MUSEUM NEWS JANUARY 1, 2010 - NOVEMBER 23, 2010
(Rich Kujawa)
November 23, 2010
Museum News hasn't been updated in a while, as some of you have noticed. Only about 1 in 10 visitors to the Home page visit this News page. Assistant webmaster David Majkowski and I have been in discussion for the past few weeks as to whether or not to continue this feature on the Museum's website. There is some effort required to post News updates and maintaining this page and the News Archives does add to the complexity of the website. Our original thought was that some people might like to follow the "happenings" at the Museum from a more personal viewpoint but it looks like most visitors just want to get basic information about visiting the Museum and not explore any further. So, it is very likely that this feature will be discontinued in the New Year.
News and Home items have been sent to the Web Archives.
Calendars have been updated.
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October 18, 2010
Volunteer appreciation Night was last Thursday. Everyone had a great time. We do SO MUCH appreciate all our volunteers. We simply could not do all that we accomplish without their help! It was great to reconnect with two very important volunteers who have played a major role in my work from a year ago, Sean Ciolek and David Majkowski. Sean for his work on redesigning our Gallery and David for his work as assistant webmaster. I have talked before about working with two people on the website and their relative size to me. In the pic below are (left to right), David Majkowski, Rich Kujawa and Kevin Ryba, PRCUA IT officer. The photographer (Malgorzata Kot) could hardly stop laughing long enough to take the shot!
Hey, Malgorzata, you'd better pan out some more!
Blog Hijinks—Assistant Webmaster hijacks Museum News...David insists that there were some difficulties
framing this shot. Here you can see an outttake.
This is a much better photo than the other two!
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October 6, 2010
The Museum Staff have been very busy with a number of projects lately. Tonight we will host the Chicago Cultural Alliance for a presentation to members on upcoming opportunities to participate in cross-cultural dialogues next year. This meeting is not open to the public. Click on the CCA link above for information on this and other programs of the CCA. Tomorrow we will host the Lira Ensemble recital, An Evening with Paderewski. The program will start with personal tours of the newly renovated Paderewski Room by me (Rich) followed by a musical program and dinner. October 15 will be our annual Volunteer Appreciation Night which attempts to bring together our many volunteers in one place for socialization and sharing their past experiences. Volunteers play a critical role in our work but this year my work was particularly dependent on volunteer support. The work relationship was brief and several have moved to other opportunities. I'm really looking forward to reconnecting (been doing a lot of that this year) with them. Volunteers and Alumni please try to attend!
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september 22, 2010
Some visitors have inquired about the availability of Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings by William F. Hoffman. I was advised yesterday that this book has been revised and will be printed in the near future. Please check this page in about two months for the status of this book.
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September 17, 2010
I attended the second annual Chicago Climate Change Summit at the Field Museum on September 16, 2010. An excellent presentation followed by an outstanding panel discussion by some of the top leaders addressing climate change. I then viewed the Field Museum's new exhibit on climate change and environment. I can recommend this as a "must see" in Chicago. The Field Museum has topped their previous best efforts with this exhibit! It is outstanding! Attending the summit was a real privilege and a humbling experience. The Polish Museum is very proud to have contributed to the studies being conducted.
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september 13, 2010
Today we officially welcome the new PRCUA officers, President Joeseph Drobot, Vice President Robert Bielenda and Secretary-Treasurer James Robaczewski. Resident Vice President Anna Sokolowski returns from her previous term. We hope their terms will be successful.
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SEPTEMBER 2, 2010
As I have previously noted, the Museum has been blessed recently with some unique and wonderful volunteers. We have been able to accomplish so many things due to their talent and effort. We have been so pleased to see them advance in their personal and professional lives. The latest to receive our Cheers and Congratulations! is volunteer Sean Ciolek who has recently accepted a position as Architect/ Project Manager for the City of Evanston. We wish him all the best! Sean's plans for the renovated 4th floor Art Gallery will be unveiled in November at the Life-Members Benefit.
The Museum has faced very difficult circumstances this year. We have not only weathered the storms but have made very significant progress thanks to the efforts of Staff and volunteers.
Finally, there will be a new look to this and our Home page next week thanks to the efforts of "remote" volunteer David Majkowski! Thank you David!
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AUGUST 31, 2010
Pretty typical August. Very busy the 16th thru the 22nd, then very
slow after. The Museum attended the first International Day at the
Wheeling Indian Trails Public Library. A very nice event! Attendance was
not bad for an inaugural event. However, the high heat and humidity on
Sunday made set-up and tear-down very unpleasant.
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AUGUST 17, 2010
Back from vacation. The PRCUA convention last week brought new officers and some good news. Traditionally, the President and Resident Vice President of the PRCUA are elected by the Museum's board of directors to be Chairman and Vice Chair of the board so this is a significant change for us. Also, the PRCUA's Budget Committee agreed to grant us a new annual stipend. This is certainly welcome news.
