Highlights of the AAM Conference

Los Angeles Skyline

I’ve just returned from 4 days at the AAM annual meeting in Los Angeles. It was GREAT! I attended a dozen different sessions, business meetings (even gave a report for the Mid Atlantic Association of Museums at the AAM Registrars Committee (RC) Annual Business Luncheon), and social networking events.















Dessert was awesome!


















Cristin, Nicole & Suzanne (my fellow registrar friends)


Highlights of the conference sessions: The panel of presenters for Managing Controversy in Culturally Specific Museums was truly lively & engaging; Social Tagging and Museum Practice provided some truly applicable ideas; Maxwell Anderson talked about the importance of transparency in Deaccession: New Perspectives; with budgets shrinking and collections growing Collaborations in Collection Storage provided examples of making shared storage work between different collecting institutions.













Working hard!



Movement and Sound in Museum Collections: Preserving and Providing Access to Audiovisual Materials was a little too technical to be applicable, but the case study at the Dallas Art Museum can be a great resource for follow up questions; So Many Crates, So Little Space provided a wonderful worksheet for calculating the load plan for traveling exhibition. And it should come as no surprise that her favorite session was Collections Conundrums!

Author Amy Tan gave a keynote address, and later autographed a book for me.

There was plenty of time to meet and greet colleagues from Baltimore, AAM, CAJM, and the Registrar’s Committee. I even re-introduced myself to Maxwell Anderson who was the Director of the Carlos Museum at Emory when I was an intern!
















Rebecca Buck and Jean Gilmore signed the 5th edition of the Museum Registration Methods handbook.



There wasn’t a lot of time between sessions to go to museums, but Lauren Silberman and I (along with 3000 other museum professionals) spent An Evening at the Getty Center.

Getty Center
Steps to the Getty Center

A Van Gogh!







Funky sculpture near the tram up to the Getty Center

I also enjoyed my morning at the LA Public Library’s Annenberg Gallery
Los Angeles Public Library


















"American in Paris" handbill in Spanish from the Spanish collection at the LA Library and the Japanese American National Museum. Their Common Ground exhibit opened with an art installation of suitcases -- and reminded me of Voices of Lombard Street.

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Buddhist Temple at JANM
















The LA Lakers are in the NBA semi-finals and they play at the Staples Center next door to the convention center. Unfortunately, their two games were on the road in Phoenix.













On the other hand, the American Idol finale was being held at the Nokia Theater. After the very last conference session, Lauren and I stood by the back stage door and saw a bunch of celebrities.



















Ellen Degeneres and David Hasselhoff shake hands at the American Idol Finale



















Alice Cooper -- just as scary as he was 30 years ago
















Jobi & Lauren

Return to Reality

AAM just flew by! I met so many interesting museum professionals, including a young woman from the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. She told me about a wedding held at her site (not a common experience) with two people dressed in haz-mat suits and gas masks! In addition to meeting many new people, it was a great chance to re-connect with many of my colleagues. I serve on the Small Museum Association conference committee and was excited to see how many people from the February conference attended. Additionally, I had the chance to attend several more fascinating sessions, including one on Hearing Art and Seeing Music, which involves a partnership between The Kreeger Museum in DC and Catholic University using museum educators, teaching artists, and musicians, as well as one on the The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, which includes "historic sites specifically dedicated to remembering past struggles for justice and addressing their contemporary legacies." Besides all of the great sessions I attended, I'm pleased to say that my session on website development received warm praise and a strong attendance. Not that all of my time was spent in sessions. I enjoyed a lovely time with the Museum Education Roundtable at the American Philosophical Society, a nice reception with other accredited AAM museums, as well as a chance to meet with colleagues in other fields, such as registrars. (I'd like to point out that the registrars had not one but two sponsored receptions - completely free - and that the educators didn't have even one!!) Anyway, overall, I have to say that AAM was a big success, very educational, and tiring! I'm feeling both enthused and drained - though I suspect enthused will win out!