Did you know the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has over 10,000 objects in its permanent collection? Join us, and learn about the process of acquiring, exhibiting and conserving Rock and Popular culture history.

Do you know who you are? Does it matter? What does it have to do with this weird world of museums anyway? Soul roles are the role that all of us carry at our core, informing our work, ourselves, the lives around us, and how we show up in them.

Adler utilizes two teacher boards to shape our school experience approach. This conversation will share the best practices Adler has developed with the goal of helping attendees envision what kind of teacher group(s) might benefit both their organization and audience, and the next steps they can take to build them.

Let’s ignite a dynamic dialogue about the evolving relationship between museums and educators. Drawing on insights from Ohio History Connection and collaborative partners, we will delve into the shifts in engagement with teachers over recent years. We aim to decipher challenges, explore trends, and chart a course for future success.

Are you a dissatisfied front line museum worker? Are you a museum administrator confused about why your front line staff is dissatisfied? Come learn about the importance of communication between front line and administrative museum staff in creating a better environment for staff and visitors.

This program is designed to help small to medium sized museums, libraries and historical societies take advantage of the free cemetery research service ‘Find-A-Grave’ to expand access to their archives and help their communities find their family stories.

The emerging museum professional must be forward thinking, which originates in the classroom. This session explores undergraduate museum studies class projects that fulfill DEI requirements, hard lessons in teaching, and positive outcomes. Students gain real world experience and learn about access and inclusion, collaboration, conflict resolution, and cultural competence.

In a world that is fraught with complex challenges, museums are searching for a way to reframe and renegotiate their approach, becoming a source for inspiration, motivation, meaning, and hope. This poster introduces a way forward, through the Flourishing Museums Framework, a guide to practice through a strengths-based appreciative approach.

Explore the intrinsic connection between fundraising, social media marketing, and educational content with core museological values of accessibility, inclusion, and storytelling. Attendees will gain insight into the deeper purpose of museum writing. This is a valuable opportunity for museum professionals or students interested in exploring writing in museology.

We all have resources and skills unique to us. We also are surrounded by people who have resources, skills, or needs that we don’t have. This sets us up for lots of potential for collaboration – in this session, learn how to identify collaborative work possibilities and do it effectively!

With an eye toward advancement teams of all sizes, presenters will lead a lively discussion of: the giving life cycle, the nature of annual/major gifts, engaging non-advancement staff and volunteers, good stewardship practices and appropriate goal setting, weaving in valuable insights from annual and major gift donors.

If your museum had the opportunity to rewrite its own script, where would you focus? During this session museum professionals will learn to sharpen the pencil on where best to focus their impact and relevancy given changing societal expectations, embracing technology, and better understanding the evolving dynamic visitor.

Traditional case-based exhibits in historic homes used as history museums can be boring to many visitors. Discover how the Wyandot County Museum turned a plain second-floor bedroom into the award-winning immersive Artz Department Store exhibit involving several community partners, generating memories, and spurring renewed interest in the museum.

Perhaps you know the basics of web accessibility, but you haven’t implemented the WCAG standards on your website or digital channels. Participants will review basic terms, tips, and resources, and will walk away with the tools to begin creating a more inclusive and compliant digital ecosystem right away.

Migrating to a new CMS can be intimidating. This session shares the ins and outs of planning, migration, and post-migration evaluation from the perspective of three museum professionals of varying-sized institutions. Panelists will share their experiences to help you get started on your journey forward to a new CMS solution.

Focusing on the backstory of a single major museum exhibit can provide an engaging way of exploring connections between science and other disciplines. Learn how digital documentation of a mounted skeleton of an extinct ground sloth has become effective in engaging diverse audiences, integrating science in K-12 classrooms, and promoting the Orton Geological Museum’s missions.

Join educators from the NVMM and ABHM as we discuss ways to position museums as valuable spaces for K-12 social-emotional learning with the support of community partnerships. We want to hear from you – half of this session will encourage attendees to share their own community partnerships.

What do love, kindness, gratitude and humor have to do with meeting the challenges faced in museum practice? This dynamic panel and hands-on session will present cutting edge research and illustrative examples of positive practices in museums, and how they work across leadership, staff and visitor experience.

Come play! Join us for a thoughtful and interactive conversation about the power of play in museums. Explore one museum’s playful learning framework that informs exhibit design, programming, and guest engagement through a lens of equitable access. Discuss how all museums can (and should!) intentionally incorporate play for all learners.

Nervous about the updated NAGPRA regulations? There is no need to fear! Learn how The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis navigated their first repatriations and created a template for future global repatriation efforts.

Learn about the impactful and evolving partnership between an art museum and community college that led to wild and wonderful ideas. See how it started, how it’s grown, and how to foster your own partnerships with folks at complementary institutions.

Museums that meet public needs through collaboration more closely reflect their communities, making them more visible, relevant and sustainable. This program will discuss an adaptable model used by a small museum to create a multi-community Underground Railroad research and exhibit project that has transformed awareness of local Black history.

We all know hiring is hard – but does it have to be? Join seasoned museum professionals with a ridiculous number of combined hires under their belts for a thoughtful discussion of defining your hiring philosophy and using it to form the teams you need now and into the future.

Presenters will share an emerging toolkit for exploring visitor experience preferences and learning from implementing and applying the associated research. This work aims to help museums close the gap between design intentions and visitors’ perceptions. Learn more about the project and contribute thinking about how to improve the toolkit!

Hear from frontline staff members discussing best practices for engaging, retaining, and sustaining frontline staff and fostering superior visitor engagement. From training to team building, we will explore creative ways to foster development and sustainability for future frontline teams.