Independent Museum Professionals PAG Breakfast Meeting
Strengthening Old Connections and Forging New Links
Our discussion will cover three related topics: (1) How can we spread the word about our professional offerings beyond the museum community? (2) A review of the benefits NEMA currently offers IMPs (3) How can IMPs help create links between the museum world and the larger creative economy? Bring your ideas and be prepared to make plans for follow-up work on these topics, including plans for sponsoring a session at next year’s conference.
Co-chairs: Carrie Brown, Independent Curator, NH; Ron Kley, Partner, Museum Research Associates, ME; and Jane Radcliffe, Partner, Museum Research Associates, ME
Pre-registration with breakfast is $7. All may attend for free without breakfast.
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Morning Off-Site Sessions
“Playing the IPM Game”
Historic New England Collections and Conservation Center, Haverhill, MA
This is an advanced session that will delve into the specifics and intricacies of the components that make up an effective Integrated Pest Management institutional program. These include control of regional, target pests; response and actions when dealing with a pest infestation; available treatment options for infested objects; legal, environmental, and action issues and the responsibility for public trust; and the conservation and restoration issues concerning exhibited and currently on-view objects. Highlights include seeing HNE’s carbon dioxide treatment chamber, the conservation lab, and collection storage areas. Speakers will include John Childs, Head Conservator of Historic New England, and Pat Kelley, BCE and General Manager for Insects Limited, Inc.
Chair: Michael Schuetz, Collections Technician, Historic New England, MA
Pre-registration is required. Registration is limited. Fee of $13 includes transportation.
Tackle Restoration or Put in a Parking Lot?
The Nashua Historical Society Florence Speare Museum, Abbot-Spalding House Museum and the District #1 Schoolhouse
If you own a historic structure with restoration needs or are considering purchasing one, this session is for you! Following a successful fundraising campaign, in 1978, the Nashua Historical Society purchased the Abbot-Spalding House Museum. In 1993, a preservation/restoration long range plan was authored to accommodate and utilize current preservation standards. Ongoing, the preservation/restoration process has created higher than ever visitation numbers, scholarly interest, and it has re-energized our members.
In 1976, the Nashua chapter of the Benevolent Association of the Daughters of the King embarked on the restoration of Nashua's District #1 Schoolhouse. Continuing to support the current preservation/restoration needs, this schoolhouse has become the site for a successful education program which brings the one-room schoolhouse experience to thousands of students annually. Although different paths were followed by these organizations, participants will learn when and why preservation/restoration is the correct choice. Questions explored will focus upon the benefits and challenges: How long is the process? How to locate and hire master crafters? Fundraising, and what is a realistic budget?
Chair: Beth McCarthy, Curator, Nashua Historical Society
Pre-registration is required. Registration is limited. Fee of $10 includes transportation.
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Double Sessions
Finding Your Path
The rise to a position of leadership within the museum community is often a difficult journey. For mid-level museum professionals, the path can seem long and fraught with dead ends. How can aspiring museum professionals, early in their careers, forge a path toward a leadership position? How can museum leaders, directors and department heads train and mentor young professionals to attain leadership positions? As the current generation of museum leaders near retirement, who will succeed them? Panelists will discuss their own career paths and offer concrete suggestions of how staff and management can work together to ensure the successful transition of our cultural heritage from the current generation to the next.
Chair: Kathy Burton Jones, Assistant Dean, Office of IT and Media Services, Divinity School, Harvard University, MA
Youth Curators: A Team Approach to Creating Exhibitions
To cultivate the elusive teen audience, museums can connect with a school’s service learning initiative and capture the fresh perspective of young consultants. Learn the realities and rewards of a successful school partnership and experience the steps of a team approach to creating an interpretive exhibit with the help of youth curators. The community service model is flexible, and an off-site youth curator project can address a small museum’s challenge to maintain public programming off-season.
Chair: Marilyn McArthur, Community Partnership Coordinator, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, MA
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Collaborations: Improving Performance in the Nonprofit Sector
Collaborations allow museums to pool limited resources but require a commitment to maintaining the identity of each partner and an honest assessment of institutional interests, capacities, and indirect costs. This panel will explore the principles and pitfalls of collaboration as it considers three different types of collaborations (marketing, preservation, and walking tours) as well as the findings of a business planning project that evaluated the pros and cons of historic sites' affiliating through joint ventures and partnerships.
