Smithsonian Affiliation

Smithsonian Affiliate

Framingham State University is proud to be one of just six Smithsonian Affiliates in Massachusetts and the only one located at a higher education institution. Smithsonian Affiliations is a national outreach program that develops long-term, high quality partnerships with museums and educational organizations in order to share collections, exhibitions, learning opportunities, and research expertise.

Visitors to affiliated organizations experience the Smithsonian in their neighborhood where they may view major works of art, historic objects of flight, wonders of nature, icons of American history, and other artifacts, artworks, and scientific specimens from the national collections.

Smithsonian Affiliations also reaches across the country with special educational programs designed for museums, schools, and centers serving pre-school, K-12 students, and adult learners. The Smithsonian Affiliations network provides new and unforeseen avenues for regional, cultural, topical and audience-oriented types of support and collaboration.

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Speaker

FSU is one of a few colleges and universities nation-wide to earn this distinction. As affiliated members, the University benefits from access to exhibits, artifacts, and electronic learning tools. The Smithsonian also provides professional development, fellowships, and internships. This affiliation creates opportunities for the faculty to utilize resources of the Smithsonian in their classes and to promote innovative education for our students.

Examples of this partnership at work include Framingham State’s Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center’s regular collaboration with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, including recently hosting the From Earth to the Universe exhibition from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The McAuliffe Center also received a collection of deep space images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

To learn more about Smithsonian Affiliates, visit www.affiliations.si.edu