A grass mini-skirt is not what you would necessarily expect to see displayed at so august an occasion as being named an affiliate museum of the Smithsonian Institution. After all, the press conference and ceremony today at Norwich University will feature dignitaries including college president Richard W. Schneider, Sullivan Museum director Sarah Henrich, Smithsonian Affiliations director Harold Closter and Sen. Patrick Leahy.

That grass skirt is more relevant to the proceedings than you would guess, but more on that in a moment.

The event is to announce that the Sullivan Museum and History Center has been accepted as the first Smithsonian Affiliate in the state of Vermont. Cool, right? But what does it mean?

For starters, "It offers us the opportunity to work with the 19 museums in the Smithsonian," says Henrich of the mammoth Washington, D.C., institution. "When we're planning our exhibits, we can borrow objects from those museums, and we can bring in subject specialists for lectures and programming … they have a fabulous speakers' series."

In addition, the Sullivan can enjoy a mutually advantageous relationship with other affiliate museums across the country, as can individual members of the affiliates and the Smithsonian itself. Think of it like an interlibrary-loan and cross-membership program rolled into one. Henrich says affiliates number "about 194 out of 6,000 museums nationwide." That's a lot of potential partners.