This past June 2013, the Western Museums Association (WMA) had a registration contest for 2 tickets to Evening Events during the 2013 Annual Meeting: the Natural History Museum of Utah or the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. WMA 2013, Drive On! Museums and the Future, will be held in Salt Lake City Utah from October 9-12, 2013.

A vital component of the WMA’s mission is fun, and these Evening Events definitely take that into consideration. While you’re making connections and networking with colleagues, there will also be fantastic performances, special exhibitions, and opportunities for private access to collections.

The WMA would like to congratulate Jenette Purdy on winning 2 tickets to the Evening Event of her choice! Jenette is the Director of Education at the Park City Museum, and a presenter in the session Do More Spending Less: Low Cost Technology and Engagement Strategies at WMA 2013.

Make sure to see Jenette on Friday night at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts Evening Event!

To add tickets – such as Evening Event and Pre-Conference Tours – to existing registrations, please follow these directions:

1. Go to the Registration Page, log in and click “View or Change Your Existing Registration”
2. Enter email address and password, click the “Continue” button
3. On next page, click the “Continue” button
4. Select events to add, then click the “Continue” button
5. Fill out payment information then click “Submit” button
6. New events will be added to registration and your credit card will be charged

If you experience registration issues, please contact us at wma@westmuse.org.

Evening Events

Natural History Museum of Utah
Thursday, October 10, 2013
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
$40: includes transportation, heavy appetizers, and beverages

Enjoy an evening at the Natural History Museum of Utah in its new copper-clad building, the Rio Tinto Center, in the foothills of Salt Lake City. Food and drink open the party as you enjoy the sunset on the Museum’s Sky Terrace to the sounds of Native American flute music. Wind your way down through the award-winning galleries—Native Voices, Life, Land, First Peoples, Great Salt Lake, Past Worlds—which are the subject of Friday’s exhibit critique session. On your stroll, meet Navajo basket maker Anderson Black, enjoy Museum Theatre performances, interact with gallery interpreters including the Bug Brigade, see the Special Exhibition Nature Unleashed, and go behind-the-scenes to see the newest dinosaur discoveries in the Paleontology Lab. The evening closes in the Canyon with dessert and drinks under the spectacular, three-story Collections Wall.

Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Friday, October 11, 2013
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
$40: includes transportation, heavy appetizers, and beverages

Join us for a memorable evening at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts! The UMFA is the state’s primary cultural resource for global visual arts, with a comprehensive collection of more than 5,000 years of art from around the world. Guests will enjoy wine and hors d’oeuvres, a short performance by students of the University’s Modern Dance Department, and private access to the UMFA’s permanent collections. Special exhibitions on view include a retrospective of the work of visionary, feminist artist Martha Wilson, and a remarkable collection of works on paper from the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation featuring the work John Baldessari, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Rusha and Kara Walker.

Pre-Conference Tours

Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
$65 per person, includes transportation, admission, tours, and lunch.

Join us for an exquisite day of sightseeing and exploration with Hikmet Sydney Loe, local art historian and expert on Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. The iconic earthwork, Spiral Jetty, takes the form of a 1,500-foot-long and approximately 15-foot-wide coil of basalt rocks that extends into Utah’s Great Salt Lake, near Rozel Point. For many years, Spiral Jetty remained submerged beneath the rising waters of the lake. In the early 2000s the ghostly earthwork reemerged, and the lake has now receded so far from the mainland that visitors can walk between the rings of the spiral if they choose. Learn more about the Spiral Jetty through a virtual exhibition (http://umfa.utah.edu/spiraljetty) created by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in conjunction with The Smithson Effect exhibition. Participants should bring water, sun hats, and sturdy shoes. The site is not ADA accessible.

Park City
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
8:30 am – 4:30 pm
$60 per person, limited to 34 participants, includes transportation, admission, tours, and lunch.

Spend the day discovering Park City and find out how three small museums have reinvented themselves (or are about to) to deal with seasonal tourism while staying connected to the local community. First stop is the Utah Olympic Park, site of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. We will be touring the Alf Engen Ski Museum and the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games Museums. The group will also tour the Utah Olympic Park, seeing the bobsled/luge/skeleton track and the K90 and K120 Ski Jump. Next stop is Historic Park City. Visit the National Register listed Historic Main Street on a docent led tour, explore the town’s silver mining history at the Park City Museum, learn of the Kimball Art Center’s BIG plans, and go shopping in the beautiful resort town.

Thanksgiving Point Institute
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
8:30 am – 4:30 pm
$15 per person, includes transportation, admission and tours.

The guided trip starts by walking from the Hilton Salt Lake City Center to the light rail for an hour ride, and short shuttle bus trip to Thanksgiving Point Institute—a farm, garden and museum complex focused on interactive learning.We will provide tours and all-access to each of our venues: Farm Country, 55-acre garden, Museum of Ancient Life, and hard hat construction tours of our new science center opening Spring 2014—the Museum of Natural Curiosity. Shuttle will be provided and rotate all day from Front Runner stop and venues. Restaurants and shopping are also available. More information: www.thanksgivingpoint.org

To attend the 2013 Annual Meeting and these Evening Events, please register here: http://www.regonline.com/WMA2013