For this Member Profile, we are highlighting our wonderful NEMA Professional Affinity Gathering Chairs. Discipline-specific and volunteer-driven, PAGs are a key source of best practices, enlightened techniques, and practical wisdom. NEMA would not have been able to get through all our pandemic pivots without our talented PAG Chairs and we want to celebrate their volunteerism by highlighting them here! PAG Chairs were invited to answer the below questions and share their thoughts. You can always get in touch with PAG Chairs and find details online here.
Academic Museum and Gallery PAG
Chairs: Meredith Fluke, Director, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, she/her; Debbie Diston, Director, The McIninch Art Gallery, she/her
How has the covid-19 pandemic pivoted your PAG? Lessons learned?
During the pandemic, PAG get-togethers have been an opportunity to share information and ideas. Like all museums, the effect that covid-based restrictions have had on academic institutions has been diverse -- PAG teas and lunches have been a way to connect with colleagues about how they are managing staffing and budgetary reductions, negotiating the visitor policies mandated by the state and/or their institutions, all while continuing to serve their constituencies through virtual and in-person programs.
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
My personal and professional aspirations for our PAG post-pandemic will be to provide an ongoing forum for understanding what lessons were learned from our colleagues, what answers will they apply to their ongoing work and to consider ways in which we can be supportive of one another in our disparate and mutual efforts to heal, recover and strengthen the work we do. Additionally, PAG events will continue to aspire to build the NEMA College and University Museum community, and to provide a vehicle for sharing strategies. As we rebuild our capacities post-pandemic, we hope to continue to address larger issues in academia that have become more acute during the pandemic, and which will affect the role museums will play within it.
Conservators PAG
Chairs: Camille Myers Breeze, Director/Chief Conservator, Museum Textile Services, she/her; Barrett M. Keating, Conservator, BMK Conservators, he/him
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
As the pandemic recedes, we hope to provide more hands-on opportunities for NEMA members to familiarize themselves with materials and technologies encountered in collections and to learn preventive conservation strategies. We also aim to connect those interested in conservation as a career with practicing conservators in New England.
Curators PAG
Chairs: Tegan Kehoe, Exhibit and Education Specialist Paul S. Russell, MD, Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital, she/her; Tiffini Bowers, Head, Exhibitions and Engagement, John Hay Library, Brown University, she/her
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
Post-pandemic, the Curators PAG will continue to support the evolving needs for networking, collaboration, resources, and support while balancing industry and social change, focusing on enrichment, opportunities, and innovation.
Education PAG
Chairs: Erin Wederbrook Yuskaitis, Principal, Yellow Room Consulting, she/her; Amanda Goodheart Parks, Ph.D., Director of Education, New England Air Museum, she/her
How has the covid-19 pandemic pivoted your PAG? Lessons learned?
To help meet the needs of museum educators during the pandemic, the Education PAG offered five Virtual Education Meetups in 2020; facilitated two sessions at the 2020 Conference—Virtual Connections: Best Practices in Online Museum Education and Education: Grief and Recovery— and partnered with the Exhibits PAG for a virtual workshop, Little “e” evaluation: DIY Methods for Busy Museum Professionals, in Spring 2021.
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
NEMA’s Education PAG Co-Chairs Erin and Amanda will continue to support our region’s museum educators by providing opportunities to engage with one another, gain new skills, and share ideas.
Exhibit PAG
Chair: Betsy Loring, Principal, expLoring exhibits & engagement, she/her
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
For exhibit professionals, 2020 meant experimenting with new ways to deliver content, and along the way discovered ways to increase accessibility and reach. In the PAG, we can share techniques worth keeping such as tapping multiple senses, physical-digital hybrid experiences, and installations in public spaces. Now we can reflect: what does each technique do well? Where did it fall short?
Historic Sites PAG
Chairs: Kelsey Mullen, Director of Education, Providence Preservation Society, she/her; Emma Stratton, Executive Director, American Independence Museum, she/her
How has the covid-19 pandemic pivoted your PAG? Lessons learned?
