6:30 am – 7:00 am
NEMA Fitness
Morning Walk
Join NEMA Director Dan Yaeger for an eye-opening, wake-up power walk around Hartford.
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Registration Open
8:00 am – 9:00 am
Welcome Coffee and Baked Goods
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Concurrent Sessions
Are You Visible and Valued Within Your Community?
Too often, communities view museums as nice but not essential to the community's well-being. Are we missing an opportunity by not enlarging on what it means to be a community asset? In this session, you will hear about museums that have reallocated their resources and formed new partnerships that capture the attention of civic and business leaders. We will reference Elaine Gurian's article, "Museum as Soup Kitchen" in Curator: The Museum Journal, Jan 2010, to stimulate discussion.
Chair: Susan Robertson, Executive Director, Gore Place, MA
Awards Programs: Why We Need Them
Participating in awards programs can benefit museums in a number of ways, through increased publicity, marketing, and fundraising. In this session, speakers from small and large museums will discuss the value of applying for outside award programs (such as those offered by AAM and NEMA) and will show the value of creating an awards program in your own museum. The session will convey practical information that will be useful to anyone considering either starting a program or applying to one.
Chair: Kenneth C. Turino, Manager of Community Engagement and Exhibitions, Historic New England, MA
Cleaning the Cobwebs Out of the Corners: Creating the Space You Need to Succeed!
Life can get in the way of life sometimes. Your physical environment, health and emotions, financial concerns, and relationships can cause you to lose focus and get off track from achieving your goals. Discover how you can clean out the cobwebs in your life and make space for the important things. Regain your emotional strength and vitality, and make room for your personal goals once again. This class is not a counseling session, but instead a session for personal development and self-discovery. You will come away with a year-long plan for personal success.
Chair: Darcy Lee, Principal & CEO, Alden Charles Associates, MA
Diversifying Your Docents: Creating a Program that Reflects Your Community
As museums seek to diversify their audiences in order to remain relevant in our multicultural society, it becomes increasingly important that a museum's staff reflect the audiences it serves. Nowhere is this more important than among docents and guides, who are often the public face of the museum, particularly for school groups and novice museum-goers. Learn more about the challenges of diversifying a docent program — and how the successes make it a worthy effort.
Chair: Suzi Fonda, Manager of School Group Learning, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Excellence in Every Museum: Applying Standards to Your Museum
Standards and best practices are not just for museums with big budgets! Museum standards can be met by museums of all sizes and disciplines. Attendees will get an overview of national standards and find out how applying standards to your museum's operations can help you showcase your achievements with high levels of service and professionalism. Uncover ways in which you and your museum's staff are already achieving excellence and creating best practices in the field.
Chair: Jill Connors-Joyner, Assistant Director, Museum Assessment Program, American Association of Museums, DC
Is a Smartphone App for You? Examining the Highs and Lows of a Real Life Launch
Explore the successes and challenges of embracing mobile technology. In this session you will hear from several local organizations that have launched smartphone apps. They will share what went into the planning, development, launch, and optimization of their programs. Specific areas to be discussed include: examining the mobile landscape (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Tablet; planning & budgets; content delivery); how having Wi-Fi, cellular networks, or no connectivity affect the user experience; and how to manage updates and optimization.
Chair: Robert Pyles, CEO, TourSphere, MA
Managing Through your Organization's Lifecycle Changes
Nonprofit organizations evolve over time, following predictable stages in lifecycle. Senior leaders from organizations at three different stages (startup, growth, and turnaround) will reflect on their transition to the next stage. How did the organization manage the change? What strategies worked? What mistakes did they make? What did they learn? What was the impact on board, staff, volunteers? What advice would they give other leaders? Get the answers to these questions and ask your own!
Chair: Laura B. Roberts, Principal, Roberts Consulting, MA
School Programs for Smaller Historic Sites: Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should
With budgets shrinking and funding harder to come by, historic sites are taking a critical look at how to allocate their limited resources to best serve their mission. Is school programming a good use of time and money? Part panel discussion, part workshop, this session will help staff at smaller historic sites answer this question by presenting case studies, exploring essential questions to answer before taking on school programming, and framing a process for developing effective programs.
