FREE!
Sponsored by University of San Francisco Museum Studies Program.

Join your fellow Annual Meeting attendees for coffee, while connecting with new colleagues and seeing familiar faces.

FREE!

Watch a live vacuum chamber transform ordinary objects - marshmallows expand, water boils without heat, sound fades, and pickles form instantly. Through hands-on observation and guided questions, you'll discover that air isn't "nothing" it takes up space, exerts pressure, and shapes how matter behaves. Predict, observe, and connect what you see to real-world phenomena like weather, altitude, and even life in space.

FREE!

Explore a 1,000-year-old sandstone petroglyph in Chaco Canyon that may depict a solar storm - humanity's earliest known image of the Sun's corona. Using historic and modern NASA images, you'll investigate this ancient sky-watching record through a hands-on, visual and tactile activity adapted for blind and low-vision learners. Share feedback on new art-based extensions designed to spark collaboration and reflection.

Enjoy coffee, tea, and light snacks while perusing exhibitors' booths, bidding on silent auction items, and networking with peers.

FREE!

Join your colleagues in the Exhibit Hall where you can explore vendor offerings and enjoy lunch courtesy of the WMA and UMA. Make sure to start bidding on the fabulous items in the silent auction that were generously donated by our members. All proceeds will benefit the scholarship funds to help colleagues attend future gatherings of the Western Museums Association and the Utah Museum Association.

Sponsored by MATT Construction

Join us as we welcome attendees to Salt Lake City, present the 2026 Awards - the Charles Redd Center Award for Exhibition Excellence, the WMA Leadership Award, and the WMA Impact Award - and get inspired by the keynote speaker!

Opening Remarks: Jason B. Jones, Executive Director, Western Museums Association

Local Welcome: James Toledo, Deputy Director, Utah Division of Indian Affairs

In a groundbreaking program at the Shangri-La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design, PhD student Hossein Nakhaei explored their collection of Persian luster tiles. The institution opened itself to meaningful critique as he focused on their most prized possession, a luster mihrab, one of only six in the world. Learn what happened when they connected via zoom with community members standing in front of the empty space where the mihrab once belonged.

Leaders work hard to cultivate cultures of trust, collaboration, and creativity, but who supports them? Data shows we are burning out generations of leaders in the creative sector, particularly women of color. How might we find new ways to connect, support, and ultimately thrive in this field? Join this facilitated discussion to explore what some institutions are doing to bring greater balance to their workplace and find new ways of working.

Our organizations actively engage with communities in discussions that promote critical thinking about some of the most pressing issues we face today. This presents both opportunities and challenges, especially when addressing potentially contentious topics. Learn how our institutions navigate difficult topics to facilitate thought-provoking conversations and inspire students to think critically. Brainstorm with colleagues to find curriculum links to specific topics and conversations your organization engages in.

Museums across the world are confronting the responsibility to return Indigenous belongings and ancestors. This session shares how the Museum of Us is expanding its Cultural Resources team and developing institution-wide strategies to return all holdings to their homelands while strengthening relationships with Indigenous communities. Attendees will gain perspectives on relational repair, consent-based stewardship, and institutional transformation.