COMING TOGETHER: 

Supporting Each Other Through Community

Thanks to our Sponsors Maine's First Ship | Perch Design Studio | Digital History Consulting | Cultural Alliance of Maine | Smallcorp | Maine Community Foundation | Center for the Painted Wall | Yarmouth History Center | Maine Historical Society | Lucideia

2024 Maine Archives & Museums Annual Conference

Friday, October 4, 2024

Lewiston-Auburn Campus - University of Southern Maine 

As we travel to Lewiston-Auburn for this year’s conference, let’s think about our role in the communities we serve.

We often focus on past decades and centuries, but what about what’s happening around us right now?

How do we respond to tragedy and celebrate joy? What is worth preserving for future generations? How do we support each other?

2023 was a tumultuous year for many of us. There were extreme weather events, deep personal tragedies, and the pressures of ever-changing culture and technology. What are some ways that you gave and received support?

We will hold this year’s conference in-person at the Lewiston-Auburn campus of the University of Southern Maine. This will be a hybrid conference, so attendees will have the option to join virtually as well as physically. 

Early Bird Registration Open August 1st!

Keynote speaker: Julie Golia

Julie Golia is a historian of media and gender, an acclaimed curator, and an award-winning educator.  Currently, she is the Associate Director of Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books and Charles J. Liebman Curator of Manuscripts at The New York Public Library (NYPL). Golia has led important collecting and outreach initiatives in her role at the Library, including Pandemic Diaries, which collected almost 300 audio recordings of people’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic to become part of the Library’s research collections. She has also overseen the acquisition of major archives, including the papers of Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. She is the curator of two upcoming exhibitions at the Library: A Century of The New Yorker (2025) and Revolution 250 (2026). 

Golia was formerly Vice President for Curatorial Affairs and Collections at Brooklyn Historical Society, where she curated several landmark exhibitions, including “Taking Care of Brooklyn: Stories of Sickness and Health” (2019) and "Waterfront" (2018), which covered 20,000 years of history along Brooklyn's coastline. She was the co-host and co-producer of BHS's podcast Flatbush + Main, and co-founded and edited TeachArchives.org, a robust educational website that brings innovative teaching exercises and articles on pedagogy to a national audience.

Golia received her Ph.D. in History from Columbia University. She is the author of Newspaper Confessions: A History of Advice Columns in a Pre-Internet Age (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Plenary speaker: Rachel Ferrante

Rachel Ferrante comes to Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor (Maine MILL) with more than a decade of museum experience and ties to the Lewiston community. She has been executive director since September 2021. She oversees all aspects of the museum, including exhibitions and programming, fundraising, finance, human resources, visitor services, communications and board development. Rachel directed the institution’s rebranding from Museum L-A to Maine MILL, along with an expanded digital presence.

Prior to this role, she spent eleven years at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York rising from an assistant in the director’s office, to the marketing manager, and finally launching and overseeing the touring exhibition program as an exhibition project manager.

Rachel is a graduate of Bates College with a B.A. in art and visual culture and minor in rhetoric. She holds a Master’s in Business Administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

2024 MAM Conference Schedule:

Thursday Oct. 3

Opening Reception - Thursday evening at the Edmund S. Muskie Archives on the Bates College campus

70 Campus Ave, Lewiston, ME

Extended open hours at the Bates Museum of Art

75 Russell St., Lewiston, ME

Friday Oct. 4

Maine Archives & Museums Conference

University of Southern Maine, Lewiston Auburn Campus

51 Westminster St., Lewiston, ME

8:30-9:00 am - Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:00-9:30 am - Welcome/Opening Plenary  

9:45 - 10:45 am- Block A 

11:00 am -12:00 pm- Block B 

12:00-1:00 pm - Lunch 

1:00 -2:00 pm -  Keynote 

2:15-3:15 pm - Block C 

3:30 - 4:30 pm - Block D 

Breakout Sessions

Click here to view full details on each session

9:45 - 10:45 am- Block A 

• Student Engagement in Archives and Museums Panel

• Expanding Collections Access Within the Limits: One Small Institution’s Efforts

• Advancing Access & Engagement: A Practical Primer on Digital Projects

• Interpretive Messaging for Publications and Waysides

11:00 am -12:00 pm- Block B 

• Digital Equity Senior Docent Project

• Public History Projects by UMaine Seniors

• Local Contexts: Supporting Indigenous Cultural Authority and Intellectual Property in Maine Collections

• Keeping Current with Women’s History: A Year of Unexpected Programming in the City of Ships

2:15-3:15 pm - Block C 

• Transcribing Historic Records: How staff, students, and volunteers use the Google Suite to build community across borders

• Competitively Pursuing Capital Grants for your Historic Building

• Historical Organizations as Platforms for Contemporary Art and Artists

• Teaching Resources for The Holocaust and Stories That Matter: An Archival Exploration with Community

3:30 - 4:30 pm - Block D

• Will AI Rewrite the Archive?

• Managing Volunteer Projects

• Commemorating America 250 in Your Community

• Digital Images and Watermarks: A Roundtable Discussion

Additional local activities: 

• Maine MILL [Museum of Innovation, Learning, and Labor]

• • https://mainemill.org/

  • Open Wednesday - Saturday, 10am to 4pm

  • Tours available

• Bates College Museum of Art 

• • https://www.bates.edu/museum/

  • Open Monday through Saturday, 10AM – 5PM. Special extended hours for conference attendees on Thursday night.

  • The current shows, Hartley | Hopper Drawings from Two New England Collections and Neue Slowenische Kunst | Monumental Spectacular, will be in their final weekend when the conference takes place. 

  • Admission is always free.

• Androscoggin Historical Society 

• • https://androhistory.org/

  • Open Wednesdays 9:00 am -1:00 pm, Fridays 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm, Saturdays 9:00 am - 1:00 pm 

• Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library 

• • https://www.bates.edu/archives/

  •  Research Hours by Appointment, 1pm-4:30pm Monday/Tuesday/Thursday, 9am-12pm Wednesday/Friday

Questions? Contact us at info@mainemuseums.org.