Chair: Elisabeth Nevins, Principal, Seed Education Consulting, MA
Keynote Session
Welcome from Joshua Basseches, President, New England Museum Association; remarks from NEMA Executive
Director Dan Yaeger.
Museums in the Mirror: Reflecting Relevance in a Diverse Society
McEnroe, Brown, Segarra, and Chung. No, it's not a law firm. It's a blue-chip panel scheduled to highlight the keynote presentation at the 93rd Annual NEMA Conference.
• Colin McEnroe, panel moderator, is a columnist, reporter, and host of "The Colin McEnroe Show" on the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network.
• Claudine Brown is Assistant Secretary for Education and Access for the Smithsonian Institution, formerly director of the arts and culture program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation in New York.
• Pedro Segarra is Mayor of Hartford.
• James Chung is president of Reach Advisors, a national strategy and research firm serving museums and other community-driven organizations.
The panel is a "dream team" of experts with diverse backgrounds and experiences that will explore the idea of multiculturalism and access in museums and other cultural facilities, underscoring this year's conference theme. Hosted by
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Opening Lunch
It's all about the networking! Meet up with colleagues, reconnect, and have fun strengthening your ties to this talented, generous, and committed museum community that we know as the NEMA family!
12:30 pm – 3:15 pm
Director and Trustee Luncheon Program
Leading the Quest for Museum Innovation
Innovation is the rallying cry of leaders today. Yet actually getting innovation to happen is difficult, and more efforts fail than succeed. This highly interactive luncheon will offer museum leaders new perspectives and frameworks for successfully driving innovation in their organizations. We'll start with a conceptual, yet practical, discussion of innovation over lunch, followed by a more in-depth workshop session designed to provide participants with experience in specific techniques for opening up group thinking and engaging stakeholders. You'll leave with new insights and skills to produce more innovative practices at your museum – and in your life.
Our presenter is Elisa O'Donnell, an organizational innovation expert who has worked internationally with leadership teams for more than 20 years. She has served as a principal and senior management with Continuum, Synecticsworld, A.T. Kearney, and Coopers & Lybrand Consulting. Her techniques have benefited organizations from Fortune 500 corporations (including Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, American Express, Citigroup, Prudential Healthcare, and Merck Pharmaceuticals) to small nonprofits.
Pre-registration is required. Registration is limited.
Hosted by
1:45 pm – 5:15 pm
Off-Site Session
Pre-registration is required. Registration is limited. Fee of $12 includes transportation.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and Mark Twain House
Uncle Tom and the "N" Word: Giving Context to Controversy
Both Uncle Tom's Cabin and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were controversial at the time they were published, and remain so today. The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and The Mark Twain House and Museum daily address the impact of Stowe and Twain's most famous works and their legacy. The authors' use of characterizations and language can be racially offensive. The term "Uncle Tom" has become a racial slur and a recent edition of Huckleberry Finn eliminated the "N" word all together. This session will explore how two museums work past the controversy to provide context, discuss issues of race, and provide tools for dialogue around these difficult topics. Attendees will tour the Stowe and Twain Houses, see examples of programming, and learn strategies for addressing difficult subject matter. Participants will have some time on their own to visit exhibits and the museum stores.
Chair: Jeffrey Nichols, Executive Director, Mark Twain House, CT
1:45 pm – 5:15 pm
Double Session
Reaching Out to the Out of Reach: A Continuum of Successful Strategies
Three museums will showcase a continuum of strategies to successfully reach diverse and new audiences in their communities. Nantucket Historical Association made significant internal changes to encourage "off the beaten path" community pockets to become active participants in its public offerings. Hill-Stead Art Museum forged an on-going partnership with an unlikely partner: a spinoff of Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang, The Discovery Center. Together, they created a program that addressed the museum's diversity needs and the Gang's need for curriculum enrichment. The program development process described by the Seacoast Science Center and Portsmouth Housing Authority begins with a formally-evaluated focus group of the underserved audience.