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of virtual and digital engagement. Since NEMA covers such a wide geographic area, our minds are now tuned towards creating content that can be shared in a virtual space, so as to engage more individuals across New England.
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
Most historic sites -- whether at a house museum, a National Park, or on a walking tour -- are activated by human-to-human exchanges. Top of the list now is working with our colleagues across the region to re-center people-powered, in-person experiences in a responsible way that also acknowledges the year of change and isolation we’ve all endured.
Independent Museum Professionals Affinity Group PAG
Chairs: Rebecca Migdal, Museum Consultant, Exhibit Development | Research & Writing | Project Management, she/her; Ernesto Mendoza, Experiential Graphic Designer, One By Design, he/him
How has the covid-19 pandemic pivoted your PAG? Lessons learned?
The pandemic has caused professionals to reassess their priorities due to forced circumstances during the unstable times or come to the realization that working from home and becoming an independent contractor has become a viable way of life.
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
We hope to continue to provide a community for independent museum professionals from across the field. We also hope that the many newly-minted IMPs, some of whom are making the leap as a result of the pandemic, will get involved and find support from our members. With many professionals reassessing their business priorities due to the pandemic, we would like to welcome them with our support and resources to help them succeed.
Library & Archives PAG
Chair: Jeffrey Henry, Library Assistant, Reuben Hoar Library, he/him
How has the covid-19 pandemic pivoted your PAG? Lessons learned?
The PAG was forced to go completely virtual for programs, and will likely stay that way until as late as the 2021 conference. Libraries and archives are only now significantly opening up more to the public, as of June. My own library continues to not allow in person use of the special collections. Planning for programs has been almost impossible. Keeping open lines of communication with organizations of interest proved helpful for PAG programming, which was all about lessons of the pandemic.
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
With archives only now re-opening to significant extents, future planning is still difficult. There will likely be another "lessons learned" program during or around the time of the conference at the least.
LGBTQ+ Museum Staff & Students PAG
Chairs: Ali Kane, Manager of Corporate and Foundation Relations, Tower Hill Botanic Garden, she/her; Sam Dinnie, Intern, Paul Revere House, she/they
How has the covid-19 pandemic pivoted your PAG? Lessons learned?
Our PAG was born during the pandemic! Virtual networking allowed us to connect with each other and quickly grow our PAG to a network of over 300 members throughout the country – and world! At a time when so many people were disconnected from their community, virtual collaboration and connection has been so important.
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
We are hoping that people will be able to connect in-person with queer museum folx in their community that they may not have otherwise met. While our virtual community and education programs can reach a wider audience virtually, in-person connection can build stronger, essential bonds among peers.
Registrars and Collections Care Specialists PAG
Chairs: Abby Battis, Associate Director for Collections, Historic Beverly, she/her; Daniel Neff, Independent Museum Professional, he/him
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
More workshops and programs, more collaborations with other PAGs.
YEP PAG for Emerging Museum Professionals
Chairs: Emma Scheinmann, Programs Assistant, American Independence Museum; Curriculum Writer, National Museum of Industrial History, she/her; Marie Palladino, Head of Educational Programs, The Mary Baker Eddy Library, she/her; Monica Andrews, Public Programs Associate, Shelburne Museum, she/her; Lisa Evans, Interim Executive Director, Saint Albans Museum, she/her
What are your aspirations for the PAG post-pandemic?
We expanded the YEP audience during the pandemic year and we hope to continue building on that momentum through additional virtual and hybrid programming that will motivate and inspire those in our field. We aspire to further encourage and foster both personal and professional relationships for our fellow YEPpers to create a collaborative network of museum professionals throughout New England.
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If you are interested in getting involved as a Professional Affiliation Gathering chair, please get in touch with Meg at meg.winikates@nemanet.org. We’re currently looking for chairs to help lead the Exhibits, Development, Marketing, PR, Membership, Children’s, HR & Volunteer Management, and Library and Archives PAGs.