2020 Online Annual Conference

Looking Forward from the Bicentennial

MAM 2020 Online Annual Conference

Presented by HistoryIT

The MAM Conference Committee is excited to bring our annual conference online this year for the first time! You can now learn and network from your home or office.

The 2020 conference will offer a mixture of professional development sessions, networking activities, and a dynamic keynote address that will leave you feeling recharged, connected, and inspired with new ideas to assist you in the care and management of your collecting institution.  

The main body of the event will consist of three blocks of professional development sessions, punctuated and bracketed by rousing plenary and keynote presentations over a Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

Keynote Speaker: Rainey Tisdale

Rainey Tisdale will be giving the keynote address titled Active Collections for Complicated Times.

Rainey Tisdale is a museum consultant specializing in interpretive & strategic planning, content & collections curation, institutional capacity building, and igniting the creative process. Her holistic approach to museum work has been called slow food, divining, poetry, and a secret weapon. Her work on #BostonBetter and the exhibition Dear Boston: Messages from the Marathon Memorial won awards from the New England Museum Association and the American Association for State and Local History.

Event Program

Here's the program!

THURSDAY, OCT 8

1:30PM-2:15PM Opening plenary presentation by Meadow Dibble and Kate McMahon of the Atlantic Black Box Project

2:30PM-3:30PM 4 Concurrent professional development sessions

4:00PM-5:00PM 4 Concurrent professional development sessions

5:30PM-7:00PM Maine Trivia happy hour!

FRIDAY, OCT 9

9:00AM-10:00AM Keynote address by Rainey Tisdale

10:30AM-11:30AM 4 Concurrent professional development sessions

11:45AM-12:15PM Closing plenary presentation by Libby Bischof

Opening plenary: The Atlantic Black Box Project

Meadow Dibble and Kate McMahon represent the Atlantic Black Box Project. If New England’s merchant vessels had been equipped with black boxes to record the nature of their trade throughout the age of sail, we would be in a far better position today to determine the causes of the crash we are experiencing as a nation, as well as the origins of persistent racial injustice in this region. Atlantic Black Box is a broad-based coalition devoted to researching and reckoning with New England’s role in the slave trade and the economy of enslavement, actively looking to partner with museums, archives, and historic sites in unearthing this repressed racial history. Meadow Dibble is the Founding Director of Atlantic Black Box and a Visiting Scholar at Brown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Kate McMahon is a Museum Specialist at the National Museum of African American History & Culture and leads research efforts at the Center for the Study of Global Slavery.

Thursday 2:30PM Session choices

Session descriptions and presenters listed here

Closing plenary: The Importance of Public History During a Pandemic Bicentennial

Libby Bischof, Executive Director of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, and Professor of History at the University of Southern Maine, will reflect upon the continued importance of public history, collection development, education and outreach as the land we now call Maine moves into the third century of statehood. Pulling together various themes from the conference, Bischof will stress the central role of collaboration, partnerships, community work, and decolonization for Maine's museums, archives, and libraries as we look forward to 2021 and beyond.

Annual meeting: Register separately (free, members-only) for the Annual Meeting of MAM membership on Thursday, October 15 at noon.

Attending an Online Conference

To participate in this online conference you will need access to a computer or mobile device with an internet connection. We will be using Zoom videoconferencing to host the plenary presentations, keynote address, concurrent sessions, and networking activities. When you register you will immediately get an automatic email with Zoom details. If you do not receive this email, call 207-400-6965 or email info@mainemuseums.org.

If you do not have access to a computer or mobile device with an internet connection, you will still be able to call in to the sessions on a telephone, but you will unfortunately not be able to see any of the presenters, participants, or visuals. 

Registration

Online registration opens August 1, 2020.

Early bird rates available online through September 11, 2020

• MAM Members $25
• Non-members $45
• Student/Bridge Rate* $15

Regular rates available online through October 9, 2020

• MAM Members $35
• Non-members $55
• Student/Bridge Rate* $15

*The Bridge rate is for anyone laid off, furloughed, or underemployed because of the pandemic.

Sponsors

Thank you to our presenting sponsor!

Host Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

History Live! North East

Colby College Museum of Art

STQRY

Maine Office of Tourism

University of Maine Department of History

Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center

Maine Historic Preservation Commission

Silver Sponsors

Northeast Document Conservation Center; Riverside Museum Solutions; Center for Painted Wall Preservation; Gnome Landscapes, Design, Masonry and Maintenance; Ted Anderson Design & Photography; Maine Historical Society

Additional funding provided by

Funding has been provided by The Maine Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act economic stabilization plan of 2020.

Please get in touch about sponsor opportunities.

Sponsoring and exhibiting at the Maine Archives & Museums Annual Conference are great ways to reach museum and archives professionals throughout Maine. See here the opportunities available for sponsors.