Chair: Elizabeth Spoden, Education and Public Programs Assistant, Newport Restoration Foundation, RI
Cutting to the Chase
Archaeology has long been an important focus at Strawbery Banke Museum, where artifacts complement extant buildings and the print culture of inventories and diaries, guiding us as we interpret and furnish our structures. Last year volunteers and students excavated the Chase House grounds (ca.1762), where no former excavation had been conducted. The discoveries will have long-term impact on public education and interpretation, especially as the privy site allows us to link the past with current issues such as recycling, waste management and green technologies.
Chair: Kimberly Alexander, Ph.D., Chief Curator, Strawbery Banke Museum, NH
From Liquor Liability to Unrelated Business Income Tax: Legal Concerns in the Use of Museum Facilities
This session will address two of the top legal issues facing museums today. First, the legal complexities and implications of serving liquor in museums. We will discuss liability risks and ways of reducing such risks through caterer arrangements, facility rentals, insurance, and other sound practices. Secondly, the session will answer this question: Are museum revenues from programs and special events taxable as unrelated business income? We will examine types of museum business activities and sales that are taxable; major exceptions for food service facility use; and IRS filing requirements.
Chair: Jeffrey M. Hurwit, Attorney, Hurwit & Associates, MA
IMLS Update: Funding, Research and Trends
Join IMLS Program Officers as they share information about funding opportunities for museums: grants which strengthen the ability of museums to serve the public more effectively, grants for conservation of collections, grants to provide professional development opportunities to staff, and programs for a variety of other museum activities. Information on the grant programs, how to write a competitive grant, and a road map to IMLS resources will be presented.
Chair: Mary Estelle Kennelly, Associate Deputy Director, Institute of Museum and Library Services, DC
Into the Mainstream: Interpreting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History
This session explores challenges facing museums in integrating Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender history. We begin with an overview of how institutions across the nation are interpreting (or not) GBLT history. Next we look at how two historic houses are dealing with these challenges. Speakers will discuss the role of research and what constitutes “proof.” They will also discuss how their research was applied to changes in interpretation, guide training, and marketing as well as the visitor’s response.
Chair: Kenneth C. Turino, Manager of Community Engagement and Exhibitions, Historic New England, MA
Volunteer Docents vs. Paid Interpretive Staff: Pros, Cons, Issues and Solutions
This session will investigate different models of using paid staff or volunteer docents as interpreters. We will explore the pros and cons of each in terms of recruitment, retention, training, accountability, and human resources issues. How do budget cuts and changing volunteer demographics influence the staffing decision? Each panelist will present her own experience in navigating this issue and will share examples of working with all paid staff, all volunteer docents, or a combination.
Chair: Tara Young, Museum Education Consultant/Program & Education Specialist, Museum of Russian Icons, MA
10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break in Exhibit hall
Hosted by Cherry Valley Group
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions
The Basics of Effective Grant Writing
This session will provide grant seekers with potential sources—where to look and how to find the right grant for your organization. Attendees will gain an understanding of a good proposal development process, beginning with how to set targets and define outcomes, step by step elements and information to include in a proposal, and how best to approach a foundation. The session will end with a discussion forum designed to share tips and ideas on successful grant strategies.
Chair: Jennifer Dubé-Works, Development Director, Museum L-A, ME
Beyond the Cocktail: Understanding and Engaging Young Professionals
While museums successfully attract adults ages 40+, young adults in their 20s and 30s have been a more difficult audience to attract and maintain. Drawing on the success of Gardner After Hours, a programmatic initiative to engage young professionals, this session addresses motivations, behaviors and preferences of this demographic while highlighting the public value of informal learning environments. Attendees will also be challenged to consider how these findings affect their own practice and research.
Chair: Jennifer DePrizio, Director of Visitor Learning, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, MA
Designing Your Insurance Program: An Insurance Handbook
This session is intended for art handlers, registrars, risk managers, or directors, and trustees of universities and museums of all sizes and disciplines who wish to review their current insurance plans or create a new one. Attendees will each be provided with an “Insurance Handbook” through which the presenter will help participants complete this guide for their individual institutions. A museum registrar will also discuss how this guide is used in the institution.
Chair: Mary Pontillo, Assistant Vice President, Fine Art Practice, DeWitt Stern Group, Inc., NY
Interpretive Writing
This session is an interactive exhibition of the tenets of interpretive writing as they apply to all museum situations. You will be shown examples of clear, dynamic, and concise texts that relate to visitors, examples that reveal meanings of the resource and provoke readers to care. You will be challenged to write about a museum artifact and thereby exhibit your ability to deliver a powerful interpretive message using concise energetic language.
