Finalist A – Ashley
Did you know that there are museums that actually chare you to enter? Museums that charge you to experience history, science and culture. I did not know this for many years, as I assumed growing up that all museums were as giving as the Smithsonian. I've spent incalculable hours walking the grounds of the museums, free to come and go as I please, as often as I want, whether for one hour or for ten.

It's where I learned that you can send a diamond in the mail. It’s where I watched an elephant use its ball to float in a pool. It’s where I discovered that there was an actual "star-spangled banner". It's where I discovered my favorite artist. I have gone to the Smithsonian with my family, with vacationing friends and with beaus, yet my favorite way remains to go by myself. I wander a room, feeling like the only person in the world. For that time, I might as well be, as everything except the exhibit in front of me fades away. And still, after years of visiting, there are corners that I haven’t yet explored. Every time I go I am blessed to discover something new. And the Smithsonian gives this to me; this is its gift, as it tells me that it is my right and my privilege to have this experience. It invites me to come, to experience, at my leisure and my convenience. The Smithsonian has completely ruined me for all other museums.

Finalist B – Priscilla
Growing up there wasn't a lot of extra money about – being the daughter of a bus driver and one of six kids. We couldn't go on dream vacations. But my parents made sure we had plenty of fun and wonderful experiences. What a major blessing the Smithsonian was. We must have spent hours playing on the big dinosaurs on the mall. And looking up at the big wooly mammoth. I can still remember looking up...up...up... He was taller than anything I had ever seen. And the great blue whale – it was scary how big he was. Before I was even 10 I had 'met' animals and cultures from all over the world. My world expanded beyond the squirrels and birds that lived near us. Beyond those people who lived and thought like us. I saw technology's great progressive path. Wonders of nature. Miracles of science. Art that left impressions in my mind that stay with me still.

No, my parents couldn't take us to all the wonderful places in the world. They did the next best thing – no, let me rephrase that – they did the better thing. They opened the whole world to us. They took us to where all the world's wonderful places, people, cultures, and knowledge gathered – the Smithsonian museums.

Finalist C – Brenda
My Smithsonian story is really part of the story of one of the greatest passions of my life: musical instruments. When I was ten, my class took a field trip to the National Museum of American History, and we saw the musical instrument exhibit. There I fell in love with the "Servais" Stradivari cello. I told my classmates that one day I would play that cello, and that "it will be mine." Of course they laughed, and the "Servais" will never be mine, but in a sense, this statement predicted the course of my life.

I went on to specialize in the history of the cello, completing an undergraduate research project on cellos (including studying the "Servais" and playing it!), followed by a cello performance master's degree, and finally a doctorate on cello history at the University of Oxford. Now I curate a musical instrument museum at Duke University – the Duke University Musical Instrument Collections (DUMIC). Now I am the keeper of many instruments, including an early American cello.

That school trip nearly 30 years ago shaped the whole course of my life. The “Servais” sparked my life’s passion for musical instrument history, in particular that of the cello, and led to my career as a curator of instruments. In that sense, by devoting my life to the work of keeping these instruments safe for the next generation while making them accessible to inspire the present, I have made at least the idea of the “Servais” – mine.

Finalist D – Peyton
A short time after I returned from Vietnam in 1968 as a young soldier, two friends (also soldiers, one also a recent returnee) & I visited the Natural History Museum. I had just told them the story of being on guard on the perimeter late one night and being spooked by an "anteater with big scales," when we rounded a corner and I went, "There it is!" I now could call the "anteater with big scales" by its proper name, pangolin (Manis javanica). I later had the fun of sharing the story with my children as we approached the point where they could see "my pangolin." I later found a pangolin in the Special Forces Museum at Ft. Bragg, NC, mislabeled as an anteater. At my prompting, they corrected the sign. The Natural History Museum is still a great favorite of mine and I enjoy taking my grandson to it and sharing the wonder of the variety of animals in nature with him.

Finalist E – Karen
My first visit to the Smithsonian was an eye opener everywhere I turned, but the most powerful element for me was the sculpture garden outside the Hirshorn. After having spent a day looking at glories of our culture and of the world, to the point that my eyes definitely had a severe case of 'museumitis', my friend insisted that we wander into the sculpture garden. The joy of being in a cool shaded spot on a hot summer day, was quickly eclipsed by the magnificent collection of sculptures that actually cured my 'museumitis'. They gave me a sense of calm and pleasure, and made me forget that I was in the very midst of a bustling tourist mecca, mere feet away, and transported me to different times and places, as I absorbed each piece's meaning. It was as if they were talking to me and saying 'calm down.'

I will never forget those moments that recharged me for the rest of my busy day. Interestingly, I do not recall too many of the sculptures quite specifically, but rather the collective impact they had on my mood and feeling, and I somehow think that is exactly what art is supposed to be. It also taught me that you need to be ready to look everywhere for beauty, because it will reward you.