Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation on the National Mall

The
CENTER FOR
ENTREPRENEURSHIP &
INNOVATION
on the National Mall

a concept for the future use of the Arts & Industries building

“The worth and importance of the Institution is
not to be estimated by what it accumulates
within the walls of its building, but by what it
sends forth to the world.”
—Joseph Henry
First Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

“The great issues of the day typically are
interdisciplinary. How are we going to grow an
economy in this world in a way that is sustainable so
future generations can live on this planet in some
semblance of what we have today? How do you
educate young people so they’ll carry out these
activities? How can young people compete in a
world where they’re going to be taking jobs ten years
from now that don’t exist today, using technology
that doesn’t exist today?”
—G. Wayne Clough
Twelfth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

The
CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION


The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation MISSION
on the National Mall will
• celebrate and support entrepreneurship and
inventiveness by all Americans, and
• communicate and advance America’s vital role
in the 21st century as a source of solutions to
global challenges.
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By nurturing a culture of innovation both at the Smithsonian and
throughout the United States, the Center will encourage the
APPROACH

development and deployment of entrepreneurial solutions to
global challenges and reaffirm America’s positive role in the world
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community.

The original purpose of the Arts & Industries building, to showcase
and celebrate American ingenuity, will be adapted fluidly for a new
mission. Exhibits, educational programs, and convenings will
catalyze and convey transformational new ideas creating value for
society.
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The Arts and Industries Building will:
• Provide a new integrative, forward-looking platform for the
unparalleled content in the Smithsonian’s collections;
• Realize potential synergies that exist among the diverse entities
that comprise the Smithsonian Institution; and
• Promote new external partnerships that will extend, on a global
scale, the reach and impact of communities of learning to which
the Smithsonian is a vital contributor.
Designed to be operationally self-sustaining, Center for
Entrepreneurship and Innovation on the National Mall will be a
lasting resource for the nation and the world.

The

Why the Smithsonian?
James Smithson bequeathed his estate “to the United States of America, to
found at Washington, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of
knowledge among men.” Smithson’s gift provided its author with an enduring
legacy extending over nearly two centuries—a testament to the dedication of
generations of trustees to the founder’s vision.
Yet, while the mission of the Smithsonian has remained constant, the nature of
knowledge has not. A century ago, the advancement of knowledge meant heroic
discovery or patient inquiry conducted in isolation; the role of the Smithsonian
was to document and display physical artifacts related to that process. Today,
while individual insight and commitment remain essential, advances in
knowledge increasingly require collaboration, open communication, and the
bridging of disciplines. The complexity and urgency of terrestrial challenges
have compelled an increase in the value placed on knowledge developed in the
search for solutions to global problems.
Museums today provide a bridge from past discoveries to future opportunities.
The transformation in the nature of knowledge that marks our age provides the
Smithsonian with an opportunity to build on its great foundations, expanding
its reach and impact as a global center of education, research, and scholarship.
In so doing, the deeds of the Institution’s founder may prove as great a source
of inspiration and guidance as the words he chose for his bequest. What lessons
can be learned from the example of a person who granted his fortune to a
country in which he had never set foot? What motivated this exceptional man
of science to believe that a viable institution dedicated to the advancement and
diffusion of knowledge could be situated in the capital city of a nascent
republic barely carved out of the wilderness? Smithson’s action speaks of a deep
belief in the possibilities of the future and the unrealized potential of the
frontier, in all its forms.
Among the Smithsonian’s greatest assets is its unique ability to reach, and to
touch, millions of people with inspiring and educational experiences. At their
best, the Smithsonian’s programs open minds and change lives. In that spirit
the Smithsonian can use its great collections and unique location to inspire its
visitors to think deeply about the interaction between our planet and the life
that populates it, about our major challenges, and about the astounding
progress that is attainable through human innovation.