In the first half of the session each institution will present an overview of its approach and results. In the second half, participants will circulate between discussions about program development, community needs, and evaluation. Participants will come away with easy-to-implement protocols to conduct formal focus groups, and examples of successful strategies implemented by a history, arts, and science museum.
Chair: Wendy Lull, President Seacoast Science Center, NH
1:45 pm – 3:15 pm
Concurrent Sessions
Are You in Jeopardy?
Readiness planning is not optional for museums. The keepers of our cultural heritage and irreplaceable objects must be resilient and sustainable in the face of the unexpected. This session looks beyond standard conservation and preservation practices to help you plan for readiness, regardless of the type of crisis — from IT failure to weather events, leadership loss to burst pipes. For all museums of all sizes; participants will leave with tools and resources to use right away.
Chair: Mollie Lakin-Hayes, Deputy Director, South Arts, GA
Collecting Contemporary: Why New History Should be Accessioned
Institutions related to history are responsible for "preserving the past," but what about today's history? This session will make the case for why organizations should collect contemporary artifacts and stories. Special focus will be made on unique acquisitions, including the Library of Congress' decision to acquire all the tweets made on Twitter since 2006. Panelists will argue what "should be saved," and will discuss whether it is still appropriate for museums to collect.
Co-Chairs: Leslie Howard, NEMA Membership Manager and M.A. Candidate, Harvard University Museum Studies; Kate Laurel Mac Intosh, Principal, Revitalizing Historic Sites, MA
Compensation Analysis for the Museum Industry: How to Determine Salaries for Directors and Museum Professionals
How much should museum directors and other museum professionals be paid? Are you being paid competitively? For board members, museum directors, and supervisors — learn how to best meet your recruitment and retention goals through appropriate and targeted employee compensation. For curators, registrars, educators, development and marketing professionals — learn ways to determine how your museum's salaries relate to industry norms, using salary surveys and formulas, and incorporating institutional values and goals.
Chair: Marilyn Hoffman, Executive Search Consultant and Principal, Museum Search & Reference, NH
Science and Industrial History Museums: A New Role in Recent Curriculum Reform?
Training the next generation to be innovators in high technology has become a major goal, leading to revisions of K-12 science curricula, as evidenced by the National Research Council's recent report. An intriguing aspect of the report is its emphasis on engineering as well as the basic sciences. To what extent does this provide opportunities and possible funding for science and industrial history museums to become more involved in K-12 education? Ample time will be available to brainstorm the answer to this question and to create new possibilities!
Chair: Gilbert F. Whittemore, Ph.D., Chair, Board of Trustees, American Precision Museum, VT
No One Size Fits All: Designing for Social Experiences
How can we set the stage for social experiences in exhibitions? Is it possible to break out of a one size fits all approach and create exhibitions that encourage visitors of all types to interact with the topic and each other? What are some of the challenges we face when designing exhibitions to encourage social interactions? In this session we'll provide lively examples that embed the philosophy of social interaction into the exhibit development process — from choosing the topic to developing label text. And of course, we'll provide an opportunity for participants to design some social interaction elements of their own.
Chair: Maria Mingalone, Interim Executive Director and Director of Interpretation, Berkshire Museum, MA
Career Conversation
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Join Kimberly Hatcher-White, the executive director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, for a look at her distinguished career and a discussion of working in the museum field. Kimberly oversees all aspects of the facility, including financial operations, staff administration, policy development, collections growth and management, public programming, and scholarly and archaeological research conducted on behalf of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. She is a graduate of Eastern Connecticut State University, and has attended programs at the Jekyll Island Management Institute, Tufts University, and Getty Museum Leadership Institute. She has served on the Museums for America grant program review panel and is a member of AAM's 2012 Annual Meeting National Program Committee.
3:15 pm – 3:45 pm
Snack Break
Hosted by
3:45 pm – 5:15 pm
Concurrent Sessions
How to Interview "Big Wig" Speed Dating Style
There's no better way to learn than trial and error. Using the speed dating format, participants will have the opportunity to practice their interviewing skills with veteran museum professionals, including directors, curators, educators, trustees, and other senior individuals. Each seasoned professional will be armed with a mixture of "favorite" interview questions collected from those who hire in the museum field; workshop participants will rotate between professionals, thus opening the door to meet and learn from those who have immense advice to share on the interviewing process, making the best first impression, and creating a lasting mark with interviewers that leads (hopefully) to a new position.
