David Skorton receives the key to the Smithsonian Castle

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/david-skorton-receives-the-key-to-the-smithsonian-castle/2015/10/19/25106bce-7688-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html

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Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. presented a 19th century key to David Skorton on Monday in a ceremony in the historic Arts and Industries Building that formally installed Skorton as the 13th secretary of the Smithsonian.

The key, a large brass item nestled in a velvet box, may have opened the Smithsonian Castle’s front doors a century ago, but on Monday it was presented to Skorton as a symbol of knowledge and guardianship.

“You have our full confidence that you will preserve and advance this national treasure,” Roberts told Skorton, who has been leading the museum and research complex since July 1.

The ceremony featured many symbols intended to invoke the Smithsonian’s history and educational mission. Staff members wore academic robes denoting their fields of study and degrees, representing the diversity of expertise at the Smithsonian’s 19 museums and multiple research centers. They marched into the hall behind the Smithsonian mace, a gold-and-silver representation of authority that was commissioned by the institute in 1965.

Wynton Marsalis played a Duke Ellington song on a Louis Armstrong trumpet from the Smithsonian’s collection. Accompanied by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, the performance was a nod to Skorton’s love of jazz and stated mission of boosting the Smithsonian’s focus on arts and humanities.

Skorton asked the 800 mostly Smithsonian workers in the audience to be bold. “I believe in you, and so does everyone in this historic building,” he said.

The 65-year-old former president of Cornell University said the Smithsonian must constantly evolve if it expects to meet the national and global challenges at hand. “We must and we will educate, enlighten and ignite the spark of lifetime learning,” he said. “The Smithsonian must find that delicate balance between reinventing ourselves . . . and upholding our enduring values and our mission.”

Quoting poet Seamus Heaney, Skorton said that together they “can create moments when ‘hope and history rhyme.’ ”

The event was the first for the historic building since 2004, when it closed for repairs and renovation. The Smithsonian has spent $52 million since then, and although the work continues, it will host special events and programs in the space this spring.