The Importance of Mission in Guiding Museum Practice

Second in a series of three publications on professional practice, MANY’s latest title, The Importance of Mission in Guiding Museum Practice, discusses the benefits of developing and implementing a clear, meaningful mission. Each essay offers sound advice for organizations of any size and discipline when approaching mission refinement. The accompanying CD provides an array of mission, vision, and values statements from 59 MANY member institutions, and the resource list provides a variety of ways you can obtain additional information to craft vibrant, engaging mission statements. The publication is funded by the New York State Council on the Arts and is the outgrowth of a workshop series MANY developed last year.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Kristin Herron, Director, Museum Program, New York State Council on the Arts
• On Mission
• Kinshasha Holman Conwill
• Reprinted with permission from the Web site of Management Consultants for the Arts
• Putting Mission First
• Liz Sevcenko, Vice President of Programs, Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New York
• The Evolving Mission of Fort Ticonderoga, 1931 – 2003: A Case Study
• Nicholas Westbrook, Director, Fort Ticonderoga
• Refocusing Interpretive Mission: A Case Study
• Liselle LaFrance, Director, Historic Cherry Hill, Albany, New York
• Mission and Profit
• by John Durel
• Reprinted with permission from the Web site of Qm2
• Resource Section
• CD-Rom/PDF of vision, mission, and values statements from 59 MANY member institutions