Welcome to the October edition of This Month in NYS Museums! In this newsletter... | | | The Co-Creation Model for Inclusive interpretation at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden | | | Shelley Worrell of I Am CaribBEING and Co-Curators Meera Jagroop and Chelsea Forgenie of Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Photo by Michael Stewart.
| | | In 2021, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) was awarded a $178,668 Museums for America grant from Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in the Lifelong Learning category to expand its Interpretive Master Plan with the goal to become a more inclusive, living museum. The expansion project titled, Inclusive Master Plan, helped the Garden include a broader cross-section of perspectives and achieve its goals to become a more welcoming, urban museum. The project formalizes inclusive practices such as providing staff professional development, amplifying community voices, and expanding storytelling about the Garden’s history and collections through its staff and volunteers while strengthening the Garden’s ability to serve the public. | | | | | Rebuilding a Museum, Brick by Brick: The Haverstraw Brick Museum | | | The Haverstraw Brick Museum is rebuilding its facilities in a $3 million renovation project to create a state-of-the-art museum. The renovation will increase the museum’s capacity to offer educational and public programming and restore the original 19th-century structure. It will add space for the museum’s collection, archives, staff offices, a terrace roof garden, and an ADA-compliant back entrance. They will also create the “Center for Innovation,” a space dedicated to examining historical and contemporary fine art and architectural tradecrafts that use clay as a creative and construction medium. | | | | | Letter from Erika: Giving Voice to Value | | | The last image from the 2023 Annual Conference
| Dear Members, Friends, and Supporters, I was reminded last week that in the Capital Region’s hardiness zones, tulip bulbs are planted in October and November – about eight weeks before a hard frost. They then need another 120 days of freezing temperatures before blooming in April. I can’t grow tulips. The deer that share our yard think they are fall snack offerings, so I forget that at this time of year so many friends have their hands in the soil and their minds on spring blossoms. The MANY staff will soon shift our work from travel around the state to planning our 2024 annual conference. This year our timeline mimics the tulips gathering energy below ground, with about 160 days before the 2024 conference in Albany. | | | | | | | MANY is committed to salary transparency. All job postings require a salary range. | | | | | Hiring? MANY Organizational and Industry Members post museum jobs for free. For other job posting opportunities, please contact the MANY office at info@nysmuseums.org or call 518-273-3400 | | | 2024 Annual Conference Giving Voice to Value April 6 - 9, 2024 | Albany, NY | | | | | 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? 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. | | | Proposals are due Friday, November 17 by 5 PM EST | | | | | Nominate your museum or museum colleague for an Award of Distinction!
MANY’s Awards of Distinction recognize the exceptional achievements of New York’s museums and museum professionals. Awards celebrate museums and honor museum professionals who create transformative experiences for visitors, shape innovative programs, and use collections to tell the stories of everyone who calls New York home.
Award Categories – Excellence in Design – Engaging Communities – Individual Achievement – Rising Star – Anne Ackerson Innovation in Museum Leadership – Board of Directors Special Achievement Award
Any museum or individual may nominate an organization, person(s), or project completed in 2023 at a museum, heritage, or cultural organization in New York State. Nomination of oneself or one’s organization is permissible and encouraged. | | | Nominations are due Friday, December 8 by 5 PM EST | | | | | Join MANY this fall for a series of virtual programs. All virtual programs are free and open to the public. Check back for more virtual programs! Virtual programs are made possible by the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. | | | | |
Social Media Savvy: Thinking Big, Working Smart Friday, October 27, 2023
12 - 1:30 PM EST In an increasingly digital landscape, the ability to use social media as a tool for building communities and driving followers to take action is becoming increasingly important, if not essential, for museums. Social media allows institutions to speak directly to their constituents, but also affords the ability to reach a much larger audience than those who walk through your doors. While the possibilities can seem endless it may also feel overwhelming. This session explores the basics of establishing a strong digital community, creating content using existing resources, showcasing collections, building followership, and motivating digital audiences to take action online. | | | | | | |
From Crisis to Community Anchor: One Institution's Journey Toward Transformation Friday, November 3, 2023
12 - 1:30 PM EST After a decade-long restoration, Historic Cherry Hill found itself in a period of crisis—with inadequate resources, a reduced public profile, pronounced donor fatigue, and disconnection from its local community. For Cherry Hill, “finding center” was a process of self-study in order to identify our value to existing and potential stakeholders; find the intersection between our mission and the needs of our community; align board and staff structure with institutional needs and capacity; and share the stories in our collections most meaningful to contemporary audiences. This session will discuss three transformational initiatives imbedded in strategic planning and audience evaluation. | | | | | | |