Chair: marypaz, Independent Museum Professional, MA
Pre-registration is required. Registration is limited.
Extreme House Makeover: The Historic House Edition
Historic house museums are considered by many to be an endangered species. Critics say there are too many of them, their missions, exhibits, and programs are outdated, and they are disconnected from their communities. However, many such places are thriving, thanks to some creative makeovers to their missions, offerings, and even names. This session will feature speakers from organizations that have successfully reinvented themselves to meet the needs of today's audiences and communities.
Chair: Gail Nessell Colglazier, Executive Director, Independence Museum, NH
Making Board Members Effective Fundraisers
More and more, museums are asking about the role of the board in fundraising and taking a closer look at groups whose boards play an active part. Unfortunately, many museums are not clear on the roles of board and staff members in fundraising. This workshop will help clarify these roles, while giving participants specific examples to try in their own organization.
Co-Chairs: Jennifer Pollard, Director of Annual Giving, East Shore Land Conservatory, MD; Jim McCreight, President, Museum Trustee Association, OR
Museums and Social Media 201: Advanced Tips and Techniques
If your museum is already using social media (Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc.), but you think you could be doing a better job, this is the session for you. We'll look at how to use advanced techniques to engage with your followers and keep them interested, and discuss how to convert the people who follow you into the people who actually walk through your door. Session attendees should have prior knowledge of social media basics.
Chair: Caitlin Thayer, Principal, Barefoot Media, LLC, CT
The New MFA: An Architecture for Cultural Activism
Before and after the 2010 opening of the Art of the Americas Wing, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston worked to transform and transcend both its infrastructure and its community profile. This presentation chronicles the collaborative approach taken by a range of stakeholders to leverage the multiple narratives of the collection, the possibilities of the new space, and the diversity of the community to affirm a multidimensional American story and encourage local, national and international involvement.
Co-Chairs: Cody Hartley, Director, Gifts of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Zakiya Thomas, Director of Education and Community Initiatives, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Overseas Sourcing to Grow New Profits
The advantage of sourcing products overseas is the ability of the museum store to generate increased net profits for its organization. By working directly with foreign manufacturers, you can cut out the middleman. Products can be developed that are exclusive to the institution, offering a unique purchase for its visitors. The process of overseas sourcing also develops new international relationships. Learn how oversea sourcing is possible for every institution, even for smaller organizations.
Chair: Trudy Coxe, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, The Preservation Society of Newport County, RI
The Role of the Library and Archives in Your Museum
Intended for administrators, curators, registrars, librarians and archivists, this session addresses the key role played by museum archives and libraries. It focuses on the activities of museum librarians and archivists and the issues they face: audiences, contributions to institutional operations, relevance to exhibitions and interpretation, and context within the museum. Panelists will present perspectives from a wide range of institutions, lead a discussion, and identify strategies to help participants support and strengthen their research collections.
Co-Chairs: Susan von Salis, Curator of Archives, Harvard Art Museums, MA; Rebecca Parmer, Archivist, USS Constitution Museum, MA
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm
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
Wednesday Evening Event
Welcome to Hartford! An Evening at the Connecticut Science Center
6:15 pm – 8:00 pm
Don't miss NEMA's grand opening soirée, the only event scheduled for Wednesday evening! All are invited to attend a fun-filled evening at the fabulous Connecticut Science Center in Hartford.
Truly one of the region's most unique settings, the Connecticut Science Center offers novel surroundings and out-of-the-ordinary experiences that promise to intrigue and entertain.
In the North Tower Gallery, enjoy passed hors d'oeuvres while viewing the exhibition, Sight & Sound Experience, dedicated to the science behind music and art. In the South Tower Gallery, view Animation, an exhibition that looks at the science behind the art and filming of animated features, including many by Hanna-Barbera. Staff will be on hand for guided tours.
Registration fee of $50 includes transportation, heavy hors d'ouvres, and one complimentary drink.