As the home for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation ACTIVITIES
on the National Mall, the Arts and Industries Building will be the
site of three categories of activities:
• Exhibits and Events. Informative and inspiring presentations
collaboratively designed by teams spanning the Smithsonian
Institution and engaging external partners in novel ways, that
will convey to a broad audience both the historical, and cultur-
al, and scientific context for the most pressing challenges facing
society on a global scale, and information on how contempo-
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rary entrepreneurs, inventors, and innovators work with com-
munities and resource providers to address such challenges.
• Education. Active, participatory learning experiences, including
collaborative problem-solving by student teams; professional-
to-professional training across areas of experience and expert-
ise; and sharing of new educational tools and approaches
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among educational institutions.
• Convening. Symposia, workshops, and gatherings inclusive of
the general public that will bring global thought-leaders togeth-
er with entrepreneurs, inventors, and innovators working to
develop and deploy practical solutions to global challenges.
While each of these three categories will have equal weight, we
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envision that between 65-75% of the space within the Arts and
Industries Building would be allocated to activities directed
toward the general public, including the exhibit space described
above, a Smithsonian welcome center, as well as eateries and other
retail space.
The Center will actively partner with organizations—notably
including universities and educational non-profits—that have
successfully created and deployed component programs consistent
with its mission. Employing a modular approach to programming
will substantially enhance operational flexibility and efficiency.
This open-source model will also benefit external partners who
will derive value from association with the Smithsonian and from
access to exceptional location of the Center for Entrepreneurship
and Innovation on the National Mall

The

Why the Arts and Industries Building?
The idea of using public spaces to excite interest in innovation and to
educate the public about possibilities in the future is almost as old as the
American republic. The Constitution gave Congress the power “to
promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited
Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective
Writings and Discoveries,” and a bill establishing a patent office was
introduced in Congress’s inaugural year of 1789 and passed in 1790. But
simply granting patents was not enough; the country wanted to celebrate
the idea of invention. In 1840, Patent Commissioner Henry Ellsworth
wrote a letter to Senator John Ruggles asking that a great hall be built in
Washington for this purpose at the site where Pierre L’Enfant had wanted
to build a pantheon. He argued that “annual fairs, in many places, have
done much good and excited a laudable emulation; but these have been
limited to a short duration, and designed for citizens in their immediate
vicinity. It is now proposed to establish at the seat of Government, a
National Gallery, to remain a perpetual exhibition of the progress and
improvements of the arts in the United States. Here the most beautiful
specimens of the genius and industry of the nation will be found...”
Praised by Walt Whitman as “the noblest of Washington buildings,” with
its design modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, the patent office and
museum was the largest public building in Washington for many years.
The “Centennial Exposition: International Exhibition of Arts,
Manufacturers, and products of the Soil and Mines” in Philadelphia was a
centerpiece of America’s centennial celebration in 1876. A catalogue of
the enormous exhibition which appeared in several buildings built in
Philadelphia to house them, includes: “how weather reports are made,”
“type casting machine-process described,” “how envelopes are made,”
grapple dredging machine, tailoring by steam, a stone crusher for road
metal, diamond stone saw, shingle cutting and sawing machines, brick


making machines, mammoth thirty-inch double belt, type casting and setting
machine, Niagara Pump, veneer chairs, A crystal fountain seventeen feet high,
soda water fountains, Process of Manufacturing Glass, telegraph instrument,
electro-magnetic mallet, burglar alarm, blast furnace charging apparatus,
automatic alarm gauges, and “useful inventions by women” (sic). The goal of
the exhibit was to celebrate American inventiveness, to excite a new
generation of Americans about what would be possible in the future, and to
educate visitors about how the equipment worked.
Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution became the focal point for
public exhibitions of technology after the Civil War (a fire damaged much of
the Patent Office Museum in 1877). The National Museum, now know as the
Arts and Industries (A&I) Building, was the first building on the National
Mall expressly constructed as an exhibit space. It was designed by architect
Adolf Cluss and completed in 1881 to receive the collections of the 1876
Centennial Exposition. The building was also designed to exhibit the results of
research being conducted by Smithsonian scientists working in the Castle
Building next door. But the exhibits were left largely untouched for much of
the next century; over time, the A&I building evolved from a space
celebrating contemporary innovation to one displaying of century-old
artifacts. The exhibits were eventually moved, and the building closed to the
public in 2004.
While the American History Museum hosts exhibits on the information age
and occasionally an event celebrating an invention (for example, the winner
of DARPA’s annual robotic vehicle contest) there has never been a real
replacement for the original idea the A&I building: a place where invention
could be showcased to the public and excitement generated about the linked
processes of entrepreneurship and invention themselves.
The creation of a Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation on the
National Mall would constitute the restoration of a neglected national
mission. If located at the Arts & Industries building, it would also constitute a
return of that national architectural treasure to its original use.