Decolonizing the Collection and Spiritual Care of Artworks Friday, November 17, 2023
12 - 1:30 PM EST As with many historical collections of artworks, there are certain works in the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s collection that are culturally inappropriate in today’s context. This could include their subject matter, their mediums, or their institutional cataloguing and titles. The Artworks Renaming Initiative addresses these problematic pieces by giving new names to identified artworks with the assistance of Indigenous Elders, knowledge keepers, and language keepers. The Renaming project was an initiative that directly addressed the UNDRIP and tangibly incorporated Indigenous knowledge into the cannon of art history and the art institution. This renaming project is now complete but we anticipate similar and ongoing projects to arise as we work more closely with our collection. | | | | | | | | | Regional Meet-Ups and Roundtable Discussions | If you were to open a museum tomorrow, what would you prioritize? Would you invest in your staff? Public programming? Justice and equity? What would you keep? What would you change? Join your colleagues and MANY for regional roundtable discussion about the future of our museums based on the recently published collection of essays "Change is Required: Preparing for the Post-Pandemic Museum."* Meet-ups and discussions are free; advance registration required. Limited space available. *Reading this book is not a requirement for participation. | | | | | Meet MANY and your Mohawk Valley museum colleagues at Munson on Thursday, November 9 from 4 - 6 PM. | | | | | | | Meet-Ups and Roundtable Discussions are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
| | | Funding Opportunities Institute of Museum and Library Services Museums and related organizations across the United States have six opportunities in the coming months to apply for grants from the nation’s primary source of federal funding for museum services. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is now accepting applications for six grant programs: Applications for all six programs are due on November 15, 2023. Applicants should review the notices of funding opportunity carefully to understand each program’s specific goals and objectives, which reflect the agency’s focus on championing lifelong learning, strengthening community engagement, and advancing collections stewardship and access. New York State Council on the Arts Stabilization Program for Small Arts Organizations Are you a nonprofit arts organization based in the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Western or Central New York regions, striving to thrive and make a lasting impact? Apply for the NYSCA Stabilization Program for Small Arts Organizations, an initiative to help organizations improve their operations through tailored consulting services. NOTE: If your organization is based in the Capital, Mid-Hudson Valley, Mohawk Valley, or North Country region, or on Long Island, click here for related information from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Learn more
Capital Projects Fund Up to $37 million in capital funding is available to nonprofit arts and culture organizations through the New York State Council on the Arts' Capital Projects Fund. The Fund has two grant categories: Small and Midsized Capital Improvement Grants and Large Capital Improvement Grants. NYSCA's Capital Projects Fund will support arts and cultural nonprofits seeking State funding for investments in capital improvements that allow organizations to sustain and expand cultural programming for diverse audiences, promote accessibility and environmental sustainability, preserve and create jobs, and ultimately contribute to the growth of New York's dynamic arts and tourism sectors.
Applications due January 11, 2024
Learn more | | | From the field... Preserving Our Historical Sites
Join Museum Hue on Saturday, October 28th, 2023 at the Albany Institute for Preserving Our Historical Sites panel discussion. There will be a light breakfast hour from 9:00am – 10:00am, and a panel discussion from 10:00am – 12:00pm. Museum Hue has been working on providing programming which stems from the research, findings and recommendations in the HueArts NYS Brown Paper report, which highlights the importance of physical space and built environment for POC-led arts stability. The core of this program stems from the need for the creation of more opportunities that allow place-based POC-led arts entities to continue supporting their communities. We are focusing on Preserving Our Historical Sites for this program as we are interested in amplifying the storied history of not only NYS, but specifically the capital region.Learn more American Alliance of Museums' Future of Museums Summit Each year, AAM’s Center for the Future of Museums releases TrendsWatch, a forecasting report outlining the emerging phenomena impacting the museum field. This year, take an in-depth exploration into TrendsWatch from wherever you are at the virtual Future of Museums Summit to connect with hundreds of museum professionals and gain tactical strategies to help you plan for a brighter future. Learn more and use the code NY10OFF for 10% off registration: summit.aam-us.org
| | | | | | | What's happening at your museum? How is your museum growing institutional resources, including welcoming new staff and board members and securing funding for projects, how is your museum working with their community and visitors; and how we use our exhibitions and collections in new ways. The deadline to submit for the October “This Month in NYS Museums” newsletter is November 10. Email meves@nysmuseums.org | | | | | |
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