We have experience a surprising jump in the number of visitors this month. Even though tour group traffic is down for this year, we do expect to have at least as many visitors as last year.
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AUGUST 4, 2010
April Announcements and News have been archived. I am determined to keep the download times for these two pages as short as possible.
We hope to have a PayPal "button" on the website in early September. The Museum's account has been established and David is working on the "button." Once installed, we hope that visitors will use this quick and easy way to make donations to the Museum.
The quadrennial convention of the PRCUA, our landlords, officially begins on Sunday, August 8. We will have an open house for the delegates on Saturday, August 7 from 4:00 until 8:00. Crews have been very busy this week and last making the building look good. We hope with the improving economy they will be able to increase their support of the Museum.
I will be on vacation next week so there will be no news updates until the following week.
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JULY 29, 2010
A new central light has been installed in the Great Hall of the
Museum replacing a fixture more than twenty years old. Some photos
below. Also, a sneak preview of the new exhibit opening tomorrow.
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1st quarter 2010 News and Announcements have been archived.
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JULY 26, 2010
A few weeks ago a visitor commented that the Museum's website does not give a visitor a good idea of what to expect, specifically the size and scope of the Museum was not obvious. We do listen to comments! This morning I added a gallery of photos to the Paderewski exhibit section. In future I will be adding more photos of the other exhibits. If you have comments please send them to the address at the upper right corner of this page.
The Main Hall of the Museum will be partially closed July 27 in order to replace a failing central light fixture. We hope to keep the closure time as short as possible.
A new section of 'Frequently Asked Questions' has been added to the "Visit Us" page.
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JULY 14, 2010
Tuesday, Jan and I attended the final review of the report on climate
change for the Chicago Department of Energy produced by the ECCo
Department of the Field Museum. This is a study of attitudes about
climate change within the Polish-American community. Rich served
as advisor throughout the project (February to July) and Jan was an
official advisor for the past month. The report is a wonderful
piece of work and the Museum is very proud to have played a role in its
creation. A summary of the results will be available here in about
a month. It will be publically presented for the first time at the
Field Museum to the Green Build Convention which is holding its annual
conference in Chicago in November. The Museum will host the Polish
Green Build banquet on November 19. Below are a couple of photos I
took from the north entrance to the Field Museum prior to the meeting.
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JULY 1, 2010
On June 19 Rich presented his lecture on Polish Immigration to the NW
Indiana Genealogical Society. On June 21 a television video crew
was in the Paderewski Room taking video and photographs for a
documentary on Paderewski to be aired in Poland in November. Some
photos of both events are posted below along with a couple of photos of
Jack Vishneski, one of our Summer interns.
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JUNE 30, 2010
A revision to the website's format is now in progress. David and I have realized that there are a number of pages that need to be posted that don't easily fit into the categories found in the current left-side navigation menu. For example, the Neighborhood Stories page doesn't really fit into any of the current navigation selections. What is planned is to create a new separate selection menu on the right which will allow the visitor to select a special project link. If any visitors have other ideas or if you would like to participate in a beta test, please send an email to the address in the header bar. Also, look for new donation options in the near future.
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JUNE 16, 2010
In collaboration with the Field Museum and the Chicago Cultural Alliance, the Museum is offering a free visit to the Field Museum on Thursday, July 15 at 10:00 am. There will be a special group viewing of a new exhibit at the Field Museum followed by a group discussion of the exhibit. Afterwards, participants may view other exhibits at the Field Museum without charge. For information click here. Reservations are required by July 12!
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JUNE 14, 2010
For the past several months volunteer Sean Ciolek and Rich have been involved with personnel from the ECCo department of The Field Museum researching Chicago's Polish Community attitudes towards the issue of climate change. We are scheduled to have one final focus group meeting on June 22 with selected community leaders. A rough draft of the final report will be reviewed on July 1. For more information please go to: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/ccuc/ccuc_sites/Climate_Action/climate_action.htm
Additionally, Lisa Terlecki, Sean Ciolek and Rich have been working on a dialog project with the American Indian Center and The Field museum. The dialogue will take place at The Field Museum in the latter part of July. If you are interested in participating, please send an email to the address in the header of this page.