NEMA Fitness
Morning Walk
Join NEMA Director Dan Yaeger for an eye-opening, wake-up power walk around Hartford.
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Registration Open
8:00 am – 9:00 am
Welcome Coffee and Baked Goods
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Concurrent Sessions
Are You Visible and Valued Within Your Community?
Too often, communities view museums as nice but not essential to the community's well-being. Are we missing an opportunity by not enlarging on what it means to be a community asset? In this session, you will hear about museums that have reallocated their resources and formed new partnerships that capture the attention of civic and business leaders. We will reference Elaine Gurian's article, "Museum as Soup Kitchen" in Curator: The Museum Journal, Jan 2010, to stimulate discussion.
Chair: Susan Robertson, Executive Director, Gore Place, MA
Awards Programs: Why We Need Them
Participating in awards programs can benefit museums in a number of ways, through increased publicity, marketing, and fundraising. In this session, speakers from small and large museums will discuss the value of applying for outside award programs (such as those offered by AAM and NEMA) and will show the value of creating an awards program in your own museum. The session will convey practical information that will be useful to anyone considering either starting a program or applying to one.
Chair: Kenneth C. Turino, Manager of Community Engagement and Exhibitions, Historic New England, MA
Cleaning the Cobwebs Out of the Corners: Creating the Space You Need to Succeed!
Life can get in the way of life sometimes. Your physical environment, health and emotions, financial concerns, and relationships can cause you to lose focus and get off track from achieving your goals. Discover how you can clean out the cobwebs in your life and make space for the important things. Regain your emotional strength and vitality, and make room for your personal goals once again. This class is not a counseling session, but instead a session for personal development and self-discovery. You will come away with a year-long plan for personal success.
Chair: Darcy Lee, Principal & CEO, Alden Charles Associates, MA
Diversifying Your Docents: Creating a Program that Reflects Your Community
As museums seek to diversify their audiences in order to remain relevant in our multicultural society, it becomes increasingly important that a museum's staff reflect the audiences it serves. Nowhere is this more important than among docents and guides, who are often the public face of the museum, particularly for school groups and novice museum-goers. Learn more about the challenges of diversifying a docent program — and how the successes make it a worthy effort.
Chair: Suzi Fonda, Manager of School Group Learning, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Excellence in Every Museum: Applying Standards to Your Museum
Standards and best practices are not just for museums with big budgets! Museum standards can be met by museums of all sizes and disciplines. Attendees will get an overview of national standards and find out how applying standards to your museum's operations can help you showcase your achievements with high levels of service and professionalism. Uncover ways in which you and your museum's staff are already achieving excellence and creating best practices in the field.
Chair: Jill Connors-Joyner, Assistant Director, Museum Assessment Program, American Association of Museums, DC
Is a Smartphone App for You? Examining the Highs and Lows of a Real Life Launch
Explore the successes and challenges of embracing mobile technology. In this session you will hear from several local organizations that have launched smartphone apps. They will share what went into the planning, development, launch, and optimization of their programs. Specific areas to be discussed include: examining the mobile landscape (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Tablet; planning & budgets; content delivery); how having Wi-Fi, cellular networks, or no connectivity affect the user experience; and how to manage updates and optimization.
Chair: Robert Pyles, CEO, TourSphere, MA
Managing Through your Organization's Lifecycle Changes
Nonprofit organizations evolve over time, following predictable stages in lifecycle. Senior leaders from organizations at three different stages (startup, growth, and turnaround) will reflect on their transition to the next stage. How did the organization manage the change? What strategies worked? What mistakes did they make? What did they learn? What was the impact on board, staff, volunteers? What advice would they give other leaders? Get the answers to these questions and ask your own!
Chair: Laura B. Roberts, Principal, Roberts Consulting, MA
School Programs for Smaller Historic Sites: Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should
With budgets shrinking and funding harder to come by, historic sites are taking a critical look at how to allocate their limited resources to best serve their mission. Is school programming a good use of time and money? Part panel discussion, part workshop, this session will help staff at smaller historic sites answer this question by presenting case studies, exploring essential questions to answer before taking on school programming, and framing a process for developing effective programs.
