I am delighted to have attended WMA for the first time with the help of the Wanda Chin Scholarship. In my four years since finishing my Master’s degree in Museum Studies that I started in August of 2020, I have been working on learning more about the museum field through conferences. I have attended two CAM conferences before this, my first one also thanks to a scholarship, and I am always struck by the amazing people in it. And this year was no different as WMA elevated four things for me. Which were Courage, Confidence, Community, and Comfort, or as I am calling them, the Four C’s.
As a self-described introvert, networking is something that takes courage for me to do. I have to make conscious decisions to put myself out there. Determined, I joined the Speed Networking event. A co-worker and I had arrived late from our previous event and while clutching our business cards, we had just enough time to learn how the speed networking worked and create a spiel before she was switched with a new person. It was nice to quickly meet a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds, not all museum specific, and with varying levels of museum conference attendance under their belts. The entirety of the event seemed to both stretch on forever and take no time at all. By the end of it I think I collected at least 20 business cards. It was a good way to create familiar faces early in the conference.
Being early in my museum career I sometimes lack the confidence to feel equal footed to more seasoned museum professionals. I often find myself listening to conversations between people who have been around for longer as they swap stories about their institutions and problems they have or have solved. While this is a wonderful way to learn I can’t help but feel I am not contributing to the conversation. I was invited to attend the WMA Leadership Reception and at first, I was sitting at a large table full of people but not engaged in any conversation. I felt unsure about inserting myself into the conversations when from across the table I was asked to join. Taking my chance, I moved to join the conversation where at first, I was doing my usual listening of the back and forth of the conversation until it was just me and the person that had called me over. She was a newer WMA board member and asked me about my job. I shared how I had taken an object from our collection and dug more into the story of the donor. Having first found little specific information I took a chance and sent a letter to the address we had on file. As luck would have it, she gave us a call and has since donated a few more things to us. I hope to continue to foster a relationship with the donor to better tell her story. The experience itself was a boost in my personal confidence but being able to share that with someone outside of my usual work circle felt like I was really entering into the museum world.
While the conference itself was one big community, I’d like to comment on a few sessions that centered on community. The first being, Beyond Representation: Authentic Indigenous Engagement for Museums with Claire Munoz, Ann Wolfe, Melissa Melero-Moose, and Stacey Montooth. This session spoke about how to create relationships that were not reciprocal to allow the Nevada Art Museum to become a space where Indigenous artists and Native Community members could not only be represented in but also represent themselves. These relationships had taken time and with a few stumbles along the way, but to fully and appropriately engage with a community was to not expect anything from them and let things form organically. It’s a good reminder to museums that fostering relationships does not run on deadlines. That they are work and best produced when there is real and authentic interest in the needs and wants of the community.
The second session I want to comment on, Let’s Talk about the Needs/Experiences of AANHPI Museum Folks with Jennifer Fang, Johanna Jones, Barron Oda, and Edward Tepporn. This was about gauging the interest of museum professionals that might identify as AANHPI and want to create a network of people that could share experiences, resources, or even just a sounding board. It’s the beginning stages of creating a group but even seeing the interest in having one shows the desire to have a safe space and community to connect with.
Throughout all of this, something that keeps coming back to me besides what an amazing community that WMA has fostered over 90 years is how comfortable I am to be in the space and around people. I felt very welcomed, and I look forward to contributing to the welcoming atmosphere of WMA into the future.
Miranda Bello is a Curatorial Assistant at the California State Railroad Museum where she not only enjoys updating the museum catalog but also finding hidden people stories amongst the objects. Prior to working as a curatorial assistant, Miranda was an Education Assistant for the Hayward Area Historical Society. About four years ago Miranda graduated from the University of San Francisco with a Master’s in Museum Studies, after going through the program during COVID-19.
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