2016 Annual Conference Keynote Presentation
This year’s Keynote Presentation will feature four, dynamic short performances by a variety of performing artists. Bated Breath Theatre Company is a Connecticut-based physical theatre company that creates new theatrical works inspired by and in partnership with museum collections and exhibitions; Laurie Phillips, a co-founder of Art-o-mancy, artist, life coach, and an international workshop leader; Sea Tea Improv, Hartford’s professional comedy company; and Annawon Weedon, a Mashpee Wampanoag educator and performer.
The keynote presentation will be held Wednesday, November 9, at 10:45 am in the Mystic Marriott Hotel and Spa.
Gowrie Group Presents the 2016 NEMA Conference
We’re proud and excited to announce that the Gowrie Group, a Connecticut-based insurance brokerage offering a comprehensive line of insurance throughout New England and the U.S., will be the Presenting Sponsor of the NEMA Conference for the third year in a row. “We are very excited about welcoming the Gowrie Group once again as presenting sponsor of our conference,” said NEMA Executive Director Dan Yaeger. “Their leadership enables us to offer a robust program of events to our region’s museum community, which strengthens museums and their contribution to the culture and quality of life of communities throughout New England. We are very grateful for their support and look forward to working with them to produce the best conference possible.”
If you’d like to take a minute and thank the Gowrie Group for their participation, give them a call at 800-262-8911. For more information on their services, go to www.gowrie.com.
Scholarships
NEMA is pleased to offer several scholarship and fellowship opportunities to make the annual conference more financially accessible. Application deadline is September 16. Click here for details.
Excellence Awards
NEMA is proud to honor our colleagues' extraordinary effort and commitment to the New England museum community. Help us recognize their achievements by nominating someone you admire for the 2016 NEMA Excellence Awards. Nominations for an Excellence Award - for yourself or someone you know - are due August 31. Award winners will be recognized at the NEMA Annual Meeting on November 11 at the Mystic Marriott. For more information, click here.
IMLS Grant
We recently were awarded a Sparks! Ignition Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. In partnership with Brad Larson Media we will explore the "generative meetups" concept by launching the Museumhive project. This new professional development model will connect regional museum professionals with thought leaders to create local content on topics of national interest to the museum profession. The initial theme will focus on "the distributed museum," a museum not bound by its physical location but integrated throughout its community. The project will support six in-person meetups featuring presentations by national thought leaders talking about their work via live Google Hangouts. After each meetup, staff and volunteers will index and archive the Hangout video, summarize the event on a Wordpress site, invite additional contributions via email and Twitter, and then prepare a short e-publication summary designed to help staff connect the topic to their own experiences at their museums. This experimental format for hive-created content will be shared with other museum associations for national replication.
Advocacy Strategic Focus
In response to the overwhelming support for NEMA's advocacy efforts in the spring membership survey, NEMA is setting up a series of focus groups to discuss our advocacy strategy. We would like to invite anyone who is interested in participating in an online focus group regarding museum advocacy to join us for a web meeting on July 29 from 11 am - noon, or August 10 from 4 - 5 pm. Groups will be limited to 20 people, so please remember to register!
Museum People Season 2
Ready for another season of the Museum People podcast? We are! Dan and Marieke have traveling the countryside with their tape deck, bagging interviews with a variety of museum folks, highlighting their work, passions, opinions, and personalities. (Sneak preview: the first episode features interviews with AAM president Laura Lott and attendees at the recent AAM conference.) We’ll be releasing the next eight episodes of Museum People on a weekly basis starting on July 27.
Have an idea for Museum People or want to listen to past episodes? Click here.
Museum Document Exchange
NEMA needs your help in updating the Museum Document Exchange. The MDE is one of the more popular benefits of NEMA membership. Museums share their policies with fellow museums to help them create or update their own documents, including social media policies, investment policies, collection management policies, and more. Since the program's inception, literally hundreds of museums have participated by loaning and borrowing policies, helping our museum community grow stronger together.
We would appreciate it if you would share some of your institution's documents with our community. The MDE is available exclusively to NEMA members and is located within the member's-only section of the NEMA website here. (If you'd like to access this feature yourself, don't forget to use your member login.) Please send your policies to Florentina Gutierrez at intern@nemanet.org.
Career Growth Studio
NEMA’s Career Growth Studio returns; an overnight experience of inspiration, skill building, and self-awareness immediately following the conference in Mystic. This year’s CGS is open to professionals of any level of experience, and focuses extensively on skill-building and self-assessment as well as peer-mentoring and motivation as participants prepare their next steps toward museum leadership.
This year's Studio is designed for you if you need:
- To strategize next steps for your career
- To gain new understanding or techniques for museum administration, finance, and governance
- To brush up your personal brand, networking skills, and work habits
On Friday, November 11, we'll start with a reception and dinner discussion. Then get ready for a full day on November 12, when we'll discuss the skills necessary for leadership versus management, financial and governance strategies, how to gain career momentum, and creating a career plan. The Career Growth Studio will continue throughout 2016/17 with web conversations to check in and see how you're doing, plus a reunion at the 2017 NEMA conference.
Cost to participate is just $250 for NEMA members and $300 for non-members; includes participation fee, materials, meals, web conversations throughout the year, and a reunion at the 2017 NEMA conference.
NEMA/Qm2 Executive Roundtable
For more than 20 years, the Museum Directors’ Roundtables facilitated by consulting group Qm2 have been acclaimed as some of the most valuable professional development available to the U.S. museum field. By exclusive arrangement, NEMA is offering New England museum directors the opportunity to participate in a special Qm2 roundtable that is affordable both in cost and in time commitment. Click here for complete details.
NEMA Board Update
NEMA would like to give Elaine Clements, Executive Director of the Andover Historical Society a huge thank you for her years of service on the NEMA Board. We appreciate her willingness to give her talents and time in service of the museum community.
Publication Award Winners
NEMA is pleased to announce the winners of this year's annual Publication Awards. Judging was especially challenging and exciting this year, with over 200 entries from 63 museums in 11 categories. The Publication Awards honor excellence in design, publication, and communication in the world of print and digital museum publishing. Click here to read about the judging and a list of the winning entries.
Membership Survey
Many thanks to those who participated in the 2016 membership survey this spring, which helps us identify member priorities and where NEMA can best focus or distribute our efforts to serve you and your interests best. A full report will be available on the NEMA website for download later this summer.
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.