Chair: Elisabeth Nevins, Principal, Seed Education Consulting, MA
Keynote Session
Welcome from Joshua Basseches, President, New England Museum Association; remarks from NEMA Executive
Director Dan Yaeger.
Museums in the Mirror: Reflecting Relevance in a Diverse Society
McEnroe, Brown, Segarra, and Chung. No, it's not a law firm. It's a blue-chip panel scheduled to highlight the keynote presentation at the 93rd Annual NEMA Conference.
• Colin McEnroe, panel moderator, is a columnist, reporter, and host of "The Colin McEnroe Show" on the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network.
• Claudine Brown is Assistant Secretary for Education and Access for the Smithsonian Institution, formerly director of the arts and culture program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation in New York.
• Pedro Segarra is Mayor of Hartford.
• James Chung is president of Reach Advisors, a national strategy and research firm serving museums and other community-driven organizations.
The panel is a "dream team" of experts with diverse backgrounds and experiences that will explore the idea of multiculturalism and access in museums and other cultural facilities, underscoring this year's conference theme. Hosted by
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Opening Lunch
It's all about the networking! Meet up with colleagues, reconnect, and have fun strengthening your ties to this talented, generous, and committed museum community that we know as the NEMA family!
12:30 pm – 3:15 pm
Director and Trustee Luncheon Program
Leading the Quest for Museum Innovation
Innovation is the rallying cry of leaders today. Yet actually getting innovation to happen is difficult, and more efforts fail than succeed. This highly interactive luncheon will offer museum leaders new perspectives and frameworks for successfully driving innovation in their organizations. We'll start with a conceptual, yet practical, discussion of innovation over lunch, followed by a more in-depth workshop session designed to provide participants with experience in specific techniques for opening up group thinking and engaging stakeholders. You'll leave with new insights and skills to produce more innovative practices at your museum – and in your life.
Our presenter is Elisa O'Donnell, an organizational innovation expert who has worked internationally with leadership teams for more than 20 years. She has served as a principal and senior management with Continuum, Synecticsworld, A.T. Kearney, and Coopers & Lybrand Consulting. Her techniques have benefited organizations from Fortune 500 corporations (including Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, American Express, Citigroup, Prudential Healthcare, and Merck Pharmaceuticals) to small nonprofits.
Pre-registration is required. Registration is limited.
Hosted by
1:45 pm – 5:15 pm
Off-Site Session
Pre-registration is required. Registration is limited. Fee of $12 includes transportation.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and Mark Twain House
Uncle Tom and the "N" Word: Giving Context to Controversy
Both Uncle Tom's Cabin and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were controversial at the time they were published, and remain so today. The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and The Mark Twain House and Museum daily address the impact of Stowe and Twain's most famous works and their legacy. The authors' use of characterizations and language can be racially offensive. The term "Uncle Tom" has become a racial slur and a recent edition of Huckleberry Finn eliminated the "N" word all together. This session will explore how two museums work past the controversy to provide context, discuss issues of race, and provide tools for dialogue around these difficult topics. Attendees will tour the Stowe and Twain Houses, see examples of programming, and learn strategies for addressing difficult subject matter. Participants will have some time on their own to visit exhibits and the museum stores.
Chair: Jeffrey Nichols, Executive Director, Mark Twain House, CT
1:45 pm – 5:15 pm
Double Session
Reaching Out to the Out of Reach: A Continuum of Successful Strategies
Three museums will showcase a continuum of strategies to successfully reach diverse and new audiences in their communities. Nantucket Historical Association made significant internal changes to encourage "off the beaten path" community pockets to become active participants in its public offerings. Hill-Stead Art Museum forged an on-going partnership with an unlikely partner: a spinoff of Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang, The Discovery Center. Together, they created a program that addressed the museum's diversity needs and the Gang's need for curriculum enrichment. The program development process described by the Seacoast Science Center and Portsmouth Housing Authority begins with a formally-evaluated focus group of the underserved audience.
