FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
March 19, 2010
IMLS Press Contacts
202-653-4632
Jeannine Mjoseth, jmjoseth@imls.gov
Mamie Bittner, mbittner@imls.gov
Semmel Will Serve as IMLS Acting Director upon Radice’s Departure
Washington, DC—Marsha Semmel, deputy director for museums and director for strategic partnerships, will serve as acting director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Semmel assumed the leadership role on March 14, following the departure of IMLS Director Anne-Imelda M. Radice, Ph.D., a distinguished art and architecture historian, museum professional, and administrator, whose term ended on March 13. Semmel will lead the agency until a new director is nominated and confirmed for a four-year term. The IMLS directorship alternates between individuals from the museum and library communities.
Since 2003, Semmel has been a member of the agency’s leadership team. As deputy director for museums, she manages IMLS’s portfolio of grant-making programs that support capacity-building and leadership projects for all types of museums, including art, history, and science museums, historic houses, children’s museums, aquaria, arboreta, botanical gardens, and zoos. As director for strategic partnerships, Semmel maintains oversight of partnership activities, initiates and implements collaborations with other federal agencies and organizations, and manages special projects and initiatives. She led the efforts that resulted in the Partnership for a Nation of Learners with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, facilitated the Charting the Landscape convening that resulted in a report on how museums and libraries bolster K-12 education and lifelong learning in communities and, most recently, directed the agency’s work on Museums, Libraries and 21st Century Skills, a strategic capacity-building initiative to help libraries and museums expand public learning opportunities.
From 1998 to 2002, Semmel was president and CEO of the Women of the West Museum in Denver. Prior to that, she was president and CEO of Conner Prairie, a living history museum in Indianapolis. From 1984 to 1996, Semmel worked at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), first as a program officer, then assistant director for Humanities Projects in Museums and Historical Organizations, and finally as director, Division of Public Programs. She began her museum career as curator and educator at the Taft Museum in Cincinnati, was deputy director of the B’nai B’rith National Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and program coordinator for the Resident Associates Program at the Smithsonian Institution. In 1979, Semmel was a Fellow in the museums program of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
Semmel has a BA in English Literature and the History of Art from the University of Michigan (Phi Beta Kappa) and an MA in Art History from the University of Cincinnati. A past board member of the American Association of Museums and the Colorado Digitization Project, she is currently on the board of Art Table, a national organization for professional women in leadership positions in the visual arts.
Dr. Anne-Imelda Radice Bids IMLS Farewell
On March 13, 2010, Dr. Anne-Imelda Radice completed her four-year term as director of IMLS. The President of the United States nominated Radice to be director in December 2005. The U.S. Senate subsequently confirmed her nomination in March 2006. During her tenure, IMLS awarded to America’s museums and libraries grants totaling almost $1 billion. The agency’s annual budget also increased from $247,141,000 to $265,869,000.
Among her many accomplishments, Radice created and provided leadership for Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action, a national conservation initiative designed to raise public awareness, inspire action, and encourage private sector support. The initiative included a National Conservation Summit, four forums on conservation that took place across the country, the distribution of three thousand Conservation Bookshelves, and collaborative planning grants that will advance every state’s collective conservation goals. The initiative also included the development of a resource-laden Web site and a conservation video that collecting institutions can use to raise awareness and funds.
Radice ensured that Connecting to Collections had an international component. IMLS partnered with the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) in Austria on Connecting to the World’s Collections: Making the Case for the Conservation and Preservation of Our Cultural Heritage. The October 2009 seminar was attended by 60 cultural leaders, policymakers, and conservation professionals from 32 countries and addressed central issues in the care and preservation of the world’s cultural heritage. The seminar’s fellows unanimously endorsed a Salzburg Declaration on the Conservation and Preservation of Cultural Heritage (PDF, 14KB), which affirmed the importance and value of cultural heritage to cultures and societies globally.
Radice’s enduring commitment to conservation and preservation was recognized in April 2008, when she was honored with the Forbes Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the Field of Conservation from the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) and received a resolution of appreciation from the American Association of Museums (AAM). In December 2008, President George W. Bush awarded Radice the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second highest honor that can be conferred on a civilian, in recognition of her exemplary service to the nation.
Under Radice's direction, the agency established the Office of Policy, Planning, Research, and Communications to analyze trends, promote best practices, and evaluate programs. The agency published a number of ground breaking studies, including:
- Exhibiting Public Value: Government Funding for Museums in the United States (PDF, 2.4MB)
The first major review of public finance for the museum sector, this report explores public support from federal, state, and local government sources, focusing particular attention on levels of financial support and types of delivery mechanisms.
- A Catalyst for Change: LSTA Grants to States Program Activities and the Transformation of Library Services to the Public (PDF, 1.9MB)
This report underscores the value of the LSTA Grants to States program in helping libraries embrace technology, establish new service models, and engage the public.
- Research Brief No. 1: Service Trends in U.S. Public Libraries, 1997–2007 (PDF, 305KB)
This Research Brief identifies important changes that public libraries have made to address patron needs in an increasingly Internet-centric environment.
- Research Brief No. 2: State Library Agency Service Trends: 1999–2008 (PDF, 1.2MB)
This research brief provides an overview of the revenues, expenditures, and services provided by state library agencies during fiscal year 2008.
- Data Note No. 1: Libraries Use Broadband Internet Service to Serve High Need Communities (PDF, 109KB)
This Data Note presents recent statistics on broadband Internet access in U.S. public libraries and discusses how libraries use technology and provide content to meet the needs of patrons in the digital age.
In honor of the agency's tenth anniversary, Former First Lady Laura Bush awarded the inaugural National Medals for Museum and Library Service to ten outstanding institutions at a White House ceremony in January 2007. Radice elevated this honor from an award to a medal and increased the number of recipients from six to ten.
Radice also forged partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts in The Big Read, an initiative designed to restore reading to the center of American culture, and the National Endowment for the Humanities in Picturing America, an initiative that brings copies of masterpieces of American art into libraries and classrooms nationwide to help teach American history, social studies, writing, literature, geography, civics, and other subjects. Working with the President's Committee for the Arts and the Humanities, IMLS participated in Save America’s Treasures and the Coming Up Taller Awards, which, respectively, support the preservation of nationally significant intellectual and cultural artifacts and historic sites and recognize outstanding community arts and humanities programs.
Prior to joining IMLS, Radice was the acting assistant chairman for programs at NEH; the chief of staff to the secretary of the United States Department of Education; and acting chairman of the NEA. She also served as chief of the Creative Arts Division of the United States Information Agency; the first director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts; and curator of the Office of the Architect of the U.S. Capitol. Radice has a Ph.D. in Art and Architectural History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, an MBA from American University, and a BA in Art History from Wheaton College, in Norton, Massachusetts. Radice also has an MA from the Villa Schifanoia in Florence, Italy. |
