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e-newsletter of Museumwise
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Join Us
Becoming a member just got better!
Museumwise members will now receive a 25% discount off OnCell's industry-leading mobile tour services (for new OnCell customers only)
Since 1971, Museumwise has been connecting people in museums and historical organizations across NY - providing a full range of training, networking, and collaborative programs to support New York's museum field.
It is our vision to be a model service organization, the accomplishments of which are reflected in the success of our constituents
We invite you to take this opportunity to join your colleagues -
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Grants for Museum Advancement
We we have fully allocated our 2011 grant funds, thus we are no longer accepting applications for FY 2011 Get Ready, Get Set, Go projects.
FY 2012 applications will be accepted on or after January 1st.
Visit our website for more information:
www.museumwise.org
Sponsored by:
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AAM Museum Benchmarking Online
Museum Benchmarking Online (MBO), AAM's new web-based tool, makes it easy for you to share your museum's data for the good of the whole museum field. MBO follows in the footsteps of our old, reliable, authoritative Museum Financial Information survey. The collected data is AAM's best weapon for advocacy on Capitol Hill and beyond.
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A Note from the Director
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Greetings,
I hope this finds everyone basking in this glorious late summer afternoon. After the past few days I'm fairly certain we could all use a bit of time in the sun!
Amazingly I began my spring letter with a similar list of resources, alas here we are again! If you found your museum in rising waters, here are a couple of valuable resources available to you:
I hope you will join us in participating in the 2011 AASLH Virtual Conference, September 14-16th. Museumwise has registered for a group registration, which entitles us to invite our members to participate. If you'd like to join us for the Online Conference, send me an email indicating your interest.
We're gearing up in the office to depart for Great Camp Sagamore to launch this year's Museum Institute at Sagamore. I look forward to welcoming 15 extraordinary colleagues, both old friends and new to this year's event.
We hope to see you in our travels as summer wanes into fall.
With best regards,
~Catherine Gilbert
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| Museumwise & MANY Progress Update | |
We've been making marvelous progress in our discussion with MANY regarding re-visioning the model for Museum service organizations. My hope is that this will be an engaging process, informed by the needs and aspirations of those that we serve. To that end, we've been distributing regular communiques to keep you abreast of our investigation. If you have yet to do so, please take a moment to read through the series:
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| 2011 Museum Institute at Sagamore |
 | | Lead the way. |
Envision a conversation between enlightened colleagues - ideas spark and are encouraged to burn brightly into action.
The 2011 Museum Institute at Sagamore theme is Lead the way... Here is a quick peek at this year's schedule:
Tuesday
Creating New Leadership Conversations among Board, Staff and Volunteers
Linda Ray, Consultant, LRay
Wednesday
Breaking the mold: The secret of not-for-profit leadership
Robert Bullock, President, Archives Partnership Trust
Museums as Conveners
Stephanie Ratcliffe, Executive Director, The Wild Center
Lead the Way: Engaging Controversy in Museums Public, Professional and Personal Perspectives
Garet Livermore, Vice President for Education, NYS Historical Association & The Farmers' Museum
Shiny Happy People: Creating and Recognizing
Opportunities to Develop and Challenge Staff & Volunteers
Liselle LaFrance, Director & Deborah Emmons-Andarawis, Curator, Historic Cherry Hill
Thursday
Lean, Effective Promotion
Elizabeth Trever Buchinger, Co-Founder & Brand Strategist, Paperkite Creative Communications
Turning a Whisper into a Shout! Using DIY Tools to get your message out.