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JUNE 14, 2010
Schoolgroup visit on June 11, 2010:
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JUNE 11, 2010
Szanowni Państwo, odnalazłem wczoraj poważną pomyłkę na naszej stronie internetowej. Linki prowadzące do nowej polskiej wersji strony internetowej miały zostać zmienione 2 marca. Na nieszczęście tak się nie stało i niedopatrzenie to odkryłem dopiero wczoraj. Wszystkie linki prowadzące do polskiej wersji strony wiodą do polskiej strony głównej. Zdaję sobie sprawę, iż niektórzy z odwiedzających nas gości byli zawiedzeni faktem, że polska wersja naszej strony internetowej była pomijana i nieuaktualniana. W rzeczywistości, wspólnie z Davidem, regularnie ją uaktualnialiśmy. Jednakże dlatego, że linki prowadziły do starej wersji v3, która nie była uaktualniana po połowie lutego - nasi goście nie mogli dostać się do nowej, uaktualnionej strony. Jestem bardzo poruszony tym faktem i nie mam żadnego usprawiedliwienia. Żadne z uspawiedliwień bowiem nie jest do przyjęcia. Bardzo przepraszam naszych polskojęzycznych gości.
Dziękuję za zrozumienie,
Rich Kujawa
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JUNE 10, 2010
I found a very bad mistake on the website yesterday. The links to the new Polish version of the website were to have been updated on March 2 of this year. Unfortunately, that did not happen and this oversight was not discovered until yesterday. All Polish version links now take the user to the new, updated, Polish Home page. Some of our users may have become very frustrated that it appeared the Polish version of the website was being totally ignored and not updated. In fact, it was being updated regularly by both David and me. But because the links took the user to the old version, v3, which was not updated after mid-February, the user could not get to the new updated page. I am really embarrassed about this and will offer no excuses. No excuse could be acceptable. I am very sorry to our Polish language users.
Rich Kujawa
As of this writing, we have over 200 reservations for the Summer Ball! We are deeply grateful to the community for their support. Thank you so much!
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MAY 24, 2010
We certainly have been busy! The pianola recital on May16 went very well. Monday and Tuesday found several staff in meetings and workshops relative to projects with the Field Museum. Friday Rich was at Wheeling High School for their annual diversity day program. Here are links to photos from both events: Pianola | Wheeling
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MAY 13, 2010
The Pianola recital is on schedule for Sunday, May 16 at 2:00. VIP seating is now closed. About 50 people have guaranteed, reserved general seating. The high number of early reserved seats indicates that this could be a sell-out performance and general seating is limited to 250. Tickets are $15 per person and will be available at the door until we reach capacity.
The last event of this type was in 1985 at Orchestra Hall with the Chicago Symphony Youth Orchestra. This event will be a recital and only the 1925 Steinway reproducing piano will be used. The piano rolls that will be used are copies of rolls made by Paderewski, mostly after World War I.
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MAY 12, 2010
The Polish Club from Wheeling High School visited on May 11, 2010. I will be at the school on May 21
for their diversity day event. These are a great bunch of people with a lot of enthusiasm for Polish culture.
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Here are some photos of the diversity event last year.
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MAY 11, 2010
Two high school groups visited the Museum over the past several days. I think the students found their visit worthwhile.
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Rex Lawson and Denis Hall in conversation with Elaine Coorens in the Paderewski Room.
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MAY 4, 2010
The Constitution Day Parade was very successful. Our float, keying off the Chopin theme, had a piano with good friend Jeff Wagner imitating Paderewski at the keyboard and was well received. I expect to have photos posted later this week. Because of the tragedy of April 10, the press was unusually attentive to this year's parade.
Now that the parade is over, I'm seeing fewer Polish flags on autos around town. Life returns to "normal" and goes on.
We're now in final preparation for the upcoming Pianola recital. Rex and Denis arrive this morning. The 24 VIP seats are now 50% filled. General seating reservations are coming in slowly but expected to speed up this week.
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April 28, 2010
A quiet week thus far. I think the Community is getting ready for the parade on Saturday which is likely to be a somber affair. Mayor Daley will hold a brief memorial service after the parade at the reviewing stand. This is appropriate. We hope he doesn't start immediately, so that the last parade units' personnel can get back to the stands.
If you live in the Chicago-Metro area, please seriously consider attending the Museum's Pianola Recital on May 16. These recitals are very rare in the USA. A 1925 7 foot Steinway reproducing piano is being loaned to the Museum for this recital. These instruments, in playing condition, are very rare. There are probably fewer than six in the that are ready to play. The Pianola Institute in London has no definite future plans to perform again in the USA. While you can by recordings of Paderewski's performances, the technology still cannot accurately produce the same effect a live piano recital. This recital is not to be missed!
More cooperative events with the Field Museum are in the planning stages right now. Look for future announcements and post-event photo galleries.
Rich
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April 22, 2010
As indicated earlier this week a special new page has been set-up to reference all the condolences for who died on April 10 at Smolensk.
We hope you like this new arrangement. We, David and I, also decided to use all .pdf files for all the statements. These come up as pop-up widows so navigation is easier. Please let me know what you think.
We did not have as many website hits last week as I had anticipated. But, oddly, we are getting more hits this week than last. I do hope you are finding the website useful.
The new Poster exhibit opening on April 16 was another big success with around 300 people attending. Even with the jazz concert cancelled, it seemed the Polish-American community just wanted to come together.
