Thursday Evening Events
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Reception
A great way to end the afternoon! Join us for wine and delicious hors d'oeuvres in the action-packed Exhibit Hall, place to be for interacting with the latest innovative products and services. Get your raffle cards signed for
great prizes (drawing is Friday afternoon), chat with friends, and relax a bit before your evening starts.
Happy hour indeed!
Progressive Dinner at Amherst College Museums
5:45 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Join the Amherst College museums for an eclectic progressive dinner reception. The first stop is the Mead Art Museum for drinks, hors d'ouevres, and docent-led introductions to artworks from the 16,000-object collection best known for its American paintings and old masters.
Next, the Amherst College Museum of Natural History offers a buffet-style dinner and self-guided explorations of the 1,700-specimen collection including fossil skeletons of a mammoth and mastodon, minerals and meteorites, plus the world's largest collection of dinosaur tracks.
The feast concludes with warm drinks and poetic desserts two blocks away at the Emily Dickinson Museum, homes of the poet and her family where she composed nearly all of her renowned verse.
Registration fee of $50 includes transportation, hors d'oeuvres, dinner buffet, dessert, and complimentary wine. Pre-registration is required.
Progressive Dinner at Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Join The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum for a progressive dining experience of good food, good wine, good friends, and great art. Arriving by bus at the Carle at 6:30 p.m. for hors d'oeuvres, drinks, jazz piano favorites, and a chance to peruse the collection, you will enjoy a light buffet dinner within sight of the Holyoke Range. At 8:15 p.m., board the bus to the nearby Mount Holyoke College Art Museum for dessert, coffee, and an opportunity to view a unique special
exhibition, Wine and Spirit: Rituals, Remedies, and Revelry, and the permanent collection. Buses will depart the museum at 9:30 p.m. for return to your hotel by 10 p.m. Both institutions also offer ample parking for those travelling by car.
Registration fee of $50 includes transportation, hors d'oeuvres, dinner buffet, dessert, and 2 complimentary drinks. Pre-registration is required.
Hoops and Hooplah at the Basketball Hall of Fame
6:15 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Combine your love of sports with your love of museums with a visit to the Naismith Memorial Basketball of Fame. Home to nearly three hundred inductees and more than 40,000 square feet of basketball history, the Basketball Hall of Fame is located on the picturesque banks of the Connecticut River and is a fitting shrine to the game
Dr. Naismith invented more than a century ago. The landmark structure is one of the world's most distinctive monuments, punctuating the Springfield skyline and stirring the spirits of basketball fans everywhere. Hundreds of interactive exhibits share the spotlight with skills challenges and shooting contests. And of course there is enough basketball history to impress the world's most avid sports fans! As part of your visit, you will be treated to a delicious meal in the elegant
Newbury Room of j.Quincy's restaurant within the Hall of Fame.
Registration fee of $50 includes transportation, dinner, dessert, and 2 complimentary drinks.
Pre-registration is required.
Evening Events
Tuesday, November 2
7:30 p.m.– 9:00 p.m.
Early Arrival Networking and Salon Discussion
Arriving early? Come hang out with us in a relaxed setting to discuss today’s hot issues over cool drinks. Eric D’Alessandro from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and guests will lead the conversation with interesting trends and topics uncovered during cultural site visits over the past year. So let your hair down, meet some new friends, and get your conference started with a bang. Aren’t you glad you’re an early bird? Cash Bar.
Wednesday Evening Events
5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Newcomers Reception
New to the museum field? First NEMA conference? Just moved to New England? Get the lay of the land at this laid-back gathering. Sip some wine with NEMA staff and board members. Swap business cards with emerging museum professionals and other newcomers like yourself. Get an inside look at the New England museum community and how you can plug in.
Registration is limited, so make sure you sign up on the conference registration form.
Hosted by
Tufts University Museum Studies Program
And to Think That You Saw It at the Springfield Museums
6:15 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
“Oh the things you can find if you don’t stay behind.” Theodore Geisel — aka Dr. Seuss –– could have been describing the Progressive Dinner at the Springfield Museums when he wrote these words. Join us for a celebratory evening and find many wonderful things at our unique complex of art, history, and science museums located along with the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden on a central green in downtown Springfield. You’ll be greeted by the Seuss Singers, a group of students from the Springfield schools who will welcome you to Dr. Seuss’s hometown with a lively musical tribute to the city’s beloved native son.
