by Valerie Huaco

Back in November when the WMA program committee convened in San Diego to review session proposals, we took some time to discuss what ideas had been knocking around in our collective heads. What’s on the tip of our museological tongue, as it were. Many good sessions were born of that conversation, including On Board with Innovation, Weathering the Storm: Foundations Respond to the Financial Crisis, Strategic Plans: Friend or Foe, the Tech Lab, Leave No Child Inside, the Resource Clinics, and the general session on museums in Quatar.

Merritt Price, Design Manager at the J. Paul Getty Museum, brought forward the idea of a “New and Notable” session to capture some of that same energy, live, at the annual meeting.
Merritt’s idea was enthusiastically embraced by the program committee, as we were all searching for ways to take the buzzing human energy we were experiencing and bring it to the meeting.

Intern Lisa Chanoff, who most recently worked with the Contemporary Jewish Museum, has joined us to spread the word and solicit New and Notable submissions. We’ve had a stirring of interest, but there is room for more. I’m including the call for entries below. What’s going on in your microcosm of the museum world? Share!

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Let us know what's "new and notable" at your institution and we will
present it at a new session at A Rising Tide: Sustainable Practices,
Green & Beyond, the upcoming annual meeting of the Western Museums
Association, October 24-30, 2009, in San Diego.

The New and Notable session will showcase the best of the west's work
and feature newly built projects that are permanent in scope or programs

and projects that are unique. Projects submitted must have been
completed between September 2007 and September 2009. A What to Watch For

segment will feature up and coming projects scheduled for completion by
September 2010.

To submit an entry for the New and Notable session please send:

* A 75 word description of the project or program including the relevant dates of completion or in the case of a unique program, when it was instituted and what makes it unique. Include something you (or your institution) learned from it, and what you might change next time.
* Up to three 1 MB images
* Project contact person and contact information
* Send the above to wmanewandnotable@gmail.com

Submission deadline: July 31, 2009

We will also be highlighting work in development in a Poster Session in
which presenters can showcase ideas that are in the percolator on 19" x
24" posters, and be in attendance to discuss their ideas and solicit
input from the WMA community. The Poster Session is intended to showcase

the work of students and/or staff-led or institutional research
including the results of grant-funded projects and in-house initiatives.

Posters for chosen projects will include up to three images, a 250-word
description, timeline, and contacts.

To submit an entry for the Poster Session please send in:
* A 75 word description of the work in development
* Project contact person and contact information
* Send the above to wmapostersession@gmail.com

Submission deadline: July 31, 2009

For more information go to westmuse.org, call the WMA office, 510-665-0700, or email Lisa Chanoff .