Mind the Gaps
MAM 2021 Online Annual Conference
Presented by Odyssey by HistoryIT
The MAM Conference Committee is excited to bring our annual conference online again this year! You can learn and network from your home or office.
The 2021 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.
All plenary and breakout sessions will be recorded and recordings will be shared with all paid registered attendees whether or not they were present.
Keynote Speaker: Gretchen Sullivan Sorin
Gretchen Sullivan Sorin is Director and Distinguished Service Professor at the Cooperstown Graduate Program, a training program for museum curators, educators, and directors that is part of the State University of New York College at Oneonta. With over thirty years of experience in the museum profession, she has served as guest curator for many exhibitions and written and lectured on museum practice, diversity and inclusion, and African American history. Her books include Touring Historic Harlem, Four Walks in Northern Manhattan; In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art; Case Studies in Cultural Entrepreneurship: How to Create Relevant and Sustainable Institutions; and Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights. She is also co-writer and senior historian for the documentary film Driving While Black: Race, Space, and Mobility.
Event Program
THURSDAY, OCT 7
1:30PM-2:15PM Opening plenary presentation by Catherine Besteman and Joseph Jackson of Freedom & Captivity: Art on Abolition
2:30PM-3:30PM 4 Concurrent professional development sessions
4:00PM-5:00PM 4 Concurrent professional development sessions
5:30PM-7:00PM Trivia Night
FRIDAY, OCT 8
9:00AM-10:00AM Keynote address by Gretchen Sullivan Sorin
10:30AM-11:30AM 4 Concurrent professional development sessions
11:45AM-12:15PM Closing plenary presentation by Chris Newell, Co-founder and Director of Education for Akomawt Educational Initiative
Opening plenary: Catherine Besteman and Joseph Jackson
Catherine Besteman (she/her) teaches Anthropology at Colby College and directs the Freedom & Captivity project. Her research focuses on racism, immigration/mobility, inequality, and social transformation. A 2012 Guggenheim Fellow, she has also recently received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, and in 2020 received the Distinguished Achievement Award for the Critical Study of North America from the Society for the Anthropology of North America. In 2018, she co-curated the statewide Making Migration Visible project with Julie Poitras Santos, which was supported by an NEA grant. She has published 10 books. Read her message to MAM members.
Joseph Jackson (he/him) is a published poet, the coordinator of Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, and the Youth and Community Facilitator with Maine Inside Out. Mr. Jackson is a returning citizen who spent two decades as a prisoner within the Maine Department of Corrections. As a prisoner, Mr. Jackson completed Literacy Volunteer Training; PEER Education; Work Ready Alternatives to Violence, One, Two, and Three; founded the Maine State Prison chapter of the NAACP; and earned his Associates and Bachelor’s degrees with summa cum laude honors from the University of Southern Maine. He became the first prisoner in Maine to be selected to University of Southern Maine’s MFA graduate program at StoneCoast and recently completed his Master’s Degree at the University of Southern Maine, where he was selected as the commencement speaker for his class.
Thursday 2:30PM Session choices
- One Stone, Many Stories: The Hill Family Billboard Monument
- What Unites Us: Collaborating Across Organizations
- Social Media 101
- From the Intern’s Perspective: Navigating a Remote Internship
Thursday 4:00PM session choices
- Into the Darkness: Shining a Light on the Rick Hautala Papers
- Including Crew, Children, and Women's Voices in Merchant Marine Interpretation
- Discussing Mental Health Through Historic Collections
- Franco-American Pathways: Outreach for Archives and Special Collections Using Podcasting
Session descriptions and presenters listed here
Trivia Night
All conference attendees are invited to gather Thursday evening for a fun social event to connect with others across Maine. MAM Executive Director Dugan Murphy will be hosting an online trivia game. The winner will get one year of free membership (or renewal) with MAM. Drinks and snacks welcome!
Friday 10:30AM session choices
- Front and Center: Telling Forgotten, Ignored and Hidden Stories
- Finding Hidden Materials: Three Case Studies of Inadvertent Erasure
- Impactful Collections: How Our Past Informs Our Present and Future
- The Core of the Story: Using Omeka as a Foundation for Storytelling
Session descriptions and presenters listed here
Closing plenary: Chris Newell
Chris Newell is Co-founder and Director of Education for Akomawt Educational Initiative. He is a multi-award-winning museum professional born and raised in Motahkmikuhk (Indian Township, ME) and a proud citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the New England Museum Association and current member of the Maine Arts Commission. Chris is a long time singer with the acclaimed Mystic River singers based out of Connecticut and has travelled the US and Canada singing and participating in cultural celebrations, pow wows, and live stage performance. The Akomawt Educational Initiative is an educational consultancy working with schools, universities, museums, and all areas of education to incorporate Native perspectives in a culturally competent manner.
Annual meeting: Register separately (free, members-only) for the Annual Meeting of MAM membership on Thursday, October 14 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, 2021.
Early bird rates available online through September 10, 2021
- MAM Members $35
- Non-members $55
- Student/Bridge Rate* $25
Regular rates available online through October 8, 2021
- MAM Members $45
- Non-members $65
- Student/Bridge Rate* $25
*The Bridge Rate is for anyone experiencing economic hardship connected to the pandemic.
Sponsors
Thank you to our presenting sponsor!
Host Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
Colby College Museum of Art
Maine Office of Tourism
Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center
SmallCorp
UMaineOnline
Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center
Silver Sponsors
Northeast Document Conservation Center; Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine; Center for Painted Wall Preservation; Maine Historical Society; Brick Store Museum; Maine Contemporary Archives; Lucidea; Gnome Landscape, Design, Masonry & Maintenance; Maine Preservation; History Live! North East
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.