Chair: Alan Leftridge, Writing Consultant, MT
Make-overs: Extreme and Otherwise
This session will focus on some of the nuts and bolts of managing a museum renovation. The panel members, who have been through renovations in different capacities, will present a variety of “tips” on caring for collections during renovations, keeping track of collections, arranging for off-site storage, reading architectural documents and managing a project to control costs and preserve your sanity.
Chair: David Dempsey, Associate Director for Museum Services, Smith College Museum of Art, MA
We Were Here: Making New Hampshire’s Black History Visible
This panel, designed to introduce participants to New Hampshire’s more “colorful” heritage, will profile two successful campaigns that have made New Hampshire’s Black Heritage visible and will demonstrate how this celebration of black history is revitalizing communities. Panelists JerriAnne Boggis, Valerie Cunningham and Barbara White will present current research that is resurrecting the history of a Black presence in New Hampshire that stretches back 350 years.
Chair: JerriAnne Boggis, Project Director, The Harriet Wilson Project, NH
12:45 p.m. – 2:20 p.m.
Lunchtime Professional Affinity Group Sessions
Collect your lunch and attend any of these Professional Affinity Group programs.
Children's Museum PAG
Promoting Play and the Outdoors
Come together and share your best practices and new ideas for exhibits and programs that encourage play and promote outdoor exploration. Cathy Saunders will talk about Providence Children's Museum's initiative to get the "play message" out through a new exhibit, film screenings and a listserve. And Amy Spencer will discuss lessons learned from The Discovery Museums' new outdoor exhibit Bessie's Cove. How is your museum (children's, science, history, or art) advocating play and the outdoors? Come share, come learn.
Co-chairs: Cathy Saunders, Director of Education, Providence Children’s Museum, RI; Amy Spencer, Education Director, The Discovery Museums, MA
Curators PAG
Local Collection, Far-reaching Connection
A local collection can often provide valuable insight to a larger subject, and contribute to a topic that extends far beyond the reach of any single museum or collection. Investigating a collection and finding those unique connections can be rewarding work for a curator. Join us for lunch and a presentation by Wesley Balla, Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord, NH. Mr. Balla will discuss the process involved in creating and curating the new exhibit “Abraham Lincoln and New Hampshire,” which connects the NHHS collection to the national celebration of the Bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth through artifacts and stories of presidential candidate Lincoln’s trip to New Hampshire in 1860.
Co-chairs: Andrew Grilz, Curator, Salem, MA; Sheri Leahan, Curator, Skowhegan, ME; Kate McBrien, Curator of Historic Collections, Maine State Museum
Education PAG
Art Afterschool: Piloting Success
The Currier Museum of Art recently finished piloting Art Afterschool, a five-month program at afterschool sites throughout the Manchester, NH area. Programs included tours of the museum, outreach visits, art-making exercises and journal writing. Designed to build upon previous research in the field of afterschool programming, a significant evaluation component incorporated feedback from museum and afterschool staff, students, and docents. Learn more about Art Afterschool and lessons learned through the experience with Leah Fox, the Currier’s director of public programs.
Co-chairs: Dawn Salerno, Director of Education, Mystic Arts Center, CT; Jennifer White-Dobbs, Director of Education, Connecticut River Museum, CT
Exhibitions PAG
Project Sharing
Everyone is invited to spend 5 to 7 minutes showing images of recent exhibition work. Share your recent successes and dilemmas. Please contact Serena Furman before November 4th to pre-register your talk (978-897-0043, sfatASpace@aol.com). Images will need to be submitted in advance as either jpegs or PowerPoint.
Co-chairs: Serena Furman, Exhibit Design and Development, ASpace, MA; Emily Robertson, Manager, Exhibits, Museum of Science, MA
Historic Site Management PAG
Sharing Historic Site Challenges and Solutions
Tired of searching for solutions to a problematic issue? Wish you could just sit down and ask what your colleagues would do? You can! Bring a current issue you’re dealing with and leave with a solution! Join the Historic Site Management PAG in a round-robin of decision-making. You’ll have the opportunity to ask for ideas and answers from your colleagues and in turn, you’ll respond to them.
