Discovery Science Center Named Smithsonian Affiliate

My Top 3

Following an application process that took nearly a year, the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana has been named a Smithsonian Affiliate, giving it broad access to the collections and resources of one of the world’s largest and most prestigious museum systems.

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. determined that the science center can properly exhibit and protect objects, specimens and artifacts that it borrows from a collection containing more than 136 million pieces. Fewer than 160 museums and educational centers nationally have designated affiliates, or extensions, of the Smithsonian.

“They have an amazing vault; the collection is so diverse,” says Leslie Perovich, director of marketing at the science center, which has enjoyed record attendance over the past year. (Read story.)  “Any time you can give the public more interesting things to see, they’ll turn out.”

Perovich says the center hasn’t decided what objects it will ask to use. But she said the first requests may be tied to “Bats: Masters of the Night,” a traveling exhibit that will be brought to Santa Ana this fall.

The Smithsonian has loaned a broad variety of objects to its affiliates, ranging from Amelia Earhart’s flight suit to the Apollo 13 space capsule to the costume actor Ray Bolger wore when he played the Scarecrow in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz.”

More to help lead nation’s biggest earthquake drill