Conference Theme
The inspiration for this year’s conference theme comes from one of Springfield’s most famous residents: the much-loved Theodor Geisel, known around the world as “Dr. Seuss.” Who can resist the cadence, the wit and the joy of a Seussian rhyme? With every turn of phrase, with every bright character that bounces and crashes and slips across the page, we forget where we are and enter a world that is both new and familiar. In Whoville and other Seussvilles we find the essence of our own humanity.
Of course museums are the same sorts of places! Whether it’s in the middle of an art installation, on the deck of a historic ship, under a canopy of stars and planets, or nose to nose with a rare creature, we escape our ordinary surroundings and come closer than ever to discovering who we really are.
No one needs “proof” of the impact of Dr. Seuss books (or videos!) on our culture. But do you know that the potential of Dr. Seuss’s writing to improve early childhood education was so apparent that Houghton Mifflin conceived The Cat in the Hat as a children’s primer that would use only 225 “new-reader” vocabulary words? Or that the National Education Association’s Read Across America takes place every March 2—Dr. Seuss’s birthday?
Museums across New England deliver learning outcomes and fun family adventures, pump dollars into the economy, and make communities better places to live. Too often, though, these achievements go unnoticed or unsupported. It’s incumbent upon all of us to help find the best ways to promote museums’ value: to our visitors and neighbors, to politicians and teachers and business leaders. This “proof” will take many forms, from benchmarking data to the eyewitness account of a delighted six-year-old.
Come to the NEMA Annual Conference in Springfield, where we will teach the “Who, what…and how” of demonstrating museums’ value. Come to the NEMA Conference. As Dr. Seuss wrote, “Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Of course museums are the same sorts of places! Whether it’s in the middle of an art installation, on the deck of a historic ship, under a canopy of stars and planets, or nose to nose with a rare creature, we escape our ordinary surroundings and come closer than ever to discovering who we really are.
No one needs “proof” of the impact of Dr. Seuss books (or videos!) on our culture. But do you know that the potential of Dr. Seuss’s writing to improve early childhood education was so apparent that Houghton Mifflin conceived The Cat in the Hat as a children’s primer that would use only 225 “new-reader” vocabulary words? Or that the National Education Association’s Read Across America takes place every March 2—Dr. Seuss’s birthday?
Museums across New England deliver learning outcomes and fun family adventures, pump dollars into the economy, and make communities better places to live. Too often, though, these achievements go unnoticed or unsupported. It’s incumbent upon all of us to help find the best ways to promote museums’ value: to our visitors and neighbors, to politicians and teachers and business leaders. This “proof” will take many forms, from benchmarking data to the eyewitness account of a delighted six-year-old.
Come to the NEMA Annual Conference in Springfield, where we will teach the “Who, what…and how” of demonstrating museums’ value. Come to the NEMA Conference. As Dr. Seuss wrote, “Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.