| Museumwise News
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 & collaborative programs to support New York's museum field.
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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Museumwise Resources
We strive to keep you informed about what is happening in the field and to make information readily and easily available.
www.museumwise.org
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Museumwise & Oncell Systems Announce Mobil Technology Partnership
A new mobile technology partnership is now in place between OnCell and Museumwise. Museumwise members will receive a 25% discount on OnCell's mobile tour services, including cell phone tours, mobile web tours, mobile surveys, mobile giving, smartphone Apps, and text messaging.
OnCell and Museumwise will also work together to provide mobile technology solutions for Museums in Conversation.
Learn a bit more
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A Note from the Director
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As the autumn breezes past I'm inclined to reflect upon the wonderful people, serendipitous moments and fruitful opportunities that we've enjoyed this past year.
I'm delighted to recall several occasions upon which I declared "this is our Museumwise mission in action!" as we gathered together with old friends and new acquaintances weaving together the rich resources that lie within the inspiring individuals in our community.
As you peruse this edition, you will surely notice two recurring themes leadership & partnership. Leading off is our discussion with MANY and my great appreciation for the insight you shared in reply to our inquiries. Following along are recollections of provocative and vitalizing experiences at this year's Museum Institute at Sagamore where we voyaged within to define our leadership capabilities and finally our work with the Erie Canalway NHC & the NY Cultural Heritage Tourism Network on this fall's Cultural Heritage Tourism series.
In sum, the articles within seem to demonstrate the notion that the strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack. In this season for giving thanks, I am grateful to the Museumwise community for generously sharing your passion for extraordinary museums.
With best regards for a lovely holiday season,
~Catherine Gilbert
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| Museumwise & MANY Progress Update | |
Many thanks to the nearly 100 survey respondents and dozens of interviewees for sharing your thoughts, vision and aspirations to inform our discussion with MANY regarding re-visioning the model for Museum service organizations in New York.
We're currently at work analyzing your responses and drafting consolidation scenarios for deliberation at our upcoming joint-board meeting scheduled for the end of November.
If you've missed our recent correspondence, please read through the following.
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| 2011 Museum Institute at Sagamore |
 | | Leading the way. |
I am a coach, a collaborator, a 'collector' of good ideas & clever people...I am a leader
15 kindred museum professionals from across New York State joined together for a four-day Adirondack retreat to explore their Leadership capabilities.
Catherine's take-aways
- accept your responsibility & accountability for leading your institution's board & staff
- use mission-moments to connect folks to why we're here
- appreciate the benefit of gracefully bringing our humanity to our organizations
- create opportunities which raise our gaze above the horizon
- only do what only you can do - words to live & lead by
We are grateful to our talented panel of presenters for sharing their innovative ideas and perspectives and for rekindling our passion for the work that we do.
I'll share a few comments from this year's participants ~
- The Sagamore Institute helped me find my voice again. Thank you for everyone's hard work. I feel like I can make substantive changes that will enrich my life and my institution.
- Congratulations to the Museumwise Institute for delivering on all your promises you made about this place, the presenters and this experience. I'm leaving here with a renewed sense of confidence and I'm giving myself permission to be the best leader I can be and to do only what I can do.
- Words cannot express what Sagamore mean to me professionally and personally. As I've said on numerous occasions, I'm a firm believer in professional development but Sagamore is simply different! There is just no other way to describe it. Each year has been better and better!
- Once again Sagamore is not just what happens in the playhouse, but what also happens around a campfire, over meals or in an Adirondack chair!
- The Institute @ Sagamore was the most inspirational event of my museum career. This was exciting, fulfilling and I know I'll return to the museum refreshed and ready to look at things more clearly. The camaraderie I have developed will last a lifetime.
Curious about Sagamore - check out the photos on our Facebook page or plan to join us on Sunday evening, April 22, 2012 for our Taste of Sagamore dinner.
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| AASLH Announces Three Free Webinars |
Telling a Good Story
November 17, 2011
Time: 2-3:15 pm Eastern
A good guided tour is a good story, told well, says guest speaker Linda Norris. Join us to explore telling stories to create more meaningful tours and to connect with visitors who arrive at your site with many different interests.
Creating Historic House Interpretive Plans that Connect
December 8, 2011
Time: 2-3:15 pm Eastern
Interpretive plans that connect with your visitors and their lives are the keystone for a positive visitor experience. Guest speaker Nancy Bryk will show participants how research is an integral part of the interpretive planning process.