The

EXHIBITS AND Some 20-30 million visitors come to the Smithsonian museums
EVENTS each year in a unique frame of mind. They are people, often
families or organized groups, expecting to learn at the same time
as they are inspired and entertained. The enormous amount
(25,000 square feet) of available exhibition space at the Arts &
Industries Building will be used to offer exhibits and events,
aimed at the general public and at students (levels 6-16), that
celebrate ingenuity, invention, and innovation in the service of
society.
The staff of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
will coordinate the creation of curatorial and event-

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management teams, drawn from all parts of the Smithsonian
and from external partner organizations, that will
collaboratively create four categories of exhibits:
• Feature exhibits and events on any of a wide range of topics
related to global challenges.
A notable example is the Cooper-Hewitt’s acclaimed “Design for
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the Other 90%” exhibit.
• Exhibits related to challenges and solutions on a global scale,
rotating on a regular 3-6 month schedule and linked to con-
venings (see below).
Examples could include “Blowing in the Wind: How Nature
Powers Civilization” on the topic of renewable energy, featuring
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the work of Stan Oshinski; or “Culture and Conservation,” on
how the evolution of human societies alternately reinforces and
competes with the conservation of biological ecosystems, featur-
ing the work of the Amazon Conservation Team.
• Exhibits related to challenges and solutions at the U.S. state or
regional level, similarly rotating on a regular 3-6 month
schedule and linked to convenings (see below).
Examples could include interactive exhibits showing the impact
of ocean elevation on coastal areas; water usage through time
along the Colorado River watershed; or a teaching exhibit on the
H1N1 virus.
• A permanent collection featuring stories of remarkable inno-
vations and describing the entrepreneurial process.
Examples could include an exhibit displaying the garage at 367


Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, California,
where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard
started their company; or another telling
the story of Aravind Eye Hospitals: how
one man’s retirement project became a
global organization that has cured 3 mil-
lion people of blindness.
The Center will jointly sponsor public fora, both at the Arts and
Industries Building and conducted via virtual platforms, that will
engage the public in an active dialogue about the nature of global
challenges and their possible resolution.
Examples of such public fora could include the “Innovation Café,”
Maker on the Mall,” and “Smithsonian Innovation Challenge.”
All exhibits and events will draw upon resources from across the
Smithsonian and will be integrated into
other activities of the Center. As appropriate,
exhibits and events will also explore new
approaches to inclusivity in curatorial design
and will involve entrepreneurs and
innovators as in-person participants.
The Center will be an obvious setting for
ceremonies of national significance,
including the President’s awarding of the
National Medal of Science, the National
Medal of Technology and Innovation, and
the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality
Awards.
All of these activities will allow visitors to
the Smithsonian to make new and
unexpected connections between resources available at
Smithsonian—on the Mall and elsewhere—and questions of
immediate relevance to them and their future.

