MuseNews

Beginning in 2023, NCMC will represent its statewide membership by region instead of topics/sections. Reference the map to find which region best represents where you live! Do you live or work in a county that boarders one or more region? Lucky you! You can be in as many regions as you like. 

Your Regional Chairs are so excited to hear your thoughts and tell you more about their plans for our first inaugural year with regional representation. Here's a breakdown of the regions and their Chairs:

Mountains Region

Lauren May (Assistant Site Manager of the Vance Birthplace State Historic Site in Weatherville, NC)

mountains@ncmuseums.org

Piedmont Region

Scott Warren (Director of the James K Polk Historic Site in Pineville, NC) 

piedmont@ncmuseums.org

Northeastern Region

LeRae Umfleet (Special Project Administrator for the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources in Bath, NC).

northeastern@ncmuseums.org

Southeastern Region

Jim Hoffman (Executive Director of the Ingram Planetarium in Sunset Beach, NC) 

2023 Student Work in Museums (SWIM) Poster Session NCMC Annual Meeting - Call for Poster Proposals

 

Purpose

• To showcase projects and research by students in museum studies programs or related academic programs who have conducted museum-based projects
• To provide an opportunity for students to obtain new insights, share ideas and projects, and network with museum colleagues in an informal setting.

Venue

• The SWIM Poster Session will be held at the NCMC Annual Meeting on Monday, March 27.
• Each presentation will have 6' of table space, and you are welcome to bring handouts, tabletop easels, table-size backgrounds, or anything else that fits into your space and helps to explain your project. You may bring laptops or other electronic equipment, but each table will not have individual electrical connections and the room will not have WIFI, so make sure that your electronic devices are fully charged.

Submission Guidelines

• Please submit a brief description of the work you would like to highlight in your poster (no more than 500 words).
• In your submission, please also include the name of the institution for which the work was completed, the name of your academic institution, the name of your program, the dates when the work was undertaken and completed, the goal or goals of the project, and if possible, an assessment of how the goal or goals were met.
• Submissions are due January 30, 2023 by 11:59 PM and you will be notified of your acceptance by February 6, 2023.

Please email your submissions to: students@ncmuseums.org

Presentation Guidelines

• Posters should be able to fit on the table space provided and be supported by an easel (bring your own tabletop easel, or request one in advance).
•  Printed materials must be easily read at a distance of four feet.
• Each display should include the title of the project, the name of the presenter(s), and his/her/their affiliation
• NCMC recommends a point size of 16–18 or larger for body text.
• The presenter must remain by their display for the duration of the session.

Additional Information

Questions? Contact Jessie Swigger at students@ncmuseums.org

“Let's Talk About It: Practicing Civil Discourse with Young Children and Families” at Kidzu Children’s Museum

In partnership with the UNC Program for Public Discourse, the East Chapel Hill High School Civil Discourse project, the Paidaie Center, and Dr. Traci Baxley of Socialjusticeparenting.com and through support from NC Humanities, Kidzu Children’s Museum has embarked on an exciting new project titled, “Let's Talk About It: Practicing Civil Discourse with Young Children and Families.” Inspired by conversations overheard at Kidzu between children and their caregivers about the varying perspectives on mask wearing and immunization, this project includes hosting free family workshop sessions at the museum surrounding age-appropriate approaches to fostering civil discourse. Working with experts in the field, these facilitated sessions will provide children and their families tools with how to tackle and discuss difficult topics, with the goal of fostering more democratic and productive conversations across generations. Kidzu kicked off this project with an interactive community listening session to determine what topics and themes families deem the most difficult and uncomfortable to talk about. Ultimately, this project will result in a physical and virtual exhibit, and the creation of a civil discourse toolkit to serve as a resource for other museums and K-12 educators across the state to implement civil discourse learning in formal and informal education settings.

Caption for photos: Families interact with various activities and facilitators from the UNC Program for Public Discourse and students from East Chapel Hill High School at Kidzu’s listening session, intended to help staff understand what topics families in the community find the most difficult and uncomfortable to discuss.   

Thank so many of you for your concern, inquiries, offers of help, and well-wishes in the aftermath of this devastating hurricane. We are grateful for your compassion, and fortunate to say that all Museum staff are safe.

Each day is bringing more information about the devastation, major challenges, and new realities now faced by so many. The most critical and immediate needs for our community are human. We encourage you to support social service and aid organizations working around the clock in Southwest Florida and beyond.

As for most buildings on Sanibel, the Museum has had significant flooding and structural damage. Happily, some of the marine life of the Living Gallery survived including the live Junonias, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, and many local mollusks; but many did not, including the two octopuses. We are heartbroken for this loss, but grateful to the City of Sanibel, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Florida Aquarium for their support in the rescue attempt.

We will be in touch with more information when we can, and keep sending your positive thoughts for those still unaccounted for, for this community, and for the untold number of people throughout the region ravaged by Hurricane Ian.

#SanCapStrong

On July 28, 2022, Appalachian Eastern Kentucky, Southwestern Virginia, and surrounding areas experienced historic flooding. As most of us know from dealing with flooding here in North Carolina they are facing a long road ahead dealing with the aftermath of the intrusive and destructive power of flooding.

NCMC has reached out to our Kentucky sibling organization, the Kentucky Museum and Heritage Alliance who directed us to Scott Avery, Executive Director of the Kentucky Historical Society. Scott is helping lead the efforts to save the cultural sites of the area and replied with this update.