Co-chairs: Kathryn Balistrieri, Director, Museum of the Elizabeth Islands Cuttyhunk Historical Society, MA; Pilar E. Garro, Site Manager, Beauport, Sleeper-McCann House, Historic New England, MA
HR & Volunteer Management PAG
Guard Your Exits: How to Retain Top Talent in Turbulent Times
If you are not worried about employee retention during the recession, you’d better be. A recent survey released in February 2009 by Salary.com reported that 65% of employees admitted to passively or actively looking for a new job already. Join us for lunch and a presentation by Roberta Chinsky Matuson, President of Human Resource Solutions. Learn how to identify and keep your “keepers,” strategies to engage and retain top performers across the generations, and why what you do today matters more than what you do tomorrow. This presentation should not be missed by Directors!
Chair: Laura Howick, Director of Education, Fitchburg Art Museum, MA
Membership, Development, Public Relations & Marketing PAG
Innovative Fundraising Ideas
Share your ideas at this special two-part luncheon. First, learn about some of the new initiatives being launched and join the discussion about how the PAG can work to better serve your needs. Then, seasoned fundraiser Darcy H. Lee, Principal & CEO of Alden Charles Associates, will present a wealth of innovative fundraising ideas that are easy to implement on a small budget. This session will get your creative juices flowing and you’ll go away with a renewed passion to think outside of the box and within your budget. We’ll address collaborations, events, online fundraising and more.
Co-chairs: Sue Schopp, Independent Copywriter & Marketing Consultant for Museums, MA; Leigh Smead, Assistant Director, Slater Memorial Museum, CT
Museum Directors Lunch
The Directors’ Discussion
Back by popular demand! This is an opportunity for CEO/Directors to voice concerns and challenges and to share thoughts and solutions. Although this will be an open forum, we will start the conversation with governance issues. Whether you are a seasoned or a first-time Director, this luncheon will be for CEOs of any size museum. Participation will be limited to CEO/Directors.
Chair: Wendy Lull, President, Seacoast Science Center, NH
Registrars PAG
Year in Review: Registrars in Action
Some things will never change… Registrars and Collections Managers will always have an accession or de-accession project at hand, there will always be new entries to be made in the collection’s database, and we are always seeking to create new or improve the storage of our collections. At that same time, new projects pop up and keep us on our toes. With a running “to-do” list we just don’t have time to engage with our colleagues in the area. So please join us to discuss current or recently completed projects, complications, unexpected surprises and of course, adapting to the cut backs, lay-offs, and reduced hours. Let’s pool our resources, learn from others, and meet our neighbors.
Co-chairs: Mary Herbert-Busick, Associate Registrar, Wadsworth Atheneum, CT; Meredith Vasta, Registrar/Collections Manager, Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, CT
Box lunches ordered in advance (see registration form) will be available in the hotel Exhibit Hall. Choose vegetarian, tuna or turkey. Box lunches will not be available for purchase on-site.
1:45 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
Afternoon Off-Site Session
McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, Concord
Designing New Educational Experiences
In March of 2009 the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium became the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center and marked the opening of our new air & space museum. As part of the transition into our new science center—four times the size of our previous space—we designed four new educational “experiences” in which visiting groups can participate.
This interactive session will discuss how we did it, who was involved, and the relationships fostered to carry out the ideas. In addition, many hands-on demonstrations will be included.
Chair: Mal Cameron, Education Coordinator, McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center
Pre-registration required. Registration is limited. Fee of $13 includes transportation.
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Closing Reception and Raffle Prizes
Don't miss this special opportunity to explore the services and products in the Exhibit Hall.
Will you win one of the wonderful Raffle Prizes generously donated by our exhibitors? Perhaps you'll win a registration to next year's conference!
3:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Access for Everyone: Using Universal Design to Create a Better Visitor Experience
Want to improve your museum for visitors with disabilities? Universal Design (UD) is a set of design principles you can use to reach not only your visitors with disabilities, but all of your visitors. Move beyond basic accessibility and towards multi-sensory exhibits and programs. Learn the difference between accessibility and UD. Transform your museum into a place for everyone! This session continues the conversation held at the Spring Exhibitions PAG workshop.
Chair: Emily Robertson, Project Manager, Exhibits, Museum of Science, MA
Forging New Models for Reaching School Audiences
Museums are being forced to modify or rethink traditional programming for school audiences in response to increasing pressure to meet state and national learning standards, raise standardized test scores, and cope with shrinking school and museum budgets. Panelists will introduce the new models they have pioneered to reach school audiences in a variety of settings: at the museum, in the classroom, and online.