In the first half of the session each institution will present an overview of its approach and results. In the second half, participants will circulate between discussions about program development, community needs, and evaluation. Participants will come away with easy-to-implement protocols to conduct formal focus groups, and examples of successful strategies implemented by a history, arts, and science museum.
Chair: Wendy Lull, President Seacoast Science Center, NH
1:45 pm – 3:15 pm
Concurrent Sessions
Are You in Jeopardy?
Readiness planning is not optional for museums. The keepers of our cultural heritage and irreplaceable objects must be resilient and sustainable in the face of the unexpected. This session looks beyond standard conservation and preservation practices to help you plan for readiness, regardless of the type of crisis — from IT failure to weather events, leadership loss to burst pipes. For all museums of all sizes; participants will leave with tools and resources to use right away.
Chair: Mollie Lakin-Hayes, Deputy Director, South Arts, GA
Collecting Contemporary: Why New History Should be Accessioned
Institutions related to history are responsible for "preserving the past," but what about today's history? This session will make the case for why organizations should collect contemporary artifacts and stories. Special focus will be made on unique acquisitions, including the Library of Congress' decision to acquire all the tweets made on Twitter since 2006. Panelists will argue what "should be saved," and will discuss whether it is still appropriate for museums to collect.
Co-Chairs: Leslie Howard, NEMA Membership Manager and M.A. Candidate, Harvard University Museum Studies; Kate Laurel Mac Intosh, Principal, Revitalizing Historic Sites, MA
Compensation Analysis for the Museum Industry: How to Determine Salaries for Directors and Museum Professionals
How much should museum directors and other museum professionals be paid? Are you being paid competitively? For board members, museum directors, and supervisors — learn how to best meet your recruitment and retention goals through appropriate and targeted employee compensation. For curators, registrars, educators, development and marketing professionals — learn ways to determine how your museum's salaries relate to industry norms, using salary surveys and formulas, and incorporating institutional values and goals.
Chair: Marilyn Hoffman, Executive Search Consultant and Principal, Museum Search & Reference, NH
Science and Industrial History Museums: A New Role in Recent Curriculum Reform?
Training the next generation to be innovators in high technology has become a major goal, leading to revisions of K-12 science curricula, as evidenced by the National Research Council's recent report. An intriguing aspect of the report is its emphasis on engineering as well as the basic sciences. To what extent does this provide opportunities and possible funding for science and industrial history museums to become more involved in K-12 education? Ample time will be available to brainstorm the answer to this question and to create new possibilities!
Chair: Gilbert F. Whittemore, Ph.D., Chair, Board of Trustees, American Precision Museum, VT
No One Size Fits All: Designing for Social Experiences
How can we set the stage for social experiences in exhibitions? Is it possible to break out of a one size fits all approach and create exhibitions that encourage visitors of all types to interact with the topic and each other? What are some of the challenges we face when designing exhibitions to encourage social interactions? In this session we'll provide lively examples that embed the philosophy of social interaction into the exhibit development process — from choosing the topic to developing label text. And of course, we'll provide an opportunity for participants to design some social interaction elements of their own.
Chair: Maria Mingalone, Interim Executive Director and Director of Interpretation, Berkshire Museum, MA
Career Conversation
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Join Kimberly Hatcher-White, the executive director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, for a look at her distinguished career and a discussion of working in the museum field. Kimberly oversees all aspects of the facility, including financial operations, staff administration, policy development, collections growth and management, public programming, and scholarly and archaeological research conducted on behalf of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. She is a graduate of Eastern Connecticut State University, and has attended programs at the Jekyll Island Management Institute, Tufts University, and Getty Museum Leadership Institute. She has served on the Museums for America grant program review panel and is a member of AAM's 2012 Annual Meeting National Program Committee.
3:15 pm – 3:45 pm
Snack Break
Hosted by
3:45 pm – 5:15 pm
Concurrent Sessions
How to Interview "Big Wig" Speed Dating Style
There's no better way to learn than trial and error. Using the speed dating format, participants will have the opportunity to practice their interviewing skills with veteran museum professionals, including directors, curators, educators, trustees, and other senior individuals. Each seasoned professional will be armed with a mixture of "favorite" interview questions collected from those who hire in the museum field; workshop participants will rotate between professionals, thus opening the door to meet and learn from those who have immense advice to share on the interviewing process, making the best first impression, and creating a lasting mark with interviewers that leads (hopefully) to a new position.
