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!

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April 21, 2015
By Ami Davis
Art museums, and California art museums in particular, are increasingly tasked with expanding their engagement strategies for the twenty-first century. Demographic shifts in our state are twenty years ahead of the rest of the nation. Youth lack consistent arts education in schools, and thus art museums run the risk of losing the support of future generations. How do we as an art...
April 16, 2015
By Leilani Lewis
This post was written by a recipient of a Wanda Chin Scholarship to attend the 2014 Annual Meeting
Attending the WMA 2014 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas this year, for the first time, was a tremendous opportunity for me. I met with colleagues from across the west, attended sessions that increased my knowledge base, and gleaned insights that emboldened my practice as a museum...
April 14, 2015
By AnnaMaria Paruk
Many STEM trainings are geared toward the teachers or administrators who work with children, but BurkeMobile, the mobile educational outreach program at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, Washington, recently had the opportunity to lead a training with a group that is sometimes overlooked—parents.
In February, we packed museum objects and headed to...
April 6, 2015
Professional conferences are a fantastic arena to learn and grow through attending sessions, networking with peers, and exposure to organizational, theoretical, and geographical perspectives. However, taking advantage of this type of opportunity often is a matter of finances.
The Western Museums Association (WMA) offers the Wanda Chin Scholarship to assist member’s financial needs and ultimately...
April 1, 2015
The Western Museums Association (WMA) 2015 Annual Meeting in San Jose will be here before you know it! One of WMA’s goals is to foster inclusion and leadership, and in that spirit the WMA is happy to announce the official Request for Proposals for the 2015 Poster Session.
The goal of the Poster Session is to showcase how museums Listen • Learn • Lead—the theme of WMA 2015 Annual Meeting—in order...
March 25, 2015
By Meg Clovis
The Monterey County Agricultural & Rural Life Museum (MCARLM) is located at San Lorenzo Park in King City, CA—a rural community of 13,248 people in the southern Salinas Valley. The museum first opened its doors in 1983. The nucleus of the museum centers on large collection of farm equipment and artifacts that reflect over a century of farming in the Salinas Valley. These...
March 18, 2015
Nestled within one of the few remaining apricot orchards of Santa Clara Valley, the Los Altos History Museum (LAHM) has been open since 1977. Believing that history “inspires imagination, stimulates thought and transforms society,” they tell the story of the area by “preserving and sharing our local history to enrich our community and to shape a more informed future.”
The City of Los Altos, laid...
March 12, 2015
By Jennifer Caballero
Museums are at the forefront of addressing issues facing California—they are tackling social justice issues, communicating about climate change, and serving audiences with specific needs, as well as experimenting with sustainable business practices, distance learning, crowd-sourced content, and new technologies.
As ominous as those issues might sound, 500 intrepid museum...

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