2003 AAM Annual Meeting
PORTLAND
COMPT Sessions
FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR MUSEUM MANAGEMENT INSTITUTES Over the past three decades intensive programs in museum management have not only had a great impact on the museum profession but on the way in which museum studies is taught. This session will provide an opportunity to evaluate the changing needs of those in the museum profession as well as to examine how museum management programs will be adapting to future challenges. Speakers will assess how these programs have changed since their inception, address the supply and demand for current training, and offer a glimpse of the directions these programs are taking in the new century.
Chair: Kenneth Hafertepe, Director of Academic Programs and Graduate Studies, Dept. of Museum Studies, Baylor Univ., Waco, TX Panelists: Philip Nowlen, Director, Getty Leadership Institute, Los Angeles, CA Dennis O'Toole, Director, Seminar for Historical Administration, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, VA
Harold Skramstad, President Emeritus, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Dearborn, MI
Co-Sponsors: Museum Management Committee Registrars Committee
UNIVERSITY MUSEUMS: BACK ON THE ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST? Over the past two years there have been a sizeable number of university museums whose existence has been questioned by their parent institution. Although this is not a new issue, its re-emergence in recent months, due to dramatic budget reductions at institutions of higher learning, calls into question not only their continued existence but also their function within the wider museum and educational community. For their parent organizations university museums provide a vital link to the community beyond campus. To the larger museum community they play an essential role in museum professional training, academic research to enhance collections and exhibitions, as well as offer venues where more controversial topics can be examined. Their existence is viewed as less than essential, however, by university officials who are charged with downsizing at any cost. The need to change the ways in which these museums argue for, as well as accomplish their missions will be examined in this session. Innovative models for governance, professional training, community involvement, and academic excellence will be explored amid an examination of the causes for the current challenge to university museums.
Chair: Lynn Robertson, Executive Director, McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC Panelists: Bonnie Kelm, Director, University Art Museum, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA Aaron H. DeGroft, Deputy Director for Collections and Programs, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL Selma Holo, Director Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Jeanette La Vere, Intern, Anaheim, CA
Co-Sponsors: CURCOM SMAC
MUSEUMS & COMMUNITIES IN PRACTICE: TWO APPROACHES TO GRADUATE TRAINING IN COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT There has been no lack of rhetoric in the museum profession about the urgency of engaging and involving diverse communities, especially those historically under-represented in the offerings and operations of museums. What has been lacking, by and large, is practical training for museum professionals in community consultation and community building. Two graduate programs in museum studies and cultural resource management-at John F. Kennedy University and the University of Victoria respectively-have been at the forefront of providing substantive training, both across the curriculum and in the form of self-standing courses, in building long-term relationships between museums and communities. Instructors of two courses-“Museums and Communities” at JFKU and “Curatorship and Community” at UVic-will report on the issues and techniques covered in the curriculum. Recent graduates of these courses will share their experience both of the training they received and its application in their professional work.
Co-Chairs: William MacGregor, Assistant Chair, Department of Museum Studies, John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, CA Joy Davis, Director, Cultural Resource Management Program, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada Panelists: Elizabeth Kidd, Arts Programmer, Roundhouse Community Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Adrienne McGraw, Education Director, Hayward Area Historical Society, Orinda CA
Mireille Lamontagne, Museum Consultant, Dept. of Candian Heritage, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
TBA UVic alum Co-Sponsors: CARE CURCOM DivCo
TRAINING MUSEUM LEADERS FOR THE POST COLONIAL ERA
The last four decades have seen a profound change in the construct of nations. Many countries achieved independence from colonial rule in the 1960s and 70s and from totalitarian rule in the 1980s and 90s. Having a great impact on education and cultural identity, these changes have revealed the need for professional museum training - both academic and in the field - for and by indigenous peoples in different national and regional settings. Globalization has become shorthand for describing the changes affecting all parts of the world including currently available formal academic and informal field training. Both must be re-imagined to resolve the need for quality higher education in the museum professions for and from an intercultural perspective. In this session museum professionals representing indigenous peoples, university professors of museum studies from the U.S. and Europe, and those providing expert field training to museums throughout the world will address professional education needs and the related historical, political, academic and cultural policy issues. It is the goal of this session to begin an on-going dialogue addressing the process of gathering, exploring, and integrating needs and possible models emerging from developing nations and indigenous peoples world wide.
Chair: Anne El-Omami, Director of Graduate Program in Museum Studies, Library, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA Panelists: Barbara Fahs Charles, Designer and Principal, Staples and Charles Ltd., Alexandria, VA James N. Maikweki, Deputy Director, The National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya Jill Norwood (Tolowa), Training Program Assistant, Cultural Resources Center, Nat’l Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC Srinivas Suwada, Ford Foundation Scholar and Representative, Dept. of Museum Studies, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Co-Sponsors: AAM-ICOM DivCo Museum Management Committee Registrars Committee
DIVERSITY IN AND FOR HISTORY: FEEDING THE PIPELINE TO CREATE A MORE INCLUSIVE PROFESSION This session looks at a new program of the American Association for State and Local History: the “Diversity In and For History Fellowship Program.” The program will combine fellowships, mentorships, and internships to give students a solid scholarly foundation, extensive practical work experience, and a mentor in the field to help guide the students professionally. The program is the result of work done by the AASLH Diversity Task Force, created in 1999 to study the problem of minority under-representation in the field and propose a solution. Led by Gretchen Sullivan Sorin, director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program in History Museum Studies, the Task Force recommended a fellowship program that would “feed the pipeline,”and help colleges and universities recruit and train minority graduate students in the areas of public history, historic preservation, cultural resource work, museum studies, exhibition design, and archival studies. AASLH staff and members of the Task Force will discuss program development, rationale, and lead the audience in a discussion of other models for tackling the issue, including the National Museum Fellows Program at the Atlanta History Center, the National Council on Public History, and the Teaching Public History program.
Chair: Murney Gerlach, Historian, Museum and Education Consultant, Barrington, Rhode Island Panelists: Rebecca Conard, Assoc. Professor of History and Co-director of the Public History Program, Middle Tennessee State Univ., Murfreesboro, TN Elizabeth Furlow, Curator of Collections, Museum of History and Industry, Seattle, WA Billie Gaines, Director, National Museum Fellows Program, Atlanta, GA Tara White, Program Officer, American Association for State and Local History, Nashville, TN Co-Sponsors: DivCo Museum Management Committee Registrars Committee
COMPT co-sponsored sessions:
Membership 101
Changing Face of Interpretation
At Least You Should Know
Meet the Press
Preparing Museum Security Officers
Culture Shock: Lessons from International Museum Training
Meeting New Challenges: Docent Training in Today's World
Staff Development at Your Desktop: Web-based Education and Training for Museum Staff and Volunteers |