Chair: Hannah E. Weisman, Academic Programs Coordinator, Shelburne Museum, VT
"Miles to go before we sleep": Using Survey Results to Improve the Visitor Experience
What happens when your evaluation process comes back with unexpected results? It can be distressing to learn that your audience perceives your institution differently than you do. How do you use the data to improve the visitor experience? Learn from museums that have utilized negative evaluation results to revitalize their offerings and retrain their staff. The panel will discuss how survey results provide insight into what people want and expect from their museum visit and will offer some specific “how-to’s” for improving programs and customer service. The information applies to museums of all types and budget sizes.
Co-chairs: Ellie Donovan, Acting Executive Director, Plimoth Plantation, MA; Lisa Marcinkowski, Director of Education, Mystic Seaport, CT
Museum Mapping Projects: Charting a New Course
New technology is expanding the capability of maps to organize content for museum audiences. This panel session showcases innovative online mapping projects from around the region and beyond that institutions are creating to help their audiences see museum content in new ways. It will be useful for museum educators, curators, and IT professionals—anyone who wants to situate their educational content within time and space to help better educate the public. Participants will walk away with inspiring ideas, an overview of software, and tips for getting started.
Chair: Rainey Tisdale, Director of the Old State House Museum, The Bostonian Society, MA
The Museum’s Role in a Community Crisis: Worcester’s Beetle Battle
Because of the invasive Asian Longhorned beetle, Worcester, MA is cutting thousands of trees from its urban forest (under the direction of the USDA) in an attempt to save the native forests of the northeast. Are your forests at risk? How is the Worcester EcoTarium dealing with this controversial issue within its home community? Meet the stakeholders and play a simulation game in this session to understand the many issues involved in this environmental crisis.
Chair: Maureen McConnell, Team Leader, Programs, EcoTarium, MA
Promises of Leadership: New Directors Conundrums
This session will introduce real situations which occur when a newly appointed director takes the reigns – there will be both anticipated and surprising challenges while at the same time opportunities abound. The process is always engaging and sometimes heartbreaking or hilarious. Panelists will address the approach they have taken to develop a strategy for success in their first year of employment. The information shared will inform both new and experienced directors.
Chair: Mary Case, Co-Founder, Qm2, Quality Management to a Higher Power, MD
Restrictions on the Use of the Proceeds of Deaccessioning: Is the Ethical Rule Ethical?
This session will revisit the ethical rule that limits the use of the proceeds from deaccessioning. Does it really protect collections? What if the survival of the museum is at stake? How does it comport with the shared values of the museum community? If some exceptions were allowed, what should they be to address the competing values of the sanctity of objects and the survival of the museum and its broader mission?
Chair: Lawrence J. Yerdon, President, Strawbery Banke Museum, NH
Evening Events
4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
Newcomers
Reception
Meet NEMA staff, board members, and your local hosts over wine in a casual reception designed just for emerging museum professionals and people new to the region. This is your chance to become acquainted with NEMA.
Make sure to sign-up on the registration form. Registration is limited.
We’ll be
expecting you!
Hosted by Tufts University Museum Studies Program
A Night at the Museum
Lowell National Historical Park
6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Just 12 miles down river from Nashua, experience an evening of great food, drink and camaraderie at the Boott Cotton Museum. Although we don’t expect our exhibits to come to life at night fall, you will encounter the historic sights and sounds of this unique National Park.
Experience the shutter and noise of the working power looms in the 1920s Weave Room. Tour the museum’s interactive exhibits and video programs about the Industrial Revolution, labor and the rise, fall and rebirth of this multicultural city.
Then, join museum staff to learn about pieces from the Park’s collection that will emerge from Collections Storage—just for your Night at the Museum.
Pre-registration required. Fee of $47.00 includes bus transportation and dinner.
A Cosmopolitan Adventure
in the Heart of New Hampshire
The Amoskeag Millyard in Manchester
6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
The best of science, technology, history and art—as you choose in and about Mill No. 3, Manchester’s “museum mill” in the heart of the historic Amoskeag Millyard. Your evening begins with hors d’oeuvres and beverages at FIRST Place, an innovative science, math and technology discovery program featuring robotics demonstrations. There will be ample time later on to enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres and experience the SEE Science Center with its interactive exhibits and the marvelous and unique LEGO® Millyard Project depicting industrial Manchester circa 1900.
Your evening concludes with dessert and coffee as you explore 11,000 years of local history at the Millyard Museum, featuring a special exhibit on Abraham Lincoln.
Or, during the early evening, experience cosmopolitan Manchester by hopping on the free Open Doors trolley that will take you to five art galleries featuring works by local and regional artists.
Pre-registration required. Fee of $40.00 includes bus transportation and refreshments.