Annual Conference

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

2025 is shaping up to be a year of upheaval and uncertainty, especially for cultural heritage organizations who are experiencing a tremendous loss of funding and resources. Now, more than ever before, local history and identity is in danger of being lost to time. Our organizations are just one piece of the puzzle that ties community and culture to place. How do we, as a profession and community of practice, protect local history and identity from fading away? How do we ensure sustainability of our organizations and our places? What does place mean to communities who have called Maine home for thousands of years, and to those who have only just arrived? How do cultural heritage institutions welcome and incorporate the stories of communities that started in a different place?

The MAM conference always works to provide a healthy number of sessions geared towards all-sized institutions, but we encourage sites with few or no paid staff members to submit proposals with an emphasis on local history. 

If you are not comfortable sharing on your own, MAM would be happy to help find a panel of people to speak on a topic you care about.

Note - Sessions do not have to tie in to the conference theme. If you have a good idea, we would love to hear it.

We invite both hands-on workshop submissions and the more standard presentation format. ALL sessions are limited to 60 minutes.

Here are some questions that might prompt creative sessions:

• What role does local history play in your community? 

• How do we acknowledge the Indigenous people whose homeland we occupy? How do we repair past injustices perpetrated by collecting institutions?

• How do we grapple with the stories that have been told, and those that have not been told? Who has historically been welcome in this place, and who has not?

• How does your organization work with others to promote local history and identity?

• How do you keep your museum relevant to your community?

• What can we learn from your day-to-day work with volunteer recruitment, collections management, exhibits, collections, programming, fundraising, etc.? 

• We always need down-to-basics skill sharing, so please submit any sessions you think others can learn from!

We will hold this year’s conference in-person at the University of Maine - Farmington. UMF is not equipped to offer a hybrid conference experience so conference sessions must be in-person.

As a presenter, you’ll only pay the low $40 presenter rate if you wish to attend the whole conference. You are also welcome to contact info@mainemuseums.org if you need to have your fee waived.

The deadline for submitting proposals is May 16, 2025. MAM's Conference Committee will review submissions and notify applicants of the status of their proposal by mid-summer. 

Questions? Need to submit via mail? Contact us at info@mainemuseums.org.

Early Bird Registration Open August 1st!

Stay tuned to learn more about this year's speakers and conference schedule!

Interested in sponsoring this year's conference? Click here to learn more!