Museum

The "Feejee Mermaid," P.T. Barnum's infamous hoax, has dropped in from Harvard for a long sabbatical. An ancient sarcophagus, once home to the Western Hemisphere's first resident mummy, has returned in a large wooden shipping crate marked "fragile," 166 years after its last appearance in Baltimore.The fiberglass, 18-foot-long mastodon skeleton arrived along with its own assembly team last summer from the Illinois State Museum.In word and in eccentric breadth, "Mermaids, Mummies Mastodons: The Evolution of the American Museum," is finally complete.

For the Contemporary Museum , which last week abruptly announced it was suspending operations, the challenge going forward may be implicit in its name: How does it stay contemporary? The museum began exhibiting cutting-edge art in Baltimore 23 years ago, helping to create an appetite for non-traditional works. Now it hopes to re-invent itself in an increasingly crowded cultural landscape. "Things have changed from those days," said Rebecca Hoffberger, whose opening in 1995 of the American Visionary Arts Museum on Key Highway is one such change.

Mission: To preserve and demonstrate the rural arts and crafts of the 1880-1920 period through educational programs and tours of the museum site, a once-working Harford County farm near the banks of the Susquehanna River in Havre de Grace. The turn-of-the-century farmhouse includes a formal sitting room and a kitchen with a wood-burning stove and icebox. The nearby shops and barn feature craft demonstrations and numerous displays, including tools, milking machines, spinning wheels and looms, as well as carriages, sleighs and other horse-drawn vehicles.

Richard Paul Sullivan , a former chairman and CEO of Easco Corp. who had been active in Republican state politics and civic affairs, died Sunday of cancer at his Owings Mills home. The longtime Guilford resident was 79. Mr. Sullivan, whose father was president of the American Girl Shoe Co. and whose mother was a homemaker, was born and raised in Newton, Mass. After graduating in 1950 from St. Sebastian's School in Milton, Mass., he earned a bachelor's degree in 1954 in marine engineering from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

It may never be known for sure whether the Colony 7 Motel off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway was ever used by spies trying to eavesdrop on the nearby National Security Agency. But the super-secret code-breaking agency apparently thought it was possible. A couple of years ago, it used some taxpayers' money to buy the motel and erase a possible security risk.The motel complex, located on Route 32 in Anne Arundel County, has been reopened as the National Cryptological Museum. While NSA itself remains shrouded in mystery, the museum chronicles the historical development of codes from the Middle Ages to a recent Cray high-speed computer that contained no fewer than 45 miles of wires.

With the publicity surrounding the opening of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, parents and teachers across America -- and perhaps around the world -- will be wondering whether children and the museum are an appropriate mix. This is an important question.When I served as educational consultant to the museum, the first question that the museum director asked me was, "At what age would the museum be appropriate for young people?" Before I could respond, I had to first understand the museum's message -- the proposed content and format of its exhibitions, plans for school programs and programs for the general public, its publications and its public face.

Mission: To enhance and preserve a permanent collection of more than 85,000 objects, ranging from ancient mosaics to contemporary art. At its heart is the Cone Collection of modern art. Also part of the collection are the famous Lucas prints and drawings, Dalsheimer photography collection, the Levi sculptures and the Scott collection of American period furniture.Latest accomplishments: "A Grand Design: The Art of th Victoria and Albert Museum," a highly acclaimed exhibition of world art from the London museum that attracted 155,000 visitors, making it the BMA's third-highest-attended exhibition, from October 1997 through January 1998.

The city's oldest museum devoted to African-American arts and culture stands staid, stoic and mostly ignored in two adjoining East Baltimore rowhouses.Each day, thousands of pedestrians and motorists come within a brush stroke of the museum on Carswell Street near Clifton Park, where more than 600 works by regional black artists are displayed. But few enter the museum, which is called "Baltimore's Only Black American Museum."Berkeley Thompson, a writer who founded the museum in 1968 and is its curator, said that although the museum struggles to stay open, it remains an important institution for the city's black community.

