FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 12, 2012
For Media Inquiries, contact:
Esmeralda Montenegro Owen
Curator of Marketing & Community Engagement
(831) 775-4722
esmeralda@steinbeck.org
The National Steinbeck Center Joins Eight Smithsonian Affiliates in
National Youth Summit—The Dust Bowl
Salinas, CA—On Wednesday, October 17, 2012 the National Steinbeck Center will
join eight Smithsonian Affiliate organizations in hosting the Smithsonian National Youth
Summit and Regional Town Hall bringing together middle and high school students across the
country to explore the story of The Dust Bowl.
We are expecting 200 students and teachers from 7 Monterey County schools, both
public and private. The program will begin promptly at 10 AM.
The National Youth Summit takes place at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of
American History Warner Bros. Theater in Washington, D.C. The Summit examines the
consequences of the Dust Bowl through current issues of drought, agricultural sustainability, and
national and global food security.
The Regional Town Hall will occur immediately after the Summit and includes
representatives from the Monterey Aquarium Research Institute, Driscoll’s and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture to talk about similar environmental and agricultural issues in our own
community. During this time, students will have an opportunity to ask questions of the panelists.
National Youth Summit, Washington, D.C.
The National Youth Summit brings middle and high school students together with
scholars, teachers, policy experts, witnesses to history, and activists in a national conversation
about important events in America’s past that have relevance to the nation’s present and future.
The program is an ongoing collaboration between the Smithsonian National Museum of
American History, the National Endowment for the Humanities, PBS and museums across the
United States in the Smithsonian Affiliations network.
The Summit will include segments from award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken
Burns’s forthcoming film The Dust Bowl and a panel discussion, moderated by Huffington Post
science editor Cara Santa Maria, and featuring: Ken Burns, Dust Bowl survivor Cal Crabill,
United States Department of Agriculture ecologist Debra Peters, 5th generation farmer Roy
Bardole from Rippey, Iowa, and farmer and founder of Anson Mills, Glenn Roberts. Panelists
will take questions from students participating in the Summit, and offer their own perspectives
on what history can teach us about our relationship with the environment. The Smithsonian
Affiliate Youth Town Halls will take place at:
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Durham Museum, Omaha, Neb.
Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Ft. Worth, Texas
Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh, Pa.
History Colorado, Denver, Colo.
Miami Science Museum, Miami, Fla.
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The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, Dubuque, Iowa
Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Okla.
Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, Calif.
South Dakota State Historical Society, S.D.
About the National Steinbeck Center
The National Steinbeck Center is located at One Main Street in Salinas, California, the birthplace
of John Steinbeck. It is a museum and cultural institution with a mission to engage people in the
exploration of culture, issues and the arts relevant to our times, inspired by the words of John
Steinbeck. The Center offers multiple visitor experiences: the John Steinbeck Exhibition Hall
and changing art and cultural exhibits with a variety of education and public programs. For more
information about this and other events, visit our website at www.steinbeck.org.