This is a GREAT offer, and one that all current Tufts students should sign up for immediately. I’m pulling this verbatim from the American Association of Museums LinkedIn page: To kick off this academic year, the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries is offering FREE …
Up next is a very specialized, very important group: the Visitor Studies Association. The VSA, in its own words, is today’s premier professional organization focusing on all facets of the visitor experience in museums, zoos, nature centers, visitor centers, historic sites, parks and other informal …
For the art historians among us: the National Art Education Association.
Here’s what the NAEA has to say about itself:
Founded in 1947, The National Art Education Association is the leading professional membership organization exclusively for visual arts educators. Members include elementary, middle and high school visual arts educators, college and university professors, researchers and scholars, teaching artists, administrators and supervisors, and art museum educators, as well as more than 45,000 students who are members of the National Art Honor Society or are university students preparing to be art educators.
We represent members in all fifty states plus the District of Columbia, U.S. Possessions, most Canadian Provinces, U.S. military bases around the world, and twenty-five foreign countries.
Mission
The National Art Education Association (NAEA) advances visual arts education to fulfill human potential and promote global understanding.Core Values
NAEA staff and members work to support professional growth, change, and leadership through:
Mentoring
They have a fairly complicated grid of membership costs by state; for Massachusetts, it’s $70 for full, active membership and $30 for a student membership. For those joining us from other states, you can navigate this PDF to find out your dues. In terms of benefits, you get a fairly robust series of publications, access to a members-only section of the website that includes lesson plans and gallery activities, discounts on all sorts of things, and access to grants and other funding opportunities.
The professional development section of their website is really fantastic: access to lesson plans, all sorts of resources for the practice of art education, book and material reviews, and a mentor program. They also maintain a robust “Research” section, with reports and tools for the thoughtful analysis of art education. Like AAM, NAEA is involved in advocacy for its professional interests, and they have some good advice that goes way beyond art education and is applicable to anyone speaking for a cultural cause.
So go, check them out!
(editor’s note: we’ve made a small correction to our previous post on the AASLH; student members aren’t mailed a paper copy of History News, but they can access back issues online.)
Going with our specialization theme, here’s one for the aspiring exhibit designers out there: the National Association for Museum Exhibition. NAME is actually sort of part of AAM; it describes itself as “one of the Standing Professional Committees of the American Association of Museums.” For more from …
Next up in our continuing series is a more specialized organization. Don’t worry, we’ll be featuring organizations that cover all the wonderfully specific portions of the museum world as we go along! So, for those historians out there: the American Association for State and Local …
Next up in our Museum Professional Organizations series is one near and dear to all of our hearts. In fact, if you’re in your first year as a Tufts student, you’re already a member!
Let’s talk about the New England Museum Association.
To quote from their website:
The mission of the New England Museum Association is to strengthen member museums and museums in the region. To achieve this mission, NEMA fosters communication and ethical conduct; provides professional development; promotes excellence in museum operations; and encourages support for the museum community.
Membership fees are actually pretty reasonable; $45 per year for a museum professional, and $35 for full-time students, job-hunters (unemployed), and retirees or volunteers. With that membership you get access to NEMA News, special pricing on conferences and workshops, and admission to a number of member institutions. Check out the membership page for a full list of benefits.
NEMA also maintains a terrific listing of jobs, found here. They’re updated every Friday morning, so keep checking back!
I know I met several Tufts students at the NEMA Fall Conference this year in Springfield; if you missed it, you can download recordings of some key panels through the website. Next year’s conference, “Museums in the Mirror” (all about reflecting diversity), will be November 16 – 18 in Hartford, Connecticut. There’s a call for proposals out right now, due on February 1.
NEMA also sponsors thirteen “Professional Affinity Groups,” or PAGS. PAGS sponsor workshops and networking opportunities. Look over the whole list, but the one you particularly want to check out is the YEPs: the Young Emerging Professionals. You’ll want to follow them on Facebook, too.
So I’ll see you all in Hartford next November, right?