WestMuse Blog

Here on the WestMuse Blog, you’ll find a variety of articles and resources to help guide you through this difficult time as we all stay home to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Check in every #WestMuseWednesday and Fridays for our latest blog posts discussing current topics from learning how to work from home to sharing social media best practices.

If you’re seeking information on a specific topic related to the museum industry or COVID-19, please feel free to reach out to us at blog@westmuse.org. Thanks!

Contribute to our blog! View our submission guidelines.

April 1, 2016
WMA is looking to up-and-coming museum professionals and requesting submissions for the 2016 Poster Session.
The goal of the Poster Session is to showcase how CHANGE—the theme of WMA 2016—impacts the museum field. This Poster Session is an opportunity to obtain new insights, share ideas and projects, as well as network with museum colleagues in an informal setting.

WMA Board Member, Lorie...
March 10, 2016
By Cathy Morris
This post was written by a recipient of a Wanda Chin scholarship to attend the 2015 Annual Meeting.
You know the saying, “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone?” Well, that’s something I learned a little more than a year ago, when I left the museum world, almost as quickly as I had entered it.
I should mention that working for a museum was never on my radar. I earned my...
February 16, 2016
By Monica Moncada
Growing up in a predominately working-class, Mexican community, I had never truly understood the power that history and awareness can hold. I grew up hearing stories about my family, my community, and my culture, but I did not realize how much power my family’s stories had. Going through grade school none of the knowledge that I learned from my parents was ever validated during...
February 1, 2016
By Kate Skelly
Arizona Science Center is located in Heritage and Science Park in the heart of downtown Phoenix. The Center serves over a half million guests annually, nearly 140,000 of which are school children. To accomplish its mission to, “Inspire, educate, and engage curious minds through science”, Arizona Science Center utilizes an informal, hands-on approach to science exploration and...
January 26, 2016
By Kelsey Clark
This post was written by a recipient of a Wanda Chin Scholarship to attend the 2015 Annual Meeting.
The San Francisco Bay Area is booming. The population in the entire region is growing, new industries are taking root and cities are struggling to keep up with the pace of change. Museums in the area - and across the Western United States - are coming to terms with new audiences,...
January 6, 2016
By Mardi Maxwell
(Continued from: Engaging Senior Audiences- Part I: Community Profile)
At a time when the arts face new challenges, organizations are trying out new ways to increase and diversify their audiences. The Palo Alto Art Center (PAAC) recognized that building a senior audience took looking inside their programming and operations and ‘outside their four walls’ to create meaningful...
December 23, 2015
By Mardi Maxwell
What does it take for museums to engage senior audiences? And how should they go about developing and sustaining this relationship? With community research through John F. Kennedy University’s Museum Studies program, we are now one step closer to having answers to these questions.
In spring of 2015, graduate students, Betsy Ringrose, Christina Samore and Mardi Maxwell embarked on...
December 14, 2015

The Western Museums Association (WMA) presents the third installment of WestMusings | 10 Minute Museum Talks, which took place during the 80th Annual Meeting. WestMusings is a program of short, engaging presentations by unique voices—intended to inspire others in the field. This year, speakers delved into topics that explored how museums can be more engaging and relevant to the communities we...

Pages

Subscribe to WestMuse Blog