The 2025 AAMG Conference Committee invites participants to continue the conversation on belonging that started with last year’s virtual conference. Belonging informs the work we do with our collections, exhibitions, programs, communications, and fundraising as well as our internal organizational infrastructure and culture. It is also a critical aspect of our respective institutions’ relationships with students, campus and local communities. When examining how we create belonging in its multiple forms, how does that inform the stories we tell?
The question of storytelling taps into these pressing issues in our field and impacts how we position our institutions as wells as how our campuses and the public view us. Storytelling as a strategy makes our teaching, research, and outreach legible to our parent institutions, governing bodies, and external communities. AAMG members expressed enthusiasm to continue examining the theme of belonging and explore how to make a case for their museums and galleries to various stakeholders, particularly those outside the university system. We invite proposals that include the voices of our college and university colleagues – faculty, students, administrators, staff, and others – as well as professionals outside the field who can help us learn together about what belonging means and how to put it into practice.
Types of Proposals
- session
- panel discussion
- poster throw (new this year!)
- problem solving workshop
- facilitated roundtable
Have a proposal idea, but looking for more participants to fill it out? Query the AAMG listserv or
social media platforms and find colleagues to connect with! Drop your note soon so that you don’t
miss the deadline.
All sessions will be 60 minutes each.
PROPOSALS ARE DUE MONDAY DECEMBER 16, 2024, 11:59PM EST
Some questions to start (but not limit!) your proposal:
-How does my museum tell its story within my higher educational institution via its teaching, programming, exhibitions, acquisitions, publications, staffing, funding allocations, and so on?
-What do I do as a museum staff member and/or AAMG member to support students telling their stories and social and academic relationship-building?
-How can museums and galleries help solve the problems facing higher education and our communities by providing spaces where difficult conversations can be held?
-How do we use our stories to build coalitions within and outside of higher education?