“We had staff in the region this past weekend and conditions are horrible. Our team of volunteers, and most that are coming from outside the region, are having to drive in and out on the same day due to the lack of housing, electricity and water. The folks in eastern Kentucky are used to flooding but this is completely different. The road to recovery will take some time.”

Scott also mentioned two organizations, Appalshop and the Hindman Settlement School, have gotten hit particularly hard by the flooding. They have information, a needs list, and volunteer sign-up on their websites https://appalshop.org and https://hindman.org. Additionally, if anyone would like to donate to the general relief and recovery fund for the Kentucky flooding, Scott mentioned this site specifically: https://secure.kentucky.gov/FormServices/Finance/EKYFloodRelief.

If anyone would like to donate to the recovery of Kentucky and the cultural sites and museums affected by this historic flooding, please consider doing so. Even if you cannot commit to a financial contribution, consider sending notes of encouragement or reviewing the needs list for these organizations.

6-15-22 NCMC Letter to Gaston County Commissioners.pdf

The North Carolina Museums Council stands with Gaston County Museum of Art & History. President Christian Edwards wrote the accompanying text (link above) in a letter sent to Gaston County Commissioners.

Coincidentally enough, MuseumWeek's theme today is #SexualityMW. Discussions surrounding sexuality are not taboo, dirty, or ugly, it is a part of us all. Our Council stands with the staff of the museum. #LeaveThePhotoUp

Speak Up and Speak Out: NCMC announces new Advocacy Committee

By Scott Warren, Immediate Past President

     Advocacy is one of the guiding principles of the North Carolina Museums Council (NCMC) and one that we are committed to assisting our members with.

     Advocacy can seem like a huge undertaking and not knowing where or how to start can seem somewhat daunting. We are here to help! NCMC has launched a new committee to begin the process of supplying you, our members, with the tools necessary to take on this important work. “We are excited to roll out this new committee; it has been a goal of many board members for some time. Finally, we can equip museums professionals with the necessary tools to best advocate for themselves and their museums in their local communities as well as on the state and national levels,” said Rebekah Dunn, Communications Chair.

     Our immediate goal is to begin gathering online resources that will aid everyone in identifying those resources and organizations that effectively manage advocacy. “The ultimate goal of our committee will be to construct a toolbox, if you will, that our members can use effectively advocate from anywhere, whether that be on Capitol Hill, in the halls of the General Assembly in Raleigh or from the comfort of your own home," said Scott Warren, Immediate Past President and chairperson of the Advocacy Committee. “Our committee members bring a wealth of experience to the committee, and I am excited to work with them on this important project.”

     Advocacy is important work whether you are advocating on Federal funding issues or state laws to assist nonprofit arts organizations. Please stay tuned as we will be rolling out updates and news from our committee.  

Join Professional Development Chair, Felicia, and Assistant Communications Chair, Katy, in a discussion about some basics of DEAI and continuing conversations started at the annual conference in March. Felicia and Katy will share some resources found on the DEAI resource page as well as when to expect these quarterly meetings! Bring your questions and knowledge to facilitate community growth through conversation.

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: May 10, 2022 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtdO6qqzwjH9ykyrqAuyMmjTQ8HLv31KYg

Dear Museum Colleagues and Friends,  

It was so wonderful to see and catch up with so many of you last month at our conference in Rocky Mount.  It was three years in the making and we are thrilled to have so many attend and participate.  Thank you!  If you didn’t get to the conference last month, you missed new events and forums, new NCMC initiatives, and fun networking opportunities. 

The greatest change was to our Leadership Forum sponsored by Glave and Holmes.  Our Professional Development team decided to look in-depth at the Diversity, Equality, Accessibility, and Inclusion resources and museums programs across the state.  Panelist included representatives from the LGBTQ Center of the Cape Fear, The Museum of the Southeast American Indian, and Arts Access.  Following the discussion, participants explored a showcase of North Carolina museum programs focusing on DEAI initiatives.  We were fortunate to have an amazing slate of presenters and topics and hope to continue discussions started as we continue our DEAI journey.

NCMC did roll out quite a few new initiatives and changes during our conference.  One of our noticeable changes is our new logo representing how we try to raise each other up.  This new logo was done by a UNC-Charlotte design student who worked closely with our Branding Committee.  Our DEAI committee has scheduled regular online discussion with leaders in the DEAI training community.  Additionally, our DEAI committee has developed a wide ranging DEAI resource page on our website.  For our students and museum educational programs, we now have a new Academic Level Membership.  This membership will allow a more economical and easier registration and membership experience for academic programs.  NCMC has just launched a new Advocacy Committee.  This committee is comprised of seasoned museum advocates on the local, state, and national levels to build an advocacy tool kit for use across the state in museums of all sizes.  If you are interested in joining or more information about any of these initiatives, please don’t hesitate to contact me at: president@ncmuseum.org.

One of the most memorable networking events ever held at one of our conferences was certainly our Drag Queen bingo event held at Hopfly Brewery!  We were entertained by the fabulous Ms. Vivica Coxx while playing bingo and even being serenaded by brave audience volunteers.  Wrapping up the event was the grand prize of four tickets to the NC Museum of Art special exhibit.  It was an amazing night of laughter and fun with colleagues.     

Although our conference was packed full of fun and educational opportunities as we push ourselves to reach as many people as possible, we are always looking to improve.  There are certainly some identified opportunity to improve work and outreach by NCMC to and for our members.  Over the next year we will continue to strive to do better and work to help support you and your institution the best way possible.  Thank you all for your continued support and feedback in helping us become even better.  

With Kind Regards,

Christian Edwards (she/her)

NCMC President  

Award PR 2022.docx