The

EDUCATION With increasing awareness among wealthier nations of the real
challenges facing others around the world, there is an urgent need
to help educators prepare their students differently. Bernard
Amadei’s Engineers Without Borders, the Legatum Center and Amy
Smith’s “D-Lab” at MIT, TechBridgeWorld at Carnegie Mellon, and
dozens of similar efforts at universities across the U.S. are growing
rapidly. The further development of such initiatives is supported by
evidence that the potential for technology entrepreneurs to create
both profits and high-quality jobs when they collaborate with
customers in under-served communities to develop needed new
products and services.
Education programs offered at Center for Entrepreneurship and
Innovation on the National Mall will draw upon the assets of the
entire Smithsonian complex, as well as those of partner
organizations and experts around the globe. Educational
programming within the building itself will focus on those activities
that benefit most from face-to-face interaction. A suite of on-site
educational programs will enable active participation among
learners at all levels, from children through professional experts.
Universities will support the on-site offerings with faculty research,
teaching, and credentialing for participants. Coordinating the
themes around which exhibits and events in the building are
planned will make this experiential learning especially powerful:
• Programs for children and young adults: active, team-based expe-
riences focused on challenges present in their own communities
as well as others around the world.
• Programs for researchers and other professionals: opportunities
to educate each other about advances in their fields and engage in
collaborative problem-solving focused on specific global chal-
lenges.
• Programs for educators and educational institutions: sharing and
disseminating new educational tools and approaches for learning
by inventing and innovating.
Inviting talented educators from around the world to experiment
on-site with their most creative new teaching styles will be critical to
the greater entrepreneurial mission of the envisioned Center for
Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Simulation and gaming
technology would support this active collaboration because of its


proven ability to reach students with a range of learning styles. As its online
presence evolves, the resources of the Smithsonian Information Commons and
its global connectivity can augment and extend this educational programming
to reach those who can’t be present in person.
Learners and educators can use the Center’s interactive resources, described
further below, to simply to explore new ideas, or could link multiple resources
together to teach more complex concepts in science and technology.
Instructors could use these modules in a variety of different ways to enrich or
replace conventional approaches to instruction, or as engaging virtual
manipulatives to get students interested in subject areas that might otherwise

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seem abstract and dry. For example, a pairing of traditional and new media
instructional materials could teach individuals the process of innovation,
providing a practical background on what it takes to move an idea to the
marketplace, the kinds of financing available from public and private sources,
and the way new businesses are formed. Multimedia interviews with inventors,
animations of their inventions, and tools for asking questions might be
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answered by the inventor himself for modern day inventions, or by a museum
curator on the inventor. The initial target audiences for these materials are
Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation visitors, then science teachers for
grades 9-12, then eventually reaching a broader audience of college and
continuing education institutions and informal learning for people who want
to develop skills in newly emerging fields.
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The

LINKING Facing the challenges of the twenty-first century with new
"INCREASE" models of creative innovation is a tremendous task—one that
AND must not only embrace the vibrant on-site community engaged
"DIFFUSION" OF at the Arts and Industries Building, but also reach across the
KNOWLEDGE Smithsonian’s diverse museums and far beyond into the broader
society. The new media strategy of the Commons links the
building to the public around the world through virtual
integration and outreach initiatives. “Virtual integration” refers
to combining the inputs of stakeholders from within the
Smithsonian’s diverse museums, university, and entrepreneurial

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communities, and from the general public. These initiatives
create focused conversations that incorporate multidisciplinary
perspectives by grounding them in the mission of the Center for
Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Virtual outreach is
integration’s often-overlooked complement, and refers to
initiatives that take the Smithsonian’s assets out from under the
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institutional umbrella to wherever people already congregate
digitally. New tools, processes, and ideas for and from the
innovation community will be developed, piloted, and refined in
the Center. Whenever feasible, these innovations will be added to
the Center’s foundation, creating a virtuous circle of
transformation of, by, and for the Smithsonian and the public it
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serves. By “innovating at the edges”, the Center aims to become a
center of excellence in new media collaboration by leveraging
professional expertise with crowdsourcing and user-generated
content in exciting, innovative, and sometimes unpredictable, yet
cost effective ways.
Specifically, the Center will extend its global convening role
beyond the physical space of the Arts and Industries Building,
thus enabling the public to participate in its events and
opportunities regardless of location or time. The Center will
broadcast on-site events through live streaming video and audio,
archived webcasts and podcasts, and by posting of conference
and seminar materials. But true convening goes well beyond the
broadcast or broadcast-and-reply paradigm. Pre- and post-event
collaboration activities will extend the community of on-site
participants. Virtual conferences and seminars will reverse the
flow of information by convening online and broadcasting to the
physical visitors at the Center. High-profile speakers and high-


