Multimedia Forum

Museums need to address disability and work to create exceedingly accessible spaces for people with disabilities. During this workshop, participants will learn how a state agency and non-profit teamed up to create accessibility training for cultural professionals across Utah. Participants will dive into some of the accessibility and accommodations content before working to identify deficiencies in their own spaces. Participants will leave having started an Accessibility Plan for their museum.

Held at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education

A national research study, Measurement of Museum Social Impact (MOMSI), is working to create a survey to help museums measure their social impact. In this session, hear about the study, its history, and the forthcoming toolkit; preliminary social impact data from MOMSI host museums; and host museum perspectives on how to recruit participants through an equity lens and use social impact data for master and strategic planning, advocacy, and community engagement.

This session explores workforce issues through the lens of an organization created in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will facilitate open discussion about issues such as the shift in needed skills, changed business models, and staff fatigue. The goal is to learn from each other by sharing what’s happening across institutions, identifying short- and long-term concerns, and considering barriers and ways to move forward.

Traditional museum conservation fails to address some of the challenges and opportunities inherent in our institutions’ outdoor, macro, and functional artifacts. Whether a lightship, a submarine, a submersible, or your artifact, they sometimes withstand non-standard museum display environments and practices to keep them relevant. Join us for a discussion about preserving historical and educational significance through atypical preservation projects.

Museums and cultural institutions are often quick to celebrate the progress they have made toward racial equity while struggling to dedicate time to pause and reflect on what might prevent them from moving forward. Museums & Race offers this session to help museum practitioners foster new dialogic skills to have more truthful conversations, as well as practical ways to move from naming the issues to developing practical strategies to combat harmful behaviors.