Redefining Audiences
January 27, 2012
Time: 2-3:15 pm Eastern
Who are our current audiences and how can we engage new ones? Looking at the most recent U.S. Census,
Susie Wilkening will discuss demographic change and the valuable ways in which history organizations can use census data.
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All three webinars are FREE to AASLH members and nonmembers.
Pre-registration is necessary.
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| Member Kudos |
We are delighted to extend our congratulations to the following Museumwise members:
 Congratulations to the Mabee Farm on the opening of their George E. Franchere Education Center. Featuring 100 southward-facing solar panels and fifteen 400-foot geothermal wells, the new George E. Franchere Education Center on the historic Mabee Farm site is an environmentally friendly structure.  Congratulations to the Westchester Children's Museum - the County of Westchester has granted them a home at the Rye Playland North Bathhouse . They officially kicked-off their building process on November 10th!  Congratulations to the Steel Plant Museum on the opening of the Heritage Discovery Center. The Center will be home to the Western New York Railway Historical Society's railroad museum, the Buffalo Lighthouse Association and the Steel Plant Museum. The facility includes museum display areas, community meeting spaces and shared resource areas.
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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. Let's explore how museums can rethink their roles and functions to make or enhance value in the 21st century.
Keynote Highlight
We are pleased to announce that Ron Chew, principal of Chew Communications and the former executive director of Seattle's Wing Luke Asian Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience will present the Keynote address at the 2012 Museums in Conversation conference. Known as an innovator using cutting-edge presentations with a locally oriented emphasis, Chew helped redefine museums by melding cultural identity, civic participation, and museum programs into a new tool in the fight for social justice.
Vendor & Sponsorship OpportunitiesPlease accept our invitation to connect to and build relationships with New York's museums and historical organizations! We have identified several exceptional sponsorship opportunities to allow you to promote your organization to hundreds museum professionals. In return for your support, your organization will reach the largest network of museum professionals in New York State.
Discover AlbanyUpon registering for the Museums in Conversation Conference, participants will receive a Museum Passport which will allow them free or reduced admission and other discounts at museums and other cultural institutions in and around the Albany area. We encourage you to extend your stay to take advantage of this opportunity to visit the organizations of your peers and colleagues while also enjoying the art, history and culture of New York's Capital District! Interested in adding your site to the Museum Passport, click here.
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| Museumwise-MANY White Paper Debuts this Month |
 The forthcoming Challenge of "Value" -- Engaging Communities in Why Museums Exist white paper is the culmination of three facilitated Focus on Value conversations that were held during the Museumwise & Museum Association of New York's 2011 New York State Museums in Conversation Conference. The intention behind these conversations was to highlight the critical importance of measuring the public impact of what museums and heritage organizations do and to articulate that value to a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including the general public. About 80 conference attendees participated in one or more of the sessions.
Authored by MANY's Program Coordinator Joan H. Baldwin and funded by the Corning Incorporated Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, the paper will be delivered electronically to members' inboxes within the next week. The paper will also be available for free download from the Museumwise & MANY websites.
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| Museumwise partners on Cultural Heritage Tourism Workshops |
 | | Peebles Island Workshop, November 3, 2011
Photo by Jean Mackay
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Making Cultural Heritage Tourism Work in the 21st Century
Sponsored by the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor and the New York Cultural Heritage Tourism Network in partnership with Museumwise
Museumwise's goal in partnering on this workshop series was to provide museums and historic sites, small and large, an opportunity to engage with their regional tourism professionals, to establish relationships and to foster a better understanding of one anothers strengths and capacities.
- A must-see video for those of you who are engaging in our ongoing discussion about leveraging the value of social media - Social Media Revolution by Erik Qualman
- What is your museum doing to develop local residents & business proprietors as cultural ambassadors for your site?
- Are you engaging local residents & business proprietors in your site's planning & assessment processes?
- How are you articulating the value of your site's impact on the local economy?
Ultimately, the workshops emphasized the inherent value of partnership - clearly reminding us that we don't have to do it all ourselves. By cultivating partnerships we can in essence raise all of the boats. (pun intended!)
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| Nominations due December 9th - 2011 Museumwise Award of Merit Nominees |
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2010 Award of Merit Winner Lyndhurst
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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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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
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Collections Care & Preservation Online Courses - Winter/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.
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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