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This content was published: March 7, 1997. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.

PCC Brings "Smithsonian Voices of Discovery" To Portland

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Portland Community College will sponsor "Smithsonian Voices of Discovery" in the Portland area during April. An 11-day program of free public lectures and workshops will take place at five PCC sites and a community center. Scholars from the Smithsonian Institute will discuss topics as diverse as horticulture, American musical theater, American crafts, the solar system and volcanoes.

In addition to the lecture series, speakers from the Smithsonian will make more than 50 public appearances at schools, museums, universities and civic organizations in the metro area. The programs are designed to appeal to all ages and are expected to draw audiences with many interests and backgrounds.

The events showcase the extensive knowledge of Smithsonian scholars on the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian.

The "Smithsonian Voices of Discovery" program was designed in conjunction with "America’s Smithsonian," a 300-item traveling exhibition on view at the Expo Center April 3 to May 6.

Here is the program of Smithsonian events at PCC.

Tuesday, April 8

"How Native Ecosystems Respond to Climate Change and Rising CO2"

Presenter: Dr. Bert Drake
Rock Creek Campus, 17705 N.W. Springville Rd.,

Bldg. 3, Forum; 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Drake is a plant physiologist and staff scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center near Edgewater, Maryland. His research is focused on the impact of rising atmospheric CO2 and climate change on native vegetation and ecosystems. His research on wetlands has continued for 10 years. It has produced data establishing that rising CO2 alters both plant and ecosystem processes. Drake has published many papers and has been a speaker at national and international conferences on climate change.

Thursday, April 10

"The Role of Cultural Institutions in Animating Communities"

Presenter: John Haworth
Rock Creek Campus, Bldg. 3, Forum; 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Haworth is deputy assistant director of public programs for the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Haworth, who is of Cherokee ancestry, collaborates with Native communities on developing innovative programming in addition to the day-to-day management of the center. Before joining the Smithsonian he was assistant commissioner for cultural institutions at the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs.

Friday, April 11

"Art Pottery of the American Crafts Movement, 1875-1995"

Presenter: Kenneth Trapp
Neighborhood House Senior Center,

7688 S.W. Capital Hwy.; 10 to 11 a.m.

Trapp is curator of the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art. He has also been curator of decorative arts at the Oakland Museum of California. In 1995 he received the National Museum of American Art’s biennial Patricia and Phillip Frost Prize for outstanding scholarship in American decorative arts for the book "The Arts and Crafts Movement in California." Trapp is currently a doctoral candidate in art history at the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign.

Sat., April 12

"Fifty Years of American Ceramics, 1945 to 1995"

Presenter: Kenneth Trapp
PCC Central Portland Workforce Training Center,

1626 S.E. Water Ave., 9 a.m. to noon.

Tuesday, April 15

"Another O’pnin’, Another Show: The American Musical Theater"

Presenter: Dwight Bowers
PCC Sylvania Campus, 12000 S.W. 49th Ave.,

Performing Arts Center; 2 to 3 p.m.

Bowers is a historian in the Division of Cultural History at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian. He served as co-curator of the current exhibition "Red, Hot and Blue: A Salute to American Musicals" at the National Portrait Gallery. His expertise in the history of the performing arts has resulted in many exhibitions, publications and performances. He has also acted as producer-annotator for over 42 archival recording releases. He is a three-time Grammy Award nominee.

Wed., April 16

"Spirit World of Alaska’s Yupic Eskimos"

Presenter: Stephen Loring
PCC Cascade Campus, 705 N. Killingsworth St.,

Terrell Hall, Rm. 122; 1 to 2 p.m.

Museum anthropologist Loring is on staff with the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center, a program of the National Museum of Natural History. He is responsible for overseeing the Smithsonian’s world-famous arctic and subarctic archaeological and ethnographic collections. He is presently directing a major research project in the Western Aleutian Islands. Dr. Loring has been associated with the Smithsonian for over 20 years.

For more information contact Neal Naigus at 977-4122.