Q Cassetti, Principal, Luckystone Partners
Spinning Public Programs into Institutional Gold
Suzanne DeVegh, Program Officer, Japan Society & Maria Dembrowsky Nigro, Manager of Public Programs, Hudson River Museum
Adirondack Museum Adventure
Christine Campeau, Museum Educator & School Programs Manager, The Adirondack Museum
Friday
Leadership in Action
Robert Cassetti, Senior Director, Creative Services & Marketing, Corning Museum of Glass
For details on the 2011 sessions, click here
The 2011 Institute will take place September 20-23rd. Acceptance to the Institute is by application -
Click here for an application
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| Member Kudos |
 We are delighted to extend our congratulations to the following Museumwise members who have received 2011 IMLS grants
Museums for America award recipents
Museum Village at Old Smith's Clove - Monroe, NY Building on the success of a previously funded MFA collections inventory, the Museum Village at Old Smith's Clove will take the next step to refine its collections management based on integration with their recently completed comprehensive interpretive plan. In this project, four part-time collections associates with subject knowledge aligning with the museum's collecting fields will work with other museum staff members to make recommendations to the board on the disposition of redundant or unrelated artifacts as well as those that may be used in an education collection for outreach programs. Items deemed appropriate for the collection will be catalogued using PastPerfect software, bringing the museum a step closer to making the collection publicly accessible through digitization and the Internet.
New York State Historical Association - Cooperstown, NY Project:The New York State Historical Association will partner with the Iroquois Indian Museum to refine site interpretation at a site named Otsego: A Meeting Place. The project will create new programs involving Native American interpreters and artists to more effectively reach a greater number of general and school group visitors. New programs will include a cell phone tour and wayside interpretive signage, a resident cultural interpreter program with artists, and two types of distance learning programs for K-12 teachers and students on Iroquois, or Haudenosaunee, history and culture from prehistory to today. Developing Otsego: A Meeting Place and its programs supports the association's goal of explaining the continuum of Iroquois history.
Slate Valley Museum - Granville, NY Project: The Slate Valley Museum (SVM) will use its grant to fund a full collection digitization and access project. This one-year initiative is aimed at digitizing the museum's collection and making information, images, and recordings accessible to the public. In this project, the museum will digitize its collection based on digitization procedures and policies put in place by a previous IMLS-funded collections initiative; implement the digitized collection with metadata into an accessible online platform to be linked to SVM's Web site; and gather, evaluate, and share public constituent feedback through the museum's online platform. African American History and Culture award recipient Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History - Brooklyn, NY Project: The Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History preserves several historic structures along with a new LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy & Environment Design) education and cultural arts building at the Weeksville Heritage Center. IMLS funding will allow the organization to hire a LEED-trained facilities manager with the skills necessary to operate the new Education and Cultural Arts Building and the ability to continue the preservation of the historic structures at Weeksville. The facilities manager will compile a best-practices document about effective and sustainable methods of managing historic properties and new facilities. The facilities manager will also oversee restoration projects for the historic houses and repurpose and outfit exhibition space and collection storage options. In addition, IMLS funds will provide opportunities for internal staff development and a case study for other African American historic sites interested in expanding their space and community relevance.
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| Be a part of the 2012 Museums in Conversation |
 New York State's Museums in Conversation:
How Do We (Re)Vision Our Museums?
April 22-24, 2012
Albany Marriott, Albany, New York
Museums are institutions steeped in tradition but surrounded by constant change. Not everyone knows what a museum is anymore, but some certainly think that whatever it is, it's not for them.
Submitting a Proposal
We welcome proposals from a wide range of institutions and practitioners, within and outside the museum community, to encourage lively discussions that offer new perspectives on our work and create new connections to each other.
Visit www.museumsinconversation.org to download the proposal form and for more information. Submissions are due September 16, 2011 so don't wait!
Perhaps you'd prefer to get involved in a session already underway - visit the Museums in Conversation website for details on the following sessions in development.
- (Re)Visioning Your Historic Museum Buildings for New and Diverse Audiences
- Taking It To the Students
- Visitors in Conversation: Let's Ask Our Visitors what they want!
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| Seeking 2011 Museumwise Award of Merit Nominees |
 Have you seen an exceptional exhibit at a New York institution this past year? Has your organization created an innovative educational program or publication? Would you like to recognize a volunteer or employee who has done exceptional work?
If so, we encourage you to submit a nomination for our 2011 Awards of Merit. Each year Museumwise presents Awards of Merit to recognize outstanding work in the regional history and museum community, reward staff and volunteers, and provide encouragement for development of new and innovative projects.
Awards of Merit program requests nominations in four categories:
- Preserving Our Past
- Interpreting Our Past
- The Public Dimension
- Individual Achievement
Nominations are accepted by mail only and must be postmarked by December 9, 2011. Please visit our website www.museumwise.org for information and a nomination form.