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April 19, 2010
We have received condolences from many people and organizations concerning the death of President Kaczynski and others. I will post what I can but our Home page is getting very cluttered. It may be best to set up a separate page for this purpose. Look for news here later this week.
(postscript: As of late this morning, the new page has been added to compile information and messages concerning the death of President Kaczynski and others.)
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April 14, 2010
All Museum staff and volunteers are in mourning over the loss of President Kaczynski and so many others in the plane crash last Saturday. Our prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who perished.
My focus has been on getting appropriate material posted on our Home page. Visitors will note that I have had to abandon our normal format of chronological postings. I apologize if visitors find it confusing.
While all of us are deeply saddened by what has befallen our community, we will endure, again, the burdens placed on us. We are of strong character. That has been our tradition and it will continue in our future. God bless Poland and Polonia!
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April 8, 2010
We have been very busy this week! The Spring newsletter has been proofed and printed. We'll begin labeling today and we'll mail on Friday. We ask our members to let us know if they would like an email version of the newsletter instead of a snail mail version. Please consider this because it would save us postage and labor.
Today and Friday are especially busy for me. I have a research project meeting this morning with Field Museum personnel until Noon, then "Civic Engagement 1" training with Valparaiso University. Friday is "Civic Engagement 2" at the Cambodian-American Museum. Saturday we will host 175 students from one of the Polish Saturday Schools. Meanwhile other staff is mounting the new Artopolis poster exhibit that will open April 16.
We are also preparing our advertising and press releases for the Pianola Institute Paderewski Recital on May 16. General seating is $15 and VIP seating is $25. Please do make reservations if you are interested! For more information about the Pianola Institute go to www.pianola.org While recitals of this kind are not infrequent in Europe, they are very rare events in the U.S.
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March 24, 2010
I have updated both Museum Calendar pages. Those planning tour groups for the Museum should look at the Tour Group Calendar before calling to arrange a tour. You can quickly see if the time you want is open or in conflict. Also, if you have called to schedule a tour, you can check to make sure it is on the calendar; If it is not, call me to reconfirm. My extension is 206.
Our Membership Drive has been very successful so far with almost 400 new members. THANK YOU! We sincerely appreciate your support! If you are not a member, please consider joining. Quite a number of people have asked about on-line credit card transactions for both membership and donations. It's coming but I can't say when it will be operational. It is being researched and implemented by Volunteer Assistant Webmaster David Majkowski. He is also checking out the Facebook donation link. We have nearly 900 fans on Facebook! Those of you on Facebook have seen that some updates are being made in Polish as well as English. These are being made by Malgorzata Kot, our Head Librarian, who I have made co-administrator.
Some of you may wonder what the training was all about and what the training is that's listed on the Calendars. The Field Museum has been given grants by various agency to do some research and on-going training with various ethnic museums. We are happy to participate because these activities advance our skills and we get some money for the effort. Right now that helps a lot.
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March 23, 2010
The past several days have been very busy. Friday I picked up Arnie Klein, pisanki specialist, at the train station and got ready for the lecture Friday evening. Arnie's presentation was great but attendance was disappointing. Saturday started early and Arnie's workshop was terrific. Take a look at the photos. Everyone had a good time. We had three workers from the Field Museum participating and conducting surveys on climate change during Saturday as well. Monday was all-day training by the Field Museum on Asset Mapping and Climate Change, attended by Jan Lorys, Lisa Terlecki, Sean Ciolek and me. Training ended at 6:00 (long day). Today I'll get Arnie back on the train home and catch up on other work.
Wonder where these updates come from? Take a look.
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March 15, 2010
A new program has been announced with the help of the Polish Women's Alliance and Lord & Taylor stores. You may purchase a coupon for $5.00 and receive certificates for discounts on purchases at Lord & Taylor stores in April. The Museum receives $4.00 for each coupon purchased. Click here for more detail.
The Chopin recital was very successful on Friday. Over 100 guests attended. This is very heartening because only electronic devices were used to promote the event. USPS was not used. If we can do this more often, we could save a considerable amount in printing and postage. Members, please let us know if you would like electronic notification only.
I'm tired today, not only because of the time change, but also from the huge amount of walking and stair climbing I did Friday and Saturday. I went back to the Urbana Campus for Engineering Open House. Fantastic. If you want to find out more, go to http://eoh.illinois.edu.
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March 5, 2010
As I have said frequently, we do respond to constructive criticism. During our new membership campaign we received an application that included the comment, "The website site needs to be upgraded. It is an embarrassment." Of course, we're not sure if the person is referring to version 3.0 or the current version. We hope it's version 3.0. In any case the comment "needs to be upgraded" isn't sufficiently informative to cause action. Zingers may give personal satisfaction but aren't very helpful. If you do have constructive comments or would like to see something changed, PLEASE send an email to any of the addresses you find on these web pages. Your input will be thoroughly reviewed and carefully considered by both web authors. You will receive, in every instance, a thank you and a polite response. This page has received over 500 "hits" in the last month. Surely, someone must have a comment or two about what we've done. A lack of feedback is like trying to drive a car blindfolded.
