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Giving Voice to Value
Annual Conference | Albany, NY
April 6 - 9, 2024
The Call for Proposals is now closed. Registration opens Monday, January 22, 2024.
MANY welcomes proposals for conference sessions, workshops, panel discussions, facilitated discussions, and peer-to-peer learning experiences that focus on our 2024 conference theme, Giving Voice to Value.
Join hundreds of museum professionals from across the state to discuss the proposition that it is time to look at new ways to communicate our value to stakeholders, funders, legislators, visitors, and communities. Museums dedicate resources to rationalize relevance, impact, community service, and investment in collections, programs, and facilities. What if those resources could be allocated to doing the work instead of pursuing funding for the next big thing that will help keep the doors open? What could our future look like if we created a sustainable business model that connected collections, education, and communications and correlated our values to our budgets?
We're looking for conference sessions that are 75 or 90-minutes in length or two to three hour long, immersive, and interactive workshops.
Proposals should share how you and your colleagues recently:
→ Collaborated with colleagues on a project that highlights the value of museums in our cultural ecosystem
→ Grew capacity and revenue
→ Raised awareness of functional and capital necessities
→ Shared the relevance and importance of collections
→ Adapted programming to meet audience needs
→ Crafted new interpretive strategies to increase community engagement
→ Expanded mission to serve new audiences
→ Nurtured human resources to build equity and inclusion
→ Developed programs connected to commemorations
→ Adopted new ways to communicate with stakeholders, funders, and legislators
→ Secured and improved accessibility to historic structures
→ Increased financial sustainability
→ Changed organizational culture
→ and Created opportunities to support democracy
MANY’s annual conference helps museum professionals build a network to share perspectives, tools, and skills that develop excellence across the field. Our goal is to nurture a community of practice, advance institutional change, and create an inclusive and expansive New York team of collaborators that learn together.
Proposals should include multiple perspectives on panels; illustrate collaboration across disciplines, sizes, and geographic locations; and illuminate the complex conditions under which we sustain, thrive, and support the history, art, culture of New York State. Join us in Albany to share your ideas about how we can build a better future for New York’s museums.
P.S. We know there is a small global event happening on Monday, April 8 called a total solar eclipse. The city of Albany is in the 96.6% “totality” zone. The conference schedule will include time - and glasses - to view the eclipse.
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How to submit a proposalPresentations by individuals from institutions of all sizes, all stages of their careers, and from all disciplines are welcome to submit a proposal. We welcome proposals from graduate and undergraduate students in the museum studies, public history, art history, non-profit administration and other relevant fields for ignite style* presentations. Industry partners are welcome to submit proposals only if they include a museum partner and share how the partners worked together to achieve success. Proposals from organizations in the Capital Region can include Saturday Workshops and Tuesday afternoon tours. Workshops and tours should offer a close look at museum practice and exemplary projects. Hands-on learning opportunities and site based experiences are also welcome. If you are interested in hosting a workshop or a tour, but aren’t sure how to proceed, please contact MANY staff at conference@nysmuseums.org. Proposals will be required to identify whether they will be 75 or 90-minutes in length. You may also propose a longer session for consideration as a two-part session or as a pre-conference workshop on Saturday. The Call for Proposals is now closed. Registration opens Monday, January 22, 2024. If you have questions about the theme or how to submit a proposal, please send an email to conference@nysmuseums.org If you are submitting a conference proposals via PDF, please email it to conference@nysmuseums.org with the subject line: "2024 Conference Proposal." *Ignite Presentations are fast-paced presentations that are conducted in ten minutes or less, including as many as 40 slides, with each slide automatically advancing every 15 seconds. Presenters are encouraged to use a variety of images and little text in their slides to convey a story to the audience. |
Proposal review process
The strongest proposals will:
→ share the “why” as well as the nuts and bolts,
→ present case studies with input from all involved,
→ share projects that question foundational processes,
→ and propose discussions about challenges that we all face.
Proposals that include only one voice and one perspective will not be competitive.
Have an idea, but you are not sure it fits the theme? Looking for a partner to present with you? Send an email to conference@nysmuseums.org and we will arrange a time for you to speak with MANY staff.
Speaker honoraria
If your proposal for our 2024 conference is accepted by the review committee, we are pleased to offer a modest honoraria of $50 per presenter; $200 maximum for group panel discussions. This opportunity, limited to the 2024 conference, is an acknowledgment of the work that our colleagues invest in preparing a proposal and presenting at a MANY conference. Presenters will also receive a discount on conference registration.
Timeline
Deadline for proposal submission: Wednesday, November 22.
Notification: December 14, 2023
Conference Registration Opens January 22, 2024
