Conference Reflections: Small Museum Association 2019
By Brooke Baerman, WPAMC Class of 2019
For over twenty years, the Small Museum Association (https://www.smallmuseum.org/) has fostered partnership and education for museum professionals through its annual three-day conference. This month, I attended the conference for the first time, and presented about the updated Sustaining Places (https://sustainingplaces.com/) website with other graduate students from the University of Delaware.
Sustaining Places is an encyclopedic website devoted to helping small museums access trustworthy, high quality, and cost-effective (mostly free!) resources. Because of its dedication to open-source materials, it aligns with the Small Museum Association’s efforts to provide professional opportunities and engagement. Each year, Museum Studies students add resources to the website, ensuring that it stays relevant and reliable.
This year’s conference was held in College Park, Maryland. Here, the four graduate students representing the University of Delaware and Sustaining Places, stand at the College Park Aviation Museum. From left to right: Nora Ellen Carleson, Matthew Monk, Katheryn Lawson, and Brooke Baerman.
Before and after we presented our additions to Sustaining Places, my classmates and I attended sessions on a wide range of topics, from social media in museums to collections management practices and building successful, educational outreach programs.
The front-page image of the Small Museum Association’s 2019 Conference Program, highlighting this year’s theme of Museum Leadership in the 21st century.
As different as the sessions were, one thing was constant: professionals in attendance were eager to learn and happy to share. The atmosphere of the conference reflected the aims of the Small Museum Association – to build relationships between small museum professionals and encourage them “to learn, share knowledge and support one another, so that they, in turn, can better serve their institutions, communities and profession.” (hyperlink: https://www.smallmuseum.org/About)
As emerging professionals, my classmates and I were able to forge connections and learn about contemporary practices in the field. After all, most museums in the United States are small museums, and chances are, many of us will work in small institutions. They face unique challenges, from staff time and budget constraints to community access and fieldtrip capacity, and many of those challenges were addressed in the thoughtful and practical presentations. But small museums also have unique opportunities to engage with and educate their visitors. They give professionals the chance to experience the holistic nature of a museum, as one staff member may be responsible for collections, fundraising, and education. Small museums hold vital places in their communities, and the Small Museum Association, and its conference, is helping them be more vibrant and successful than ever.
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