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March 3, 2010
Our opening on February 26 of the newly conserved Royal Sleigh was a big success. Visitors have made many positive comments and seem to be fascinated by the artifact.
March first was Pulaski Day here in Illinois with the usual big celebration at the Museum. Many government officials and dignitaries were present, including the Honorable Richard M. Daley. They all spoke about the valor of Casimir Pulaski to an audience of about 350 guests. It's always nice to see a standing-room-only crowd.
The response to our membership appeal has been heartening. In February we received 100 membership applications, a record monthly number, putting our membership over one thousand for the first time. But, we still have quite a distance to go in order to make up our budget shortfall. If you are reading this and are a member of the Museum, we thank you so much for your support. If you are reading this and are not a member of the Museum, won't you please consider becoming a member? We really do need help to keep the Museum's programs going. For a membership application please click here.
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February 22, 2010
Dear Friends,
The PMA needs your help during this increased membership drive.
We are very grateful for the consistent financial and moral support of our PMA members. They are our first and best source of funding. We have nearly 900 members from 37 states, Australia, and Poland; but being the oldest and largest Polish American museum in the nation should produce 5-6 times that many members.
We thank Wspolnota Polska—the Association of the Polish Community Abroad—for their monetary support last year, and we hope, in 2010. Their support has freed up monies for other areas of the Museum. The Ministry of Culture also provides the PMA with visiting archivists and specialists from Poland who come to work with our PMA Staff in an atmosphere of mutual learning.
I wish you could have been present as a former Curator of the PMA returned for visit and tour of the Museum and the renovated Paderewski Room. He was so moved at what had been accomplished since his tenure. His is the reaction that we receive from so many upon their first visit or return visit after many years; but to see it through a professional’s eyes makes it all the more precious and worth keeping.
Our staff members are committed professionals, and your support allows them to attend seminars and classes to hone their skills. They work at lesser salaries than their skills warrant because they love and respect the Museum and Library. There is rarely a time when a caller or visitor’s question cannot be answered by appropriate Museum personnel.
The Museum’s value lies not only in the historical treasures that are preserved here, but also in the many generous and talented people who work hard to make this great institution possible.
Become a member of The Polish Museum of America. As a not-for-profit organization, the PMA depends upon individual donations, and proceeds from the annual Summer Ball. However, these efforts are not sufficient to meet the rising cost of maintaining the Museum, therefore we must rely upon the generosity of supporting members to continue its programs. Without membership, the Museum would not be able to keep up with escalating costs. We invite you to respond to the financial challenges and needs of the Museum by becoming a supporting member. The PMA is indispensible in preserving the Polish past for the future. We hope that you will join us.
Please make checks payable to: Polish Museum of America and mail to: PMA Membership, The Polish Museum of America, 984 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago Illinois 60642-4101. Donations to the PMA are tax deductable. We sincerely thank you for your generosity.
Click here to learn more about the benefits of membership and here for a printable membership form. You can join us at Facebook, Museum is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chicago-IL/Polish-Museum-of-America/96920757924 and Library is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chicago-IL/Polish-Museum-Library/80184772567?ref=ts and become fans.
On behalf of the PMA Team, we thank you!
Sincerely,
Maria Ciesla, President
Jan M. Lorys, Director
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February 17, 2010
The opening of the "Lensless Slides" exhibit by Wojtek Gil was a big success. Around 200 people attended and there were many new, young faces. The last day of the exhibit is February 23. Gallery
Rich Kujawa gave a presentation at the UIC School of Dentistry on February 16. The presentation was part of the School's "Lunch and Learn " program and was well received by about 50 faculty and students. Gallery
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February 12, 2010
Below are some photos of the new exhibit opening tonight.
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February 11, 2010
This has certainly been an eventful period. Near blizzard conditions and an earthquake just miles from my home on Wednesday!
We're ready to open Wojtek Gil's new special exhibit on Friday. It's very interesting; one of the most interesting temporary exhibits we've had in a while. I won't post any more about it until after the opening. If you haven't been to a Museum opening in a while, this Friday is one you should attend.
I'm a bit overwhelmed with what has been happening here. Tuesday we formalized our agreement to work with the Field Museum on a "Climate Change" community project coming in the next few months. In an earlier update I mentioned this new initiative. Chicago is trying very hard to be a leader in the "green city" initiative and will be hosting in November a convention of the Green Building Councils. Please visit http://www.plgbc.org/. The Polish Green Building Council intends to have their closing dinner at the Museum so we find ourselves suddenly at the forefront of the latest environmental issues.
The Ukrainian National Museum board of directors has requested a special tour of the renovated Paderewski Room on Saturday. The word has really gotten around about this new exhibit space and there has been increasing clamor for personalized tours that I am all-too-happy to accommodate. If you haven't been to the Museum in a while, please do come and see this redone exhibit.
We are now finalizing our plans for the Paderewski Recital on May 19 at the Museum. This is an event that may not happen again for several decades at least! A 1923 Steinway reproducing concert grand piano will be used for this recital, one of twenty or so instruments in the world. Please go to www.pianola.org and visit their pages of past concerts. They have copied one of our old Paderewski programs from a 1914 performance at Chicago's Auditorium Theater and will repeat this program in May. There will, of course, be commentary as well. The whole program should be around two hours and guests will be given a special tour of the Paderewski Room. Please make your reservations early; I think this one will sell-out early!
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February 3, 2010 (b)
The Royal Sleigh has been moved to its new home today. Below are some photos of the move and installation. We will now finish the exhibit for the official opening on February 26.
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Rich
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February 3, 2010 (a)
As anticipated, David Majkowski has won a contract to work in St. Louis for the next 12 to 18 months which will limit his ability to work on more projects for us. We thank David for his help with the website development, wish him well in his new work and appreciate any assistance he may be able to afford us in the future.
Per schedule, the Christmas hut scene has been packed away one more time. This scene has been a Christmas fixture at the Museum for nearly a decade and we have decided to retire it for a while so it won't be seen again until sometime in the future. Instead, this year we are planning something entirely new! As we approach the Holiday Season later this year, look for an announcement about our new Christmas Exhibit.
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Rich
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February 2, 2010
The new English version launched with no apparent problems and we notice that this page has gotten a surprising number of "hits" in the past 24 hours. One problem did become apparent just as I was leaving yesterday. Our out-going emails have a "signature" attached that asks people to become a member and offers a link to our Membership Page. I neglected to update that signature link to the new page. I have corrected my "signature" but the rest of the Staff have not. Please be patient because I do not have administrative authority for the other email accounts and our IT will have to change the links.
I mentioned previously that I was concerned about a re-direct. It turns out the way I published 4.0 avoids 3.0 entirely and the transition was immediate. David has corrected a couple of very minor problems last night. You will notice that a few links on the Gift Shop page are not active. I'm having a little trouble getting listings and photos so those will become active in the next few weeks when the pages have complete content. As we set out on this redesign, I established several hard and fast policies. One of these was never to publish a page without full content.
As I have stated earlier, David Majkowski is largely responsible for the design of this website and, as such, it is now part of his resume. David is a professional data programmer but had not done a website before. His skill is self-evident. However, one hallmark of his profession is that when he leaves a client, the client must be able to manage what he has done. That is the case with this website. I worked in close collaboration with David to make sure I could manage and modify the site as necessary without resorting back to David. Our launch yesterday was important but something more important happened before the launch and before David joined me for the final review. I took the website for an extended "test drive" that morning for several hours. Checking every page, sometimes modifying or adding content, checking bookmark protocols, adding new bookmarks, changing the appearance of photos and in general seeing how quickly and easily I could make changes that looked professional. Suffice to say, I advised David when he arrived that I was very satisfied with the performance. I hope you, our visitor, are also pleased with the new version.
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February 1, 2010
Welcome to the new English version of the Museum's website, aka, PMA 4.0! This is my first blog written directly to this new page and this and later blogs will not appear on the old website. We should have a re-direct notice on the English version Home Page but I don't know yet if that is working. I'm writing this ahead of the official launch time, 1:00 pm, and will only be testing the various parts after David joins me around Noon. David Majkowski, by the way, has done most of the work in creating this new site. David is a data programmer by profession and as I write this he is preparing for a job interview this morning. We knew from the time he came on as a volunteer last year that his availability to us could be greatly reduced at any time. Hence, there was a need to rush on this project. If he succeeds on his interview today, and we wish him luck, we will have just met our goal.
We have had a beta version of the site available for review since just after Christmas '09 but have received very few comments. We know that most of the Museum's Staff do not care for the photograph above, in the header. We have some plans for some more attractive photos but this will need to wait until we're past some other activities. If there are other comments please email them to me.
Tomorrow, David and Pawel will be helping me dismantle the Christmas hut. They'll probably do most of the work but I will be doing more now that my tendon tear is pretty well healed (though I've been cautioned by the doctor to "take it easy" for another month). Installation of the new exhibit, "Lensless Slides," will begin next week and will officially open on Friday, February 12, 7:00 pm. Also tomorrow, the new "Royal Sleigh" exhibit space will be finished and the Sleigh will be moved into it. The exhibit officially opens on February 26. The following Monday is Pulaski Day. On February 15 we must commit to the new initiatives noted in the blog of January 28.
Finally, and I don't like to bring this up, the Museum has lost a major source of financial support and, more than ever, we need your donations. Our Finance Committee will meet in emergency session tonight. We need some clear and immediate strategies to be launched as a result of that meeting. Over the next several weeks you will see some new features on this website that will give you new opportunities to help us. In addition, our board has directed that our requested donation levels be increased to Grades 1 - 5: $5.00, Grades 6 - College: $6.00, over 62: $6.00 and Adults: $7.00. Note that tours already booked will be at the previous rate. Tour operators will have the new rates in effect January 2, 2011.
Rich Kujawa
PS: I was reading in the newspaper this morning that the Daytona 24 Hours race was held this weekend and had a surprising finish. That immediately took me back in time, a time when I crewed for one of the teams that ran that race and others. Over 11 years, '76 to '87, I only missed one Daytona race, recovering from a CT release.
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January 28, 2010
The CCA held its quarterly members meeting at the Museum last night. Three new potential programs were presented to the members attending the meeting and, in the light of the morning, we're all trying to sort it all out. Things are moving so very quickly and we must respond so very quickly. (Sorry, I'm in a bit of a blur with very little sleep behind me.) All three programs involve civic engagement at level not previously experienced by this Museum, or any other for that matter. The first of these programs only obtained funding approval just prior to the meeting and has the ungainly title of "Linking Community Assets to Climate Change." (!) There are many "ifs" related to this and the other two potential programs and it is still uncertain how the future will unfold. If the Museum steps forward for this challenge and if we are accepted, we will be engaging in some truly "leading edge" activities. (Honestly, I don't know whether to be excited or terrified or both.) One thing is certain; I'm headed for more training at the Field Museum. (How on Earth did I go from "Stoichiometry 101" to "Civic Engagement 1" forty years later? The building's alarms are going off. Is this a warning?) There is very much to be decided and very quickly. I will do my best to keep our patrons advised so please check this page with some frequency.
Rosa Cabrera of the Field Museum explaining the new programs to CCA members last night:
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Prior to the meeting Dan Pogorzelski stopped in to discuss some problems he found with our Facebook page. Without going through all the bizarre details, suffice to say that after a bit of time at the computer, the problems got sorted out. My thanks to Dan for his help. I hope our patrons who have tried to follow us on Facebook will be much less frustrated in the future. I do apologize to those patrons who will now have to "re-friend" the Museum.
Gosh! Reviewing previous blogs, I only now realized that I neglected to update several items. The Wheaton College lecture went very well last Thursday. The Pierce School visit on Friday also went very well. It is very important to note that processing 90 sixth graders through the Paderewski Room without incident or angst on my part, is quite an achievement. Furthermore, the new design directly addressed the information the teachers wanted the students to know. (I love satisfied customers!) Sorry, I got too involved with both visits and failed to take photos.
Workers are here and have started the Royal Sleigh Exhibit/ Mold removal/ Gallery ceiling removal projects. (Sure! Throw me a few more flaming torches to juggle!)
Finally, I am preparing a modified version of my Chicago Immigration lecture for delivery at the U of I School of Dentistry, Lunch Lecture program on February 16. The changes are necessary because it will be a more formal presentation and not as interactive as my usual.
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January 26, 2010
We are still on track to launch PMA 4.0 English version Monday morning, probably around 11:00. As before, if you have bookmarked the old address, it will redirect you to the new sight. This feature will last only for a short time so be sure to change the bookmark. David and I will do one final review on Monday morning before the launch to try and catch any problems we may have overlooked. I am determined that 4.0 will be free of the problems that plagued my 3.0 version. There will be no links to blank pages right from the beginning. Two years ago I thought, "I'll just add the content later." but "later" never happened. We're also streamlining 4.0 from a maintenance standpoint. That is, I will have fewer pages to check when updates are needed and therefore will not frustrate you with out-of-date pages. The new format for the Home Page is much like the format for this page which has proven to be both popular and easy to maintain. The Polish version of 4.0 will launch on March 2, the day after our Pulaski Day celebrations. After discussions with David yesterday I am now highly confident that this target date will be met and that the Polish version will be much less frustrating to use. Again, my learning experience with 3.0 has given me much greater insight to approaching a dual language website. (Curiously, I checked a number of other ethnic-American websites and found that most do not have multi-lingual versions.)
Our plans for the Pisanki (dyed Easter eggs) workshop on March 20 are now finalized. The flyer and reservation form should be available soon. There will be a limit on the number of spaces available for the workshop.