Chair: marypaz, Independent Museum Professional, MA
Pre-registration is required. Registration is limited.
Extreme House Makeover: The Historic House Edition
Historic house museums are considered by many to be an endangered species. Critics say there are too many of them, their missions, exhibits, and programs are outdated, and they are disconnected from their communities. However, many such places are thriving, thanks to some creative makeovers to their missions, offerings, and even names. This session will feature speakers from organizations that have successfully reinvented themselves to meet the needs of today's audiences and communities.
Chair: Gail Nessell Colglazier, Executive Director, Independence Museum, NH
Making Board Members Effective Fundraisers
More and more, museums are asking about the role of the board in fundraising and taking a closer look at groups whose boards play an active part. Unfortunately, many museums are not clear on the roles of board and staff members in fundraising. This workshop will help clarify these roles, while giving participants specific examples to try in their own organization.
Co-Chairs: Jennifer Pollard, Director of Annual Giving, East Shore Land Conservatory, MD; Jim McCreight, President, Museum Trustee Association, OR
Museums and Social Media 201: Advanced Tips and Techniques
If your museum is already using social media (Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc.), but you think you could be doing a better job, this is the session for you. We'll look at how to use advanced techniques to engage with your followers and keep them interested, and discuss how to convert the people who follow you into the people who actually walk through your door. Session attendees should have prior knowledge of social media basics.
Chair: Caitlin Thayer, Principal, Barefoot Media, LLC, CT
The New MFA: An Architecture for Cultural Activism
Before and after the 2010 opening of the Art of the Americas Wing, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston worked to transform and transcend both its infrastructure and its community profile. This presentation chronicles the collaborative approach taken by a range of stakeholders to leverage the multiple narratives of the collection, the possibilities of the new space, and the diversity of the community to affirm a multidimensional American story and encourage local, national and international involvement.
Co-Chairs: Cody Hartley, Director, Gifts of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Zakiya Thomas, Director of Education and Community Initiatives, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Overseas Sourcing to Grow New Profits
The advantage of sourcing products overseas is the ability of the museum store to generate increased net profits for its organization. By working directly with foreign manufacturers, you can cut out the middleman. Products can be developed that are exclusive to the institution, offering a unique purchase for its visitors. The process of overseas sourcing also develops new international relationships. Learn how oversea sourcing is possible for every institution, even for smaller organizations.
Chair: Trudy Coxe, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, The Preservation Society of Newport County, RI
The Role of the Library and Archives in Your Museum
Intended for administrators, curators, registrars, librarians and archivists, this session addresses the key role played by museum archives and libraries. It focuses on the activities of museum librarians and archivists and the issues they face: audiences, contributions to institutional operations, relevance to exhibitions and interpretation, and context within the museum. Panelists will present perspectives from a wide range of institutions, lead a discussion, and identify strategies to help participants support and strengthen their research collections.
Co-Chairs: Susan von Salis, Curator of Archives, Harvard Art Museums, MA; Rebecca Parmer, Archivist, USS Constitution Museum, MA
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm
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.
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Wednesday Evening Event
Welcome to Hartford! An Evening at the Connecticut Science Center
6:15 pm – 8:00 pm
Don't miss NEMA's grand opening soirée, the only event scheduled for Wednesday evening! All are invited to attend a fun-filled evening at the fabulous Connecticut Science Center in Hartford.
Truly one of the region's most unique settings, the Connecticut Science Center offers novel surroundings and out-of-the-ordinary experiences that promise to intrigue and entertain.
In the North Tower Gallery, enjoy passed hors d'oeuvres while viewing the exhibition, Sight & Sound Experience, dedicated to the science behind music and art. In the South Tower Gallery, view Animation, an exhibition that looks at the science behind the art and filming of animated features, including many by Hanna-Barbera. Staff will be on hand for guided tours.
Registration fee of $50 includes transportation, heavy hors d'ouvres, and one complimentary drink.
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