower. Burke Museum staff and curators organized a dedication ceremony for the pole that was well attended.

Curator of mammalogy Dr. Jim Kenagy spent many months advising a group of students from Wedgwood Elementary School as they prepared to testify to the Washington State legislature about the important of the Olympic Marmot to Washington’s heritage. The result? A new state endemic mammal!

When a UW freshman stumbled upon a stone artifact while digging outside the Botany Greenhouse on campus, she called the archaeology experts at the Burke Museum who identified a 4,000-7,000 year old projectile point.
Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications