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Greetings from Yakima Valley Museum This newsletter marks the beginning of what will be a quarterly newsletter especially for our members and patrons We hope it will give you some insights into the museum s work and also encourage you to share your views and opinions with us The Covid 19 Crisis The Yakima Valley Museum is working very hard to preserve staff wages and benefits for as long as possible as well as protect the long term viability of the institution At present all staff are working from home on full pay The move follows the closure of the museum to the public on March 23rd in accordance with the community health order issued by Washington Gov Jay Inslee The museum has submitted applications for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance EIDL and Paycheck Protection Program loan PPP and is awaiting approval of funding from our bank However as of April 16 the system apparently ran out of money so we have no idea if or how that will impact us Each month Yakima Valley Museum incurs 50 000 in payroll and other essential expenses Since the crisis we have not had the benefit of income from admissions rental event business or retail operations and donations are understandably down by 50 If the full amount of the funding we have applied for is received in a timely fashion we will have funds through mid June The board is examining what other options we have to fund the museum for the remainder of the year Whatever is decided the museum s operations will be impacted to a considerable degree for quite a while Your support has never meant more nor could we be more grateful for that support than now THANK YOU Meet Our Staff With each issue we will introduce a member of our exceptional staff Mike Siebol Curator of Collections Mike has been with the museum since 2001 He graduated from Washington State University in Anthropology and History He worked as an archaeologist for a time in Southeastern Oregon Montana Wyoming and in the lithics lab at WSU Mike has been a Director on the Washington Museum Association Board and served on the Yakima Historic Preservation Commission As curator Mike is responsible for documenting recording inventorying and preserving the tens of thousands of objects in our collections In his own words On March 22 when the stay at home order was given I knew of the perfect project to do from home Museums use a publication called Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging It gives museums the proper terms and classifications of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

The William O Douglas Award A major new initiative involved the creation of an award in the name of one of Yakima s most illustrious citizens William O Douglas The award recognizes an individual who in their own way has made extraordinary advances to one or more of the causes that Justice Douglas championed building on his legacy and the values he espoused Sally Jewell the former US Secretary of the Interior from 2013 to 2017 will be honored as the first awardee at a banquet to be held in Yakima on Saturday October 3 2020 corona virus permitting Sally was recognized for using a science based landscapelevel collaborative approach to natural resources management She demonstrated a commitment to connecting people to nature particularly youth with efforts to encourage tens of millions of young people to play learn serve and work on public lands She was a committed advocate for upholding trust and treaty rights of indigenous communities and supporting a brighter future for Native youth And as a businessperson first in banking and later leading outdoor retailer REI Jewell was recognized for bringing diverse coalitions of people together to solve complex challenges in support of a sustainable future for our natural world The selection committee is chaired by Cathy Douglas Stone William O Douglas s widow Others include Washington s Chief Justice Debra L Stephens Judge Margaret McKeown of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Federal District Judge William Alsup who together with Attorney Thomas Klitgaard and Professor Scott Powe comprise three of Justice Douglas many clerks at the Supreme Court Richard Wiehl a former US District Attorney Justice Douglas granddaughter Karen Wells and prominent local businesspeople and lawyers We hope that as the event matures it will become important not just for the museum but for Yakima Staff continued from page 1 William O Douglas Essay Contest objects that might be given to the museum The fourth addition of the Nomenclature book came out a few years ago My volunteer Edith Ryan and I have been using the new book of terms since 2016 The museum started receiving donations and loans in 1950 That means there were 66 years of catalog records to update Using VPN I am able to connect to the museum s server which allows me access to the collections database from home So far I have revised over 9 000 records I am about 33 through with the project of checking and revising the object name and classifications of all the items that have been donated and loaned to the museum I am looking forward to getting back to the museum and performing all my duties with the collections but I m glad that I had the time to update the database As an adjunct to the William O Douglas Award the museum is also sponsoring two essay contests one for high school and the other for college students There is a first prize of 1 000 second prize of 750 and third prize of 500 for each group Students can choose one of three prompts and their essay needs to be between 800 and 1 000 words long Rules and forms can be found on our website at www yvmuseum org william o douglas award essay and entries must be submitted through the same webpage by July 1 2020 If you have a student at high school or college encourage them to enter goodness knows they have time aplenty right now and fewer distractions 2