When the new Orioles stadium at Camden Yards is inaugurated next year, Babe Ruth's birthplace will be only a fly-ball away. A museum consisting of four row houses has operated at 212-218 Emory Street since 1974, commemorating the great slugger's roots in Baltimore and his career with the New York Yankees.As exhibits have increased and word has gotten around about the museum, the number of visitors has zoomed. Close to 35,000 fans paid homage to the Babe last year. That number is likely to triple at the very least when the Orioles move to the new downtown ballpark.

After reviewing a new Farm Museum vendor fee, which is criticized asexcessive by several craft and food merchants, the county commissioners said last week they don't plan on reducing the levy.The commissioners said the fee -- 15 percent of a vendor's gross sales at a museum event -- should stay the same because the museum needs the money, and because the complaints emanated from a small portion of the vendors who work the museum."I do sympathize with the vendors, but looking at it from a county (financial)

Ashley Boycher has always considered public museums "magic places. " "Growing up with modest means in rural Louisiana sure will make a kid curious about the world," said Boycher. That curiosity never left her, and she now has been at the Walters for 18 months, designing interiors for all temporary exhibitions and touching up permanent displays. Next month, you can see her handiwork in the exhibition "Public Property. " "We will showcase our visitors' voices and choices more than ever before," she said.

The trustees of the Contemporary Museum announced Monday that they have voted unanimously to suspend operations May 31. That will be the last day for the executive director and four part-time staff members. Plans to secure a new home for the museum have been scrapped. "We are solvent," said board member Barbara Portnoy Levine, who announced the board's decision Monday. "We are not in debt. The board just decided that the model was not serving us properly. We were not getting the commitment in terms of fundraising and participation we feel we should be getting.

On Sunday, in conjunction with its ongoing exhbition Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture, and American Jewish Identity , the Jewish Museum will present " Knish History 101: Life and Times of the Knish" a lecture by Laura Siilver titled  Silver will tell everyone all about the knish, that lovable, humble stuffed hunk of dough. Guests are invited to show up with their knish memories, recipes and recollections and listen to knish tales from the Midwest, the Lower East SIde and the Polish town of Knyszyn, where Silver traces her roots.

The Brass Elephant could soon be reopening. Well, not the Brass Elephant exactly. A restaurant named The Museum is set to open within weeks at 924 N. Charles St., the elegant Mount Vernon townhouse that the Brass Elephant called home for almost 30 years before closing in August 2009. The multistory restaurant property remains in the hands of Charles Street Restaurant Inc., which has entered into an operating agreement with Walter Webb, according to longtime owner Stuart Teper.

Aberdeen Proving Ground will celebrate Armed Forces Week with a variety of events including a golf tournament, veterans luncheon, and a museum open house. The celebration will be held Monday through Saturday, according to the APG Public Affairs Office, but most events will be concentrated on Wednesday when school bands will play, veterans will be honored and the APG will have an open house showing the public what goes on at the military facility. The public is invited. For more information about the events, call 410-278-4500.

Baltimore will show off its biggest trucks Saturday and allow young residents to meet police officers, firefighters and others who drive the big rigs through city streets. The Biggest Big Truck Show brings about 20 vehicles to the Baltimore Museum of Industry. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1415 Key Highway. Visitors can see, touch, even take a seat in many among the fleet of vehicles, including Big Bertha, Baltimore's largest tow truck, fire engine, motorcycles and a fireboat that will shoot up massive plumes of water.

The dormant liquor license has been reactivated at 924 North Charles Street, the former home of the Brass Elephant. The approval came at Thursday's meeting of the Baltimore City Liquor License Board. Within a few weeks, the property will reopen as The Museum, according to the board's president Stephan Fogelman. Faced with opposition from neighborhood groups, attempts to reactivate the license stalled in February, when Charles Street Restaurant, Inc., the holding company that operated the Brass Elephant, asked the liquor board for a postponement.  On the eve of the February hearing, however, the association sent its members an email listing concerns about the plans for the property, particularly the inclusion of live entertainment.

The Walters Art Museum is donating more than 19,000 images of artworks from its collection to the organization running Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that is created and edited by users. The images will be available for Wikipedia articles in any language, and can be downloaded free of charge. A spokeswoman for the museum said Tuesday that the Walters is just one of several libraries, archives and museums participating in the collaborative effort to provide public access to their collections.