Enjoy drinks and hors d'oeuvres while viewing Springfield-built Rolls Royce automobiles, an extensive collection of Indian Motorcycles, and other industrial innovations in the recently-opened Wood Museum of Springfield History. Explore the Planetarium and then dine among the historic dioramas, live animal displays and dinosaur exhibits in the Science Museum. After dinner, you’ll savor delicious desserts in the Victorian atmosphere of the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum. Built in 1895, the museum was designed by Renwick, Aspinwall and Renwick to resemble an Italian palazzo; it features Tiffany stained glass windows, Chinese cloisonné, 19th century American paintings, a gallery of plaster casts, and Japanese arms and armor. Throughout the evening you’ll be treated to a delectable array of Seussian fare, including “Pink Ink for the Yink” cocktails, “Cat-in-the-Hat” snacks, “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” appetizers, and Silly Seussian Sweets. Museum staff and trustees will be on hand to provide you with information about the museums’ collections, exhibitions, and programs.
Museum Director and Trustee Dinner
After enjoying the cocktail reception in the Wood Museum of Springfield History, directors and trustees will walk across the museum grounds to the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts for dinner. A beautiful example of Art Deco architecture, the museum opened in 1934, and reflects the elegance and restraint of the period. G uests will dine in the museum’s beautifully installed galleries of European and American art, which include works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent, and John Singleton Copley. Following dinner, directors and trustees will rejoin the NEMA party with the assortment of confections and desserts served in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum.
Hosted by
And to Think That You Saw It at the Springfield Museums
Welcome Dinner at Springfield Museums, $50
Museum Director and Trustee Dinner at Springfield Museums, $55
Registration fee includes transportation, hors d’oeuvres, complimentary drink courtesy of Big Y, dinner buffet, and dessert.
Pre-registration is required.
7:30 p.m.– 9:00 p.m.
Early Arrival Networking and Salon Discussion
Arriving early? Come hang out with us in a relaxed setting to discuss today’s hot issues over cool drinks. Eric D’Alessandro from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and guests will lead the conversation with interesting trends and topics uncovered during cultural site visits over the past year. So let your hair down, meet some new friends, and get your conference started with a bang. Aren’t you glad you’re an early bird? Cash Bar.
Wednesday Evening Events
5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Newcomers Reception
New to the museum field? First NEMA conference? Just moved to New England? Get the lay of the land at this laid-back gathering. Sip some wine with NEMA staff and board members. Swap business cards with emerging museum professionals and other newcomers like yourself. Get an inside look at the New England museum community and how you can plug in.
Registration is limited, so make sure you sign up on the conference registration form.
Hosted by
Tufts University Museum Studies Program
And to Think That You Saw It at the Springfield Museums
6:15 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
“Oh the things you can find if you don’t stay behind.” Theodore Geisel — aka Dr. Seuss –– could have been describing the Progressive Dinner at the Springfield Museums when he wrote these words. Join us for a celebratory evening and find many wonderful things at our unique complex of art, history, and science museums located along with the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden on a central green in downtown Springfield. You’ll be greeted by the Seuss Singers, a group of students from the Springfield schools who will welcome you to Dr. Seuss’s hometown with a lively musical tribute to the city’s beloved native son.
Enjoy drinks and hors d'oeuvres while viewing Springfield-built Rolls Royce automobiles, an extensive collection of Indian Motorcycles, and other industrial innovations in the recently-opened Wood Museum of Springfield History. Explore the Planetarium and then dine among the historic dioramas, live animal displays and dinosaur exhibits in the Science Museum. After dinner, you’ll savor delicious desserts in the Victorian atmosphere of the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum. Built in 1895, the museum was designed by Renwick, Aspinwall and Renwick to resemble an Italian palazzo; it features Tiffany stained glass windows, Chinese cloisonné, 19th century American paintings, a gallery of plaster casts, and Japanese arms and armor. Throughout the evening you’ll be treated to a delectable array of Seussian fare, including “Pink Ink for the Yink” cocktails, “Cat-in-the-Hat” snacks, “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” appetizers, and Silly Seussian Sweets. Museum staff and trustees will be on hand to provide you with information about the museums’ collections, exhibitions, and programs.
Museum Director and Trustee Dinner
After enjoying the cocktail reception in the Wood Museum of Springfield History, directors and trustees will walk across the museum grounds to the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts for dinner. A beautiful example of Art Deco architecture, the museum opened in 1934, and reflects the elegance and restraint of the period. G uests will dine in the museum’s beautifully installed galleries of European and American art, which include works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent, and John Singleton Copley. Following dinner, directors and trustees will rejoin the NEMA party with the assortment of confections and desserts served in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum.
Hosted by
And to Think That You Saw It at the Springfield Museums
Welcome Dinner at Springfield Museums, $50
Museum Director and Trustee Dinner at Springfield Museums, $55
Registration fee includes transportation, hors d’oeuvres, complimentary drink courtesy of Big Y, dinner buffet, and dessert.
Pre-registration is required.