Celebrating 100+ Years of History Featuring YOU!
NEMA's 100th year approaches! We're celebrating not just NEMA's history, but the incredible museums and museum professionals in New England in the last hundred years and more. We'd like you to tell us about yourself and your institutions, to share through a 100th anniversary timeline exhibit at this year's NEMA conference, online features, a special anniversary issue of New England Museums Now, and more. All New England museums and museum people are invited!
To submit your memories and milestones, use the links below between now and April 20, 2018:
Individual Story Collector
Institutional Story Collector
2018 Publication Awards Competition For Print and Digital Publishing
There's still time to show us your best work! Enter your museum publications in the 2018 New England Museum Association Publication Awards competition. The Publication Awards program recognizes excellence in design, production, programming, and effective communication in both print and digital publishing. We have extended the deadline for submissions to April 18! Click here for complete details.
National Museums Advocacy Day
On February 25-27, 2018, NEMA's Dan Yaeger and Meg Winikates, as well as board member Doug Perkins and former board member Susan Funk, attended the tenth Museums Advocacy Day in Washington DC. NEMA received an award for being a contributing partner all ten years. Over 325 advocates held meetings with their elected representatives and staff members on Capitol Hill, asking for reauthorization of IMLS, robust funding for the Office of Museum Services, expansion of the charitable giving deduction for those who choose standard deduction on their taxes, and many other related issues on education and STEM topics. NEMA also collaborated with the Museum Education Roundtable to host an informal dinner meetup on Monday after the training sessions, with 11 attendees.
Connecticut Museum Advocates during Museums Advocacy Day
Advocacy at Home
This March, NEMA was pleased to collaborate with the CT Places Coalition for their 2018 State House advocacy day. This is the fourth year that NEMA has collaborated with Connecticut organizations on advocacy events.
Local Committee Meeting
100th NEMA Annual Conference Update
In January, the NEMA staff along with museum professionals from the Stamford, CT area met at the Bruce Museum to begin planning for the 100th NEMA conference. The group discussed preliminary plans for conference sessions and events.
We received a total of 119 session proposals for the 2018 Annual Conference, Museums on the Move, November 7-9 in Stamford, CT. This is the highest amount we have ever received. The program committee will meet at Buttonwoods in the first week of April to review the proposals, and then Dan and Meg will work to finalize the schedule.
NEMA Stats: A Monthly Museum Attendance Report
In February, NEMA released the NEMA Stats: A Monthly Museum Attendance Report Annual Report to participants of the program. In 2017, overall attendance increased by 1.8% compared to last year. Western Massachusetts saw an increase of 18.3% in overall attendance compared to 2016. South of Boston saw the largest decrease of 12.5% in overall attendance compared to 2016. Out of the 119 sites participating in 2017, 63 (52.9%) saw an increase in attendance from 2016.Of the 117 sites with comparable data from 2017 to 2015, 53.8% saw an increase in attendance in 2017 compared to 2016. 72.6% saw an increase in attendance in 2016 compared to 2015.
2018 NEMA Workshop Series
Our spring/summer workshop season has officially started. NEMA has a special volume discount for members only. Sign up for at least three full day workshops and you'll receive a 20% discount off the member rate. And NEMA institutional members who send at least five employees or trustees to full day workshops also receive a 20% discount.
Stay tuned to the NEMA website for upcoming workshops. Thank you to our PAG chairs for all of their work they do in creating the workshop series.
Professional Affinity Group Updates
The Registrars PAG has been renamed to Registrars & Collection Care Specialists (RACCS) to better reflect the diversity of the collection management departments.
Three PAGs now have Facebook groups! Join the Registrars & Collection Care Specialists (RACCS), Library & Archives, and the Development, Marketing, PR, Membership PAGs online. Don’t forget to follow the NEMA Young and Emerging Professionals page.
Are you interested in being a PAG Chair? We are currently looking for chairs for the Curators and the College and University Museums PAGs. Contact Meg Winikates at meg.winikates@nemanet.org for complete details.
We would like to thank the following PAG Chairs that are stepping down for their service to NEMA and the field: Rebekah Beaulieu, Heather Leavell, Emily Robertson, and Victoria Stevens.
We would like to welcome the following new PAG Chairs:
Exhibitions: Betsy Loring, Director of Exhibits, EcoTarium
Historic Site Management: Kelsey Mullen, Public Programs Manager, Newport Restoration Foundation and Emma Bray, Executive Director, American Independence Museum
Independent Museum Professionals (IMPs): Rebecca Migdal, Museum Consultant, Exhibit Development | Research & Writing | Project Management
Library and Archives: Kate Monea, Archivist, USS Constitution Museum
Natural History & Science: Shana Hawrylchak, Manager of Exhibits and Collections, EcoTarium, and Richard Kissel, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
Registrars & Collection Care Specialists (RACCS): Daniel Neff, Curator, The Fairbanks House Museum
Young & Emerging Professionals (YEPs): Christina Errico, Engineering Education Associate, Museum of Science, Boston, Jen Duckett, Studio Art Program Coordinator, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Sally Meyer, Public Programs Coordinator, Concord Museum
Lunch with NEMA
We continue our popular Lunch with NEMA series, a FREE monthly conversation from noon - 1 p.m. on the last Wednesday of each month. Each month will highlight a different discussion topic. If you have a topic or would like to present in 2018 at a Lunch with NEMA please contact Meg Winikates at meg.winikates@nemanet.org.
Call for Articles
Have a great idea for an article for New England Museums Now? Museums Now is the professional journal for the voices of museum professionals across the geography, genres, and job descriptions present in our field, and we want your voice to be represented! Submissions for articles are accepted on a rolling basis. Though Museums Now issues each focus on a particular theme relevant to our field, we welcome articles on all museum topics. Your submission is not required to fit a theme for an upcoming issue. For complete details about submitting an article, click here.
NEMA/QM2 Executive Roundtables
In 2016, NEMA teamed up with Mary Case of QM2 to begin an executive roundtable inviting leaders of museums with annual budgets between $800,000 and $1.4 million. The roundtable is a confidential peer-learning group that improves the institution's long-term sustainability and the director's life. If you'd like to explore participation, please contact Mary Case, marycase@qm2.org.