At the 2013 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, the Western Museums Association (WMA) proudly launches a new programmatic feature: WestMusings | Ten Minute Museum Talks. Based on TED Talks’ model, WestMusings is an unconference program of short, rehearsed, and engaging presentations on museum related topics. WestMusings will provide an important platform for tomorrow’s museums leaders to speak today at the Annual Meeting. The goal is for WestMusings to become a programing source that goes beyond the Annual Meeting by being filmed and then freely distributed on the web. The program will occur during the WMA 2013 Closing Reception at the Church History Museum on October 12, 2013 – a free event for conference attendees.

WestMusings 2013 will be MC’ed by James Leventhal, Deputy Director for Development at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and WMA’s Vice President of Membership and Development, and includes the following presenters:

Colleen Dilenschneider, Chief Market Engagement Officer, IMPACTS

Colleen Dilenschneider is a recognized voice in the realm of audience engagement using social media technologies. Regarded as a leader of the next generation of nonprofit management, Colleen has built significant symbolic capital as a Generation Y museum aficionado, published numerous articles for industry and general market media outlets, and is a frequent speaker and contributor to podcasts and webinars. Her blog on nonprofit marketing, Know Your Own Bone (http://colleendilen.com/), has been prominently featured in many national association publications, and is required reading for several Museum Studies graduate programs and professional conferences.

Scott Stulen, Director of mnartists.org, Walker Art Center

Scott Stulen has many responsibilities at Walker Art Center, including playing a leadership role in their essential public-facing offering Open Field. As lead organizer of the Cat Video Festival, and Director for mnartists.org, and Manager of the Walker Art Center’s OpenField, Stulen’s artist’s statement reads: “I am interested in how popular culture bonds with fragments of memory to create unexpected connections and points of entry, which linger decades later. I am fascinated in how familiar, yet isolated references can be combined to create a new experience, which is both personal, but strangely out of context. I view my role much like a DJ, sampling fragments of pop culture, personal and collective histories and false memories and combining them into a singular work. The key is in selecting, remixing and dropping of the appropriate sequence of samples, thus leading the audience to find meaning in unexpected places.” Watch his TEDxIndianapolis presentation: http://youtu.be/ieYcHy3LKes

James Pepper Henry, Director and CEO, Heard Museum

James Pepper Henry has recently been named as the Heard Museum’s Director and CEO after a successful six-year tenure at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Alaska’s premier art, history and science institution. Pepper Henry formerly served as an associate director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Pepper Henry played a pivotal role in the establishment and launch of NMAI, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., that opened to the public in 2004. Pepper Henry is a member of the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma and Muscogee Creek Nation. He is co-founder and president of the Kanza Ilóshka Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to the perpetuation of the cultural life-ways and traditions of the Kaw people. As well as being WMA Board member, Pepper Henry is also an active American Indian traditional dancer and is co-founder of the Kaw Nation Traditional Dance Society.

Carrie Snow, Manager of Collections Care, Church History Museum

Carrie Snow is the Manager of Collections Care for the Church History Museum, located in Salt Lake City, and Treasurer of the Utah Museums Association Board of Directors. With a BA in Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara and an MA in Museum Studies from John F. Kennedy University, she has worked in Registration areas of the UCLA Fowler Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Judah L. Magnes Museums and the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace. She has also been a development officer with the Registrars Committee - Western Region. Since October of 2011, she has gone by Jane Accostin' as a skater for the Wasatch Roller Derby.

The WMA invites you to join your friends and colleagues for WestMusings during the 2013 Closing Reception, a free event for conference attendees on October 12, 2013. To register for the 2013 Annual Meeting, as well as this event, please visit: www.regonline.com/WMA2013

WestMusings | Ten Minute Museum Talks is generously sponsored by Wells Fargo & Nixon Peabody LLP