The registration deadline for this very interesting, very useful NEMA workshop is next Monday, so run to the website now to sign up! *** The Membership, Development, PR and Marketing Professional Affinity Group Presents: Best of Times, Worst of Times: Making the Most of What …
One of the best ways to learn about museums is to visit museums. Lots of them. In class last week, several of us were remarking on how much fun it is to visit museums with fellow museum-folk. And so, a poll. Would you be interested …
Welcome to our weekly museums in the news roundup.
Museum keeps pace despite changes and turmoil around the world (C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana)
Children’s museum goes for regional appeal (San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum, San Diego, California)
Raiding the Creation Museum with peaceful pirate atheists (Creation Museum, Petersburg, Kentucky)
Riverside Museum in Glasgow to open 21 June (Riverside Museum, Glasgow, Scotland)
American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale saved from demolition (American Airpower Museum, Farmingdale, New York)
Slugger museum showing Rockwell sports art (Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, Louisville, Kentucky)
All the world’s a stage: British Museum to hold blockbuster Shakespeare show ahead of London Olympics (British Museum, London, England)
Director of British Imperial Museum fired over alleged plundering of foreign treasures (British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, Bristol, England)
Who am I? U.S. holocaust museum launches campaign to I.D. thousands of children displaced after WW2 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.)
Polar bear Knut may be stuffed for display at Berlin Museum (Berlin Natural History Museum, Berlin, Germany)
I recently finished reading Thomas Hoving’s memoir, Making the Mummies Dance. Hoving was director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1967 to 1977. He was a fascinating, polarizing figure, and passed away in 2009; his obituary in the New York Times is a thoughtful …
I don’t know how many museums are unionized (I’d love to hear about any, if anyone has some leads), so the specific problem that the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is facing might not have a direct correlation to museums – but other aspects certainly do. Essentially, …
The registration deadline for this workshop is TODAY – so run, don’t walk, and sign up!
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Especially for Me:
Innovative Ways Museums Can Support Visitors of All Abilities
Monday, March 28 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Wistariahurst Museum
Holyoke, MA
Registration Deadline: March 21, 2011
Registration Fee (lunch included): $50 NEMA members / $60 non-members / $40 students
Click here to register.
With an estimated 19% of Americans classified as disabled, how can museums be responsive to this segment of the population? Join us at Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, MA, as we explore innovative ways to design exhibits and programs that promote inclusion and disability awareness. Topics will include collaborative programs with the special needs community and universal design.
9:30 am Registration and Coffee
10:00 am Welcome and Introductions
10:15 am Universal Design 101
Emily Robertson, Product Coordinator, Temporary Exhibit Operations, Museum of Science, MA & Jan Crocker, President, Jan Crocker Museum Associates, MA
Jan and Emily will present a talk on the principles of Universal Design (UD). UD provides design choices that create a better experience for visitors with disabilities, but ultimately all visitors benefit from these choices. Through discussion and hands-on activities during the talk, they will explore practical strategies for improving current programs and exhibits, the differences between ADA and Universal Design, and how to work with advisory boards on planning teams.
11:00 am access/ABILITY
Gail Ringel, Vice President of Exhibits & Productions, Boston Children’s Museum, MA
Gail’s presentation will focus on the Boston Children’s Museum’s exhibit access/ABILITY which is a highly interactive, yet sensitive, disability awareness exhibit that delivers the message to visitors that as human beings, we are more alike than different. This unique exhibit presents people living with disabilities as participants in the world and features fun and engaging activities that show the similarities and differences in how each of us with or without disabilities go places, communicate, have fun, and learn.
11:30 am Forever Young Treehouses
B’fer Roth, “Treehouse Guy,” Forever Young Treehouses, Designer/Builder, VT
Accessible Treehouses! Who would ever imagine those two words would be used together, but it’s true. We will see firsthand, how boundaries are so happily broken by way of experiencing the joy of being up in a Treehouse in a wheelchair.
12:00 pm Lunch
1:00 pm Exploring Our Way
Deb Jurkoic, Autism Family Support Specialist, Easter Seals, The Family Place, NH and Paula Rais, Visitor Services & Outreach Coordinator, The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire, NH
Exploring Our Way: the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire’s Autism Partnership Program provides free visits to families with children who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The presentation will outline the ways in which CMNH provides opportunities to enjoy family time at the museum in a safe, understanding environment.
1:45 pm Especially for Me: Expanding Access to Museum Fun for Families with Deaf or Hard of Hearing Infants & Toddlers
Amy Spencer, Director of Early Childhood Education & Parent Resources, The Discovery Museums, MA, and Denise Fournier Eng, Speech Language Pathologist, Children’s Hospital of Boston at Waltham, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program, MA
Amy and Denise will speak about the collaboration between their two organizations that offers families with deaf or hard of hearing infants and toddlers opportunities to explore the Children’s Discovery Museum during a special time just for them using ASL interpreters to facilitate language and play within the creative and interactive exhibits.
2:45 pm Wrap Up & Evaluations
Click here to register.