This session highlights examples of successful collections engagement strategies that aspire to improve community relations and public relevance while building mutual trust between indigenous Pacific Islander communities and the collections/archives that house Oceanic ancestral belongings.

This session focuses on how museums bridge generational gaps to ensure long-term vitality. Leaders from the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Nora Eccles Harris Museum, and Kimball Art Center share innovative strategies for engaging children, college students, and seniors. This panel explores how tailoring programs to specific life stages fosters community engagement. Attendees will walk away with a "Life-Stage Toolkit" to broaden their audience base and build sustainable, inclusive institutional models resonating across the patron lifespan.

Discover how the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden's "50 for 50" initiative is redefining collections care through a national model that shares American art across all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Examining the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art's role as the host venue for Utah, this session highlights creative strategies for reimagining storage and stewardship through cross-institutional partnerships. Attendees will walk away with practical approaches to enhance collections care and access through intra-museum collaboration.

How does a museum move from a "cool experiment" with AI to a sustainable workflow? This session explores Utah's intentional steps to integrate Google Gemini across its workforce, providing a macro-to-micro blueprint. From state-level policy and departmental change management to practical collections applications like transcription, learn and ASPIRE to innovate with a unified strategy. This session includes a live prompting lab to translate policy into effective daily practice.

Museums are often seen as permanent stewards…but what if we reimagined our role as temporary, ethical custodians? This session introduces the "Third Place" model, where museums provide culturally responsive interim care for ancestors when direct Tribal possession is not immediately feasible. Grounded in sovereignty, trust, and accountability, this framework reduces barriers to repatriation and reframes stewardship as transitional, collaborative, and community-driven.

Museums often face the challenge of attracting and retaining talented staff in a field where compensation lags behind other industries. This session examines how museums can become employers of choice by strengthening the employee experience beyond wages. Using various initiatives and case studies as a foundation, this session will highlight approaches to recognition, growth, and culture, followed by a facilitated discussion to surface practical, adaptable strategies across diverse museum contexts.

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.

Evaluation helps museums strengthen internal practices and remain responsive to their communities. This session introduces practical evaluation approaches that can be integrated into everyday museum work. In the first half, professional evaluators and museum staff share foundational concepts and tools they use in their own roles. The second half is an open forum where participants can ask questions, discuss current projects, and explore strategies for implementing evaluation in their own institutions.

Museums play a crucial role in contributing to individual and collective well-being, connecting people and enhancing social resilience. This interactive session combines rapid Ignite-style presentations showcasing a variety of wellness-focused museum initiatives including creative aging, social connection, and nature and wellness programs. The session will then transition into a World Cafe discussion, where participants will explore programming, partnerships, and resources, while brainstorming ways to enhance and/or build wellness programming at their own museums.