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January 18, 2010
We had few visitors last week but we had a bit of a rebound over the weekend. We intend to officially launch the English version of our re-designed website, PMA4.0 on February 1, 2010. We will try to launch the Polish version on March 2, 2010, the day after Pulaski Day. If you wish to view the beta version of PMA4.0 and make comments please click on the following link http://www.polishmuseumofamerica.org/beta/default.htm We are still working on the graphics and the final version of the header graphics will not be ready on February 1. David Majkowski has come up with the idea of showing five different views of the Great Hall, one each showing the exhibit space at each of the four walls and one showing the space filled with people on Pulaski Day. These five photos would appear in sequence as the Home Page loads and the final photo to show will be the Pulaski Day photo that will remain at the top as long as the page is viewed. I have seen this technique used on other websites and does add a little more visual interest. It is rather hard to find a meaningful graphic for a museum website. Some don't bother to try. While many people have fast internet connections, others still use dial-up modems. We have maintained the philosophy here that our main pages should not take more than 30 seconds to load at dial-up speed. That "rule" limits the decorative aspects we can apply; Our main objective is in providing information.
With David's help I am preparing to offer some of our books for sale. These were published by the Museum some years ago and have been for sale before at our annual book sale but never offered beyond that. I checked a few websites and discovered that these books do not show up on anyone's list so I guess we'll be an exclusive source for a while at least. Look for the announcement on the Home Page in a few days. You may be wondering if these will be sold through our Gift Shop and the answer is "No." The Museum/ Library/ Archives and the Gift Shop are actually two different entities with separate tax filings, reporting and management. The Museum is official a 501c3 corporation, not-for-profit while the Gift Shop is a for-profit organization. Whatever the Museum pays for, say publication of a book, can be sold by the Museum. Whatever the Gift Shop purchases, say a published book, the Gift Shop must charge sales tax and report the profits. Every year at the Summer Ball the Gift Shop donates most of its profits to the Museum but must and does retain a certain amount to maintain operations, that is, to buy things to sell. The page we will be setting up will be to sell items that the Museum has obtained independent from the Gift Shop.
David and I are also working on an electronic version of our quarterly newsletter. We hope to have the first trial version (Winter edition) available in March on the website After that, it will be available to members only. We are doing this in an effort to reduce our costs. It takes approximately $1.00 per issue to print and mail a newsletter; $4.00 per member per year. If we can get a significant number of members to receive the newsletter electronically instead of by mailbox, we can save a significant amount of money. If you are a member and want to receive the newsletter electronically you will need to send me your email address. Note: We do not give out email addresses to anyone! We realize that people are very sensitive letting out their email addresses. The list that will be generated will be maintained in a high security area for use only to email the newsletters and will not be used for any other purpose or shared with any other organization.
The renovated Paderewski Room continues to receive rave reviews and we are very happy about that. More work needs to be done on signage and touchscreen content but that is coming along. The biggest problem we now find is that people are not allowing sufficient time for their visits and sometimes have to leave for other appointments without seeing the Paderewski Room.
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January 11, 2010
Last week was difficult with all the snow. Road conditions on Thursday discouraged me from attempting to make it to the Museum. We are closed on Thursdays anyway. Conditions did not improve much on Friday so I stayed home again. Others must have felt the same because we had no visitors on Friday and few over the weekend. Conditions are forecast to moderate this week and we're hoping for a rebound in the number of visitors. Tomorrow we will host an event for Comcast where they will present three community service awards and announce a new service package targeted at the Polish-American community in Chicago. The Modjeska costumes have been removed from exhibit and are now in storage.
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January 4, 2010
Happy New Year!
2009 certainly did not end well at the Museum. The evening before Christmas Eve all the computers and servers in the building crashed. The Museum's website did not come back online until December 26. I was not able to get back onto the system until this morning. A decision was made on December 28 to close the Museum on January 2 and 3 because the number of visitors was expected to be very small. The cost of Staff, Security and utilities was just too large to justify for so few people. Because of the computer outage, I was not able to update our Closures page on the website. I apologize if anyone was inconvenienced. On December 28 I also discovered that mold had returned to the three areas that were repaired earlier this year. Click here to view that blog. This is a significant problem. Just the previous week we had finally begun to put back the art that had been hanging in these areas before the problem began.
The old fourth floor Gallery has been used as a temporary storage area for over two years, made necessary by other project work. We are now preparing to return this area to public exhibition. This will start with the removal of a false ceiling that was unwisely installed in the area thirty years ago. The area above that false ceiling must be inspected and any damage from the water leaks of last year repaired.
We have now initiated our plan to modify the Modjeska exhibit and change it over to "Royal Warsaw." The Modjeska costumes can no longer be on display until they receive proper conservation. They are quite literally falling apart. They will be put in conservation boxes until funds can be raised for the necessary work. The other Modjeska items have been moved to a display case and the wall adjacent to the old display area. That area will be revised to display the newly restored Royal Sleigh and to display more information about the city of Warsaw. The new exhibit will open on February 26, 2010 with a special event.
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