Our History

1951: SEMC was established at a meeting in Norfolk, Virginia. It was agreed that the organization should include the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia. SEMC’s first task was to appoint a committee to get the Southeast included in a Congressional bill to appropriate money to provide places of safekeeping for museum objects in case of war.

1956: Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia petitioned to join SEMC. The Council suggested they form their own organization, today known as the MidAtlantic Association of Museums.

1959: First five-year plan and added Arkansas to the SEMC.

1960: Hosted two professional development workshops in North Carolina on museum training and historic house restoration.

1960s: Hired first SEMC staff with $25,000 foundation grant to carry out further training workshops; SEMC urged the American Alliance (formerly Association) of Museums to formulate a museum accreditation program.

1969: SEMC established a three-day annual meeting.

1970s: Local arrangements and program committees were established for the annual meeting; SEMC published a directory of educational resources.

1977: SEMC was officially incorporated; and exhibitors were added to the annual meeting.

1982: Moved the central offices of SEMC to Memphis.

1986: Moved SEMC offices to Baton Rouge.

1992: A full-time Executive Director and a Director of Office and Memberships services had been hired. Shortly after that, SEMC’s endowment was established to promote financial stability.

1996: The JumpStart Program began. This program flourished during the first decade of the 21st century and is now known as the Jekyll Island Management Institute (JIMI), offering an eight-day intensive museum training to museum professionals with two years’ experience or more.

2003: Moved the central offices of SEMC to Atlanta.

2005: SEMC established a Hurricane Katrina grant fund and awarded over $500,000 to museums and museum employees affected by the storm in Mississippi and Louisiana.

2010: SEMC established a partnership with Atlanta History Center where the SEMC office relocated.

2013: SEMC, the five other regional museum associations, and the American Alliance of Museums completed the first National Museum Salary Survey, the only comprehensive study of its kind for our diverse field.

2017: SEMC, the five other regional museum associations, five state museum associations, including Florida and Virginia, and the American Alliance of Museums completed the 2017 National Museum Salary Survey.

2019: With Association of African American Museums and National Association for Interpretation, SEMC co-sponsored NMAAHC’s Interpretation of African American History and Culture Workshop, presented in partnership with the Charleston County Parks and Recreation Commission.

2020: Throughout a year that included a global pandemic, leadership changes and postponement of the 2020 Annual Meeting due to health and safety concerns, SEMC persevered and continued to offer its members connection, communication, and consistency in a new virtual world. 2020 saw the launch of a virtual Leadership Institute: Leading for Today’s Challenges, as well as a successful virtual Program Series that offered over 600 attendees from across the county ongoing professional development in the face of great challenges.

2021: In 2021 SEMC continued to be nimble and pivot to meet the needs of its members during an ongoing pandemic. For the first time in its history, SEMC offered year-round virtual programs and a hybrid 2021 Annual Meeting which provided opportunities for the membership to attend professional training sessions either in-person or via a virtual conference platform (PheedLoop). 2021 also began a year-long evaluation of the Jekyll Island Management Institute which will be offered in 2023 and saw the launch of the Digital Empowerment Project for Small Museums, a nationwide initiative organized by the six U.S. regional museum associations and dedicated to providing free, self-paced training resources for small museums.

2022: 2022 was a transformational year for SEMC – a blending of past, present, and future in terms of operational adjustment and forward movement. In April 2022 SEMC was able to safely offer the Leadership Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina. This in-person launch included stellar faculty guiding a dynamic cohort of 16 individuals committed to peer-to-peer learning focused on empathetic, inclusive leadership in today’s changing world. The summer months of 2022 brought exciting new faces and initiatives to SEMC including the addition of Heather Nowak to the SEMC staff as the organization’s first Program Administrator. SEMC also received an exciting donation to create the Handumy Jean Tahan Internship Fund, which will be a resource to fund paid internships at small museums for years to come. A busy fall included the completion of a multi-year evaluation of the Jekyll Island Management Institute (JIMI) with an open call for instructors and applicants in preparation for the 2023 relaunch of the program. The 2022 Annual Meeting in Northwest Arkansas brought over 400 SEMC members together to network and learn how museums in the southeast are “Exhibiting Change.”

Now: In the coming year, SEMC will continue to produce monthly virtual programs that offer professional development on topics ranging from mitigating controversy to lowcost preservation tips to adding wellness and mindfulness into the workplace. We are excited to continue to strengthen existing partnerships and form new ones, including an ongoing collaboration with the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries geared toward our student populations and emerging museum professionals. Other initiatives on the 2023 agenda include the relaunch of the Jekyll Island Management Institute, opening applications for the Handumy Jean Tahan Internship Fund and the 2024 Leadership Institute, and of course SEMC2023 in Louisville, Kentucky. The SEMC staff and Council will also begin work on the organization’s next three-year Strategic Plan.