Pre-Conference Workshops

Wednesday, July 31

There are three types of registration for this year’s conference – Virtual Only, Virtual + Single Day, and Virtual + In-Person. No matter which one you selected, you may purchase tickets for add-ons like pre-conference tours, pre-conference workshops, and evening events.

Creative Problem-Solving in Visitor Studies Methods

1:30 – 3:30 PM

Presenters: Laura Weiss and Donnelley Hayde, COSI’s Center for Research and Evaluation

What do you do when traditional data collection tools just won’t work? This workshop will explore strategies for learning from visitors in tricky physical contexts, hard-to-wrangle programmatic situations, and leisure experiences you can’t interrupt. Join us to explore these issues and begin working through them as related to your context.

Attend this workshop to:

  • Gather new ideas for how to creatively approach data collection for your own visitor studies projects.
  • Get comfortable with new tools for planning context-sensitive data collection.

Capacity: 30

Ticket: $10

Location: Center of Science and Industry (COSI), 333 W Broad St, Columbus

Getting Around: COSI is a 15- to 20-minute drive from the Hilton at Easton. The parking nearest COSI is the City of Columbus’ underground garage, managed by LAZ Parking. To view other options, click here.

The Resilient Museum: How to build endowment, reserves, and loyal donors

2:00 – 4:00 PM

Presenter: Laura MacDonald CFRE, Benefactor Group

How can museums fuel their cause and elevate mission? Through two key resources: money and people. This practical session offers museum leaders specific steps to engage donors, and build endowment and/or reserves. We’ll offer practical insights, recent research and donor trends, and worksheets to plan and guide museum fundraising programs.

Attend this workshop to:

  • Gain a better understanding of the role of an endowment and reserves in providing financial resilience for a museum.
  • Learn how to create the infrastructure and attract donors to support endowment and reserves.
  • Find out who gives to endowments, how and why they give, and the role of the museum team in engaging these doors.

Capacity: 20

Ticket: $10

Location: Kelton House Museum & Garden, 586 East Town Street, Columbus

Getting Around: Kelton House is a 15-minute drive from the Hilton at Easton. Convenient and free parking is available in the Museum lot at 616 Franklin Ave. A garden path from Franklin Avenue to the Museum is available. Visitors authorized to use disabled parking may use the Kelton House driveway.

Professional Development for Volunteers and Interns, and Why It Matters

2:30 – 4:30 PM

Presenter: Carol Noel, Conner Prairie Museum

Professional Development shouldn’t be limited to the C-Suite of museums. Come learn about practical, low-cost ways to provide early career development for your interns. Mentoring matters. Hear about a partnership between non-profits in Indiana that is providing Professional Development opportunities to Volunteers. You can do both!

Attend this workshop to:

  • Learn how to create a Professional Development training for your interns. 
  • Formulate a plan to tap into your Adult Volunteer pool for early career mentoring. 
  • Learn how organizations can work together to provide Professional Development for Volunteers.

Participants are also invited to tour the Ohio Craft Museum with a staff member following the workshop, to get a sneak peak of their upcoming exhibit and peruse their gift shops.

Capacity: 20

Ticket: $10

Location: Ohio Craft Museum, 1665 W 5th Ave, Columbus, OH 43212

Getting Around: Free parking is available on the east side of the museum. The Ohio Craft Museum parking lot has 1 ADA parking space available in the rear of our main parking lot. A lift is available at the rear entrance.

Just Bloom Workshop at the Columbus Museum of Art

2:00 – 4:00 PM

Presenter: Sarah Lagrotteria, Just Bloom

How can we change visitors’ relationship to art so it grows their own creativity at home and work? In this workshop, we’ll explore Just Bloom School’s method of using art to excite wonder and activate your deep brain creativity through narrative. We’ll then shift from the art to our own lives- how can the same method help you spot the exceptional in the world around you and use that to create new growth in your home and work life? How can this practice help deepen your relationship to art as a practical tool of imagination and growth?

Capacity: 20

Ticket: $10

Location: Columbus Museum of Art, 480 East Broad Street, Columbus

Getting Around: The Columbus Museum of Art is a 15-minute drive from the Hilton at Easton. The museum’s parking lot has limited availability. Use the map linked here to help you find additional parking.

At the Crossroads of Imagination and Critical Thinking: Studio Thinking Workshops at the Columbus Museum of Art

4:00 – 6:00 PM

Presenters: Megan Green, Columbus Museum of Art, and Carol Padilla Perez, Columbus Museum of Art

Attendees of this workshop will learn about Studio Thinking Workshops as a hands-on education program designed for homeschool families, school groups, and teaching professionals, which seek to provide attendees with a different approach to creativity through the lens of imagination and critical thinking skills to generate ideas.

Attend this workshop to:

  • Practice your own creativity and civic engagement skills as implemented in studio workshops, education, and classrooms.
  • Learn how to think like an artist, using imagination and critical thinking to generate ideas. 
  • Learn more about strategies used at the Columbus Museum of Art to support visitor creativity.

Capacity: 25

Ticket: $10

Location: Columbus Museum of Art, 480 East Broad Street, Columbus

Getting Around: The Columbus Museum of Art is a 15-minute drive from the Hilton at Easton. The museum’s parking lot has limited availability. Use the map linked here to help you find additional parking.