WestMuse Blog
A Champion of Museums: WMA’s Executive Director, Jason B. Jones is Honored with a 2023 Advocacy Leadership Award
As part of Museums Advocacy Day 2023, this past Monday, February 27, 2023, the Western Museums Association’s (WMA) Executive Director, Jason B. Jones, was presented with a 2023 Advocacy Leadership Award in recognition of his advocacy and leadership of the Western Museums Association.
So You Want to Work in a Museum? Professional Development Book Review
Written by Judi Mae “JM” Huck, EMP; Development Coordinator, The Neon Museum
Our institution has a museum membership with the American Alliance for Museums (AAM). Recently, I asked AAM members to recommend books to emerging museum professionals considering post-baccalaureate work in Museum Studies, in the hopes of furthering their careers. I received over a dozen book recommendations and was able to borrow a few at my local library or buy them secondhand from AbeBooks and Amazon.
Time to Tune In: Seven Museum Podcasts to Listen to in 2023
With tens of thousands of podcasts to choose from on every imaginable topic, we want to make it easy for you to add some fresh shows to your 2023 podcast feed – on all things museum.
Whether you’re into history, are interested in learning about DEAI practices, are obsessed with the newest art exhibits, or anything else museum-related, there’s a podcast for everyone on this list.
Let’s tune in.
Work is Like a Puzzle: WMA’s Three Tips for Maximizing Productivity
Putting a puzzle together is a good analogy for approaching, organizing, and accomplishing your work week.
New Year, New You: Build Your Self-Care Plan
The New Year is a good time to reset. We all start over with fresh mindsets, new resolutions to keep, and a sense of excitement as we look ahead. But across the next 12 months, there can be challenges and stressors that follow right along.
Taking the path Forward
Written by 2022 Wanda Chin Scholarship Recipient Amy Chaloupka
The last large public event I attended the weekend before the pandemic shut everything down in March 2020 was a painting symposium in Portland. So, it felt right returning to PDX for WMA’s annual meeting in October—my first large professional gathering in over two years.
Returning to Conferences and Attending a New One
Written by 2022 Wanda Chin Scholarship Recipient Jessica Hougen
This was the first conference I’ve been to since before the pandemic. The last one I went to was the California Association of Museums (CAM) in March 2020. That one was great, but weird. We all knew something was happening but we didn’t yet know the severity of the situation. It was business as usual, with plenty of hand sanitizer to go around.
My First Museum Conference. Ever.
Written by 2022 Wanda Chin Scholarship Recipient Ali Smurawa
I was near the tail-end of my first year as a full-time museum educator when I applied for the Wanda Chin scholarship. I knew that I wanted to (and needed to) attend a museum conference, but which one, and how? WMA’s theme Forward spoke to me, and as I sent off my application, I waited in anticipation for a reply. If awarded, then this was the conference that would set the bar for all future conferences because I had never attended one before.