relevancy issues will draw a unique audience, offering an unparalleled opportunity
for the Smithsonian to showcase the connections between basic research,
innovation, and society.
Online access to Smithsonian research and artifacts will enrich these conversations
in unexplored ways, fueling innovation and entrepreneurship. The Smithsonian’s
aggressive digitization effort will provide a rich reservoir of over 137 million
artifacts and related research, available online to inspire and educate students,
teachers, scientists, and entrepreneurs. This level of public accessibility for
Smithsonian resources will bring a revolution itself; when combined with the goals
and questions stimulated by the Center, the potential for creative purposing and

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repurposing of Smithsonian resources explodes.
For example: virtual curation and exhibiting projects, inspired and shaped by
multi-disciplinary teams of museum curators in response to Center programs or to
their own initiatives, can reduce the time and costs of developing new exhibits both
online and on-site. Using the Center’s virtual exhibiting tools, participants will be
able to produce complex creative responses and offer possible solutions to the
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Center’s guiding inquiry questions by selecting items from Center programming,
arranging them in a page layout and adding narrative text, then sharing their
creations with the world. The work of engaged amateurs, professionals, and experts
from diverse fields will encourage the flow of innovative ideas on issues as diverse as
energy or biodiversity or public health, and thus add to the foundation of
community-building, collaboration, and innovation. “Best of ” selections, as
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determined by museum curators and other experts, would be prominently
highlighted and possibly converted into real life exhibits.
Complementing initiatives to engage participants with the Smithsonian’s work are
initiatives aimed at engaging the Smithsonian in the creative work of others. For
example, website visitors will be able to perform sophisticated searches and post the
results as a “web widget” (interactive, distributed micro-applications) embedded on
other websites and applications.
Major exhibits will incorporate interactive kiosks where visitors can explore new
aspects of the topics and artifacts on display. For example, games and simulations
will enable them to virtually operate an atomic-force microscope, control a pilotless
drone aircraft, design a new vaccine, design and test an energy-efficient building, or
create a special effect for a movie. Navigation kiosks will suggest related exhibits in
other Smithsonian museums and nearby points of interest in the D.C. area, thereby
deepening the engagement of visitors and extending their interests to other
locations and related topics.

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CONVENING Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation on the National Mall
will be home to a state-of-the-art space for discussions, decision-
making, and dissemination of ideas regarding entrepreneurial solu-
tions to global challenges. Meetings will be thematically linked to
exhibitions and events at the Center.
The Center will work in partnership with the Aspen Network of
Development Entrepreneurs, the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, the Kauffman Foundation, and The
Lemelson Foundation to bring cohorts of 20-30 leading entrepre-
neurs, innovators, scientists, and policy-makers to Washington, D.C.

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for three weeks of intensive interaction focused on particular global
challenges. This convening of the “ Global Innovation Fellows” will
take place six times per year—each time on a different topics and
with different participants. These cohorts will, over time, form an
international network of leading innovators who will act as a
resource to the Center in its effort to support other entrepreneurs
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and technologists.
Inspiration and education can be drivers for economic progress only
when the local economic ecosystems are hospitable to individual
innovation and entrepreneurship. Within many communities in the
U.S. as well as overseas, economic stagnation has persisted for
decades, often while a series of investment approaches have been
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tried and abandoned. This creates an imperative for new capacity-
building efforts led by people well informed about these past failures
as well as how successful experiments might be adapted to each set
of local circumstances. Grassroots community leaders need to be
able to call upon networks of outside supporters who can bring deep
knowledge of the successes and failures of economic development
efforts around the globe.

www.innovationonthemall.org

twitter: @innovateonmall

Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation on the National Mall

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