Questions? Please contact Stephanie Lehner, Program Coordinator, at 800.895.1648 or by email at stephanie@museumwise.org with any questions.
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| Save the Date - Cultural Heritage Tourism Workshops |  Sponsored by the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor and the New York Cultural Heritage Tourism Network in partnership with Museumwise Dates and Locations:
Tuesday, November 1st - Rochester Wednesday, November 2nd - Utica/Rome Thursday, November 3rd - Albany
Time: 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM
Cost: $35
Presenter:
Featuring Cheryl Hargrove, President, Hargrove International & renowned expert in Cultural Heritage Tourism Planning, Development and Marketing.
Topics:
· How to develop compelling programs and events in a competitive environment
· Bridging the gaps: Identifying roles and responsibilities of Tourism Promotion
Agencies and Cultural Heritage Tourism Stakeholders
· Develop sustainable partnerships to create a unique visitor experience
· Marketing on a "shoe-string" budget
For more information, please contact info@nychtn.com or 315.521.3985
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Documentary Heritage Program
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Free online course registration to South Central DHP constituents
New and for a limited time only: Staff, board and volunteers for organizations in the following counties in NY will have the registration fee waived as a service to the South Central regional constituents of the Documentary Heritage Program: Allegany, Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, and Yates. These courses are made possible in part with funds from the Documentary Heritage Program of the New York State Archives, a program of the New York State Education Department. For more information & to register please visit our website: www.museumwise.org South-Central DHP Regional Directory As a service to our South-Central DHP constituents, Museumwise maintains a dynamic database of repositories in the South Central region. This database is housed on the Museumwise website and can be updated by individual repositories at any time. It offers information on hours, locations, collections and use restrictions of all repositories in the region. The database is organized by county but is completely searchable. By making the database dynamic, repositories and researchers are ensured that the most up-to-date information is available. For those of you within our South Central DHP service region (historical record repositories in: Allegany, Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, and Yates counties) please take a look at the database to confirm that your site's information is current & complete.
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Collections Care & Preservation Online Courses - Fall/Spring
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Our slate of Collections Care and Preservation Online courses provide basic, practical training at a low fee (starting at only $65!). These courses are designed for staff, volunteers, board members, or interns at small to mid-sized museums, historical societies, libraries and archives. Courses can be taken at your own pace, with 2-3 hours of work time per week to be completed at your convenience. The courses also offer interaction with qualified instructors and assigments are based on your own collections.
Collections Management 101*
September 26, 2011 - November 4, 2011
Course taught by Sarah LeCount
The course content will cover: Mission & Collecting, Collections Management Policies, Ethics & Museum Law, Accessioning & Cataloging, Security & Disaster Planning and Housekeeping, IPM & Artifact Handling
*this course is nearly full, please submit your registration post-haste
Introduction to Reformatting
February 6 - March 2, 2012
Course taught by Toya Dubin
This course should help you determine the best way to approach a digitization project for varying collections and is intended to take the mystery our of digitization vocabulary, while shedding light on technical issues.
Climate Control for Small Institutions
March 5 - March 30, 2012
Course taught by Sarah Stevens
This course will allow participants to explore the issues that need to be considered when planning for climate controls including monitoring, testing, environmental analysis assessments, long-range planning, systems design, construction support, and operations training. Low cost-low tech solutions will be offered and discussed, providing participants with the background knowledge to assist them in making informed decisions that can be implemented at their own institutions
Conservation and Preservation of Photographs and Albums
April 2 - April 27, 2012
Course taught by Gary Albright
Students will learn about photographs and their many formats - black & white, color, negative, prints, and albums. We will review the major processes, how to identify and date them, how to recognize their deterioration, and what can be done to preserve them.
Basic Preservation, Care & Handling of Paper Based Materials
April 30 - May 25, 2012
Course taught by Michele Phillips
Learn the mechanics behind the degradation of paper materials and how through passive activities and techniques you can slow down the march of time and safeguard your collections.
For more information or to register, visit our website
www.museumwise.org
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Catherine Gilbert, Executive Director
Museumwise
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