Exhibit Projects Fortunately a lot of work can continue to be done even while the museum is closed There is a great deal of planning and design preparation that goes into each project before fabrication can begin The museum became a sponsor of Maker Space and that gives staff access to all their sophisticated equipment the museum itself does not possess a workshop anything close to theirs Cabinet of Curiosities As part of the many updates planned for the museum Heath Lambe our Exhibits Curator built a new kiosk for the Cabinet of Curiosities to house the modern electronics needed to play videos instantly on demand This is a significant advance on our old system We replaced the old rear projection TV with a new 4K high definition monitor and provided newly refurbished videos from the museum archives The new kiosk was built out of some remaining black walnut used for the bee exhibit Couture Exhibit Heath has also been busy constructing the rotating platforms that will carry the dress forms for Carolyn Schactler s exhibition using Maker Space s CNC router table a computer controlled cutting machine He reduced the weight of each platform while still keeping strength in the structure A small DC motor controlled by a microcontroller turns the platform bearing the dress form The microprocessor has been custom programmed to turn the motors on and off based on motion in the room by using a passive infrared sensor thus reducing wear and tear on equipment as well as reducing operational costs Pleistocene Exhibit Some of you might have seen the new Pleistocene mural that we commissioned Along with the mural we will have interpretive text panels that will talk about the Ice Age and the animals depicted in it We decided to use rotating blocks to carry the text which gives a degree of interaction with the information The text panels have been designed in Spanish and English and are now ready to be printed The blocks themselves and their stands have already been built They include an ingenious pawl or rachet that allows them to turn in one direction only The museum received permission from CWU to use some of Nick Zentner s Nick on the Rocks videos to help describe the geology of Washington and the Missoula floods in particular We will use the same type of equipment as in the Cabinet of Curiosities that will allow users to select which video they want to watch and change it instantly if they want to switch to a different one Special directional speakers will ensure that noise will not bleed into other areas of the museum 3

Exhibitions On Hold Couture A new exhibition celebrating women s empowerment was to have opened on May 9 but will be rescheduled as soon as it is safe to do so Couture is an exhibition of spectacular fashion designs by Yakima resident Carolyn Schactler Some 20 original creations will be on display eleven of which stand on motorized platforms and rotate slowly allowing the visitor to inspect every aspect and every stitch For 28 years Carolyn was a professor of apparel design at Central Washington University in Ellensburg and exhibited her gowns all over the world winning multiple national and international apparel design awards including a Best in Show award at the 1995 International Textile and Apparel Association competition Over the years she has created clothing and accessories of stunning intricacy inspired by centuries of fashion Divergent Voices Common Ground Literally a day before the museum was ordered to close staff finished hanging the museum s latest art exhibition in the Virginia Hislop Gallery Divergent Voices Common Ground features the work of local artists Carolyn Nelson Laura Wise Deborah Ann and Cheryl Hahn The exhibition was intended to be a part of a year long celebration commemorating women s empowerment and the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing all women in the United States the right to vote The exhibition includes personal commentary relating to geographic economic and cultural influences each artist faced and reflects an on going will to make art while negotiating the obstacles that women artists have often faced to make their art The featured artworks can be viewed on our website at www yvmuseum org divergent voices exhibition Volunteering Thank You At the Yakima Valley Museum our volunteers are vital to our success They catalogue our collections help with special events act as docents assist with building maintenance work in the Archives and the Children s Underground and help with visitor engagement and development just to name a few We appreciate everything they do If you would like to volunteer please contact Jo Anne Carlson at jo anne yvmuseum org or fill out a form on our website www yvmuseum org volunteer 1 We deeply appreciate the financial support of our patrons and members in continuing to support things that matter to our community You can make a difference as never before by continuing to support the museum Some are not able to support the museum as they normally would If your situation allows please consider giving just a bit more Please feel free to contact me at any time peter yvmuseum org or 509 960 9175 I would love to hear your comments and ideas Peter S Arnold President and CEO 4