Spring 2016 VAM Voice by Virginia Association of Museums

Voice

3126 W. Cary St., #447 | Richmond, Virginia 23221-3504 | 804. 358.3170 | www.vamuseums.org | Spring 2016 Third Wednesday at the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Glass Studio, June 2013, Godzilla Goes to the Beach.

Innovative Programming at Virginia’s Art Museums

iMaking the Most of your

Museum’s Membership in VAM Member Profile: Virginia Museum of Transportation

Innovative Programming Engages Aud by Heather Widener ex·pe·ri·en·tial

ikˌspirēˈen(t)SH(ə)l/ adjective experiential involving or based on experience and observation.

Experiential. It’s one of those words. It’s trendy, sounds great, and is usually followed by learning. But at the same time, it’s hard to pin down. What constitutes experiential learning vs. “other” learning? Isn’t learning itself, by definition, experiential? Is it not the way we experience the world that causes us to learn and grow? Indeed, the viewing of art is an experience, and sometimes it is a transformative one. Increasingly, however, museums are going beyond the presenting of art to intentionally creating innovative experiences based on that art, with engagement and learning as the goal.

Cover Story

We examined several programs at Virginia art museums to see what experiential, innovative programming looks like in 2016. From bicycle-powered video tours of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) to linking in to a national #MuseumEdMashup in Virginia Beach at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA); from combining glass blowing with comedy, magic, music, and theatre at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk to using Aboriginal art as the springboard for fashion design at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum, there is no lack of out-of-the-box experiences for the public to engage with at Virginia’s art museums.

Third Thursdays program. Held in the Glass Studio at the Chrysler, the program incorporates a type of art-making that is inherently physical, experiential, elemental, and chemical: glass-making. It doesn’t stop there, though. The program incorporates various art forms into the glass-blowing experience. For example, one week on the hot shop floor in the studio, Ms. Potter incorporated a theatre troupe’s rendition of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. Another week’s performance was entitled More than Meets the Eye, and was described thus:

“The Chrysler Studio Team lead by Hannah Kirkpatrick collaborated with guest musicians Kishi Bashi and Tall Tall Trees to create optical devices of wonder in the performance entitled More than Meets the Eye. There were shadow bubble puppet shows, glass records, moving projection screens, and in the crescendo, artist Robin Rogers’ mirror sphere rotated around Kishi Bashi as his ethereal sounds capped an immersive evening of surprise and spectacle.”

The program is so unique and successful that it has garnered the most sincere form of flattery: imitation. Not only that, it has resulted in the Chrysler Museum of Art being chosen as the venue for the Glass Art Society’s (GAS) 2017 Annual Conference. This is quite the achievement; scrolling through the GAS list of conference venues since 1971, places such as New York, California, Japan, and Australia are mentioned, but never has a Virginia site been a host venue.

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum

To the west, you’ll find the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum at the University of Virginia (U.Va.). It is the only museum in the United States dedicated to the exhibition and study of Australian Aboriginal art. The museum’s mission is to advance knowledge and understanding of Australia’s Indigenous people and their art and culture worldwide. Lauren Maupin of the Kluge-Ruhe spearheaded a program that incorporated Aboriginal art with contemporary fashion design, and reached across disciplines within the greater community. Kluge-Ruhe created a fashion design contest in January 2015, prompting students from U.Va. to submit original sketches for garments which would honor Indigenous hand-printed textiles as artworks themselves. Given that UVA does not have a fashion program, the Kluge-Ruhe project helped to fill a need for students. Marcy Linton in the Department of Drama agreed to offer an advanced course in Costume Technology (DRAM4598) in which students would fabricate the winning designs.

Chrysler Museum of Art

Glass Studio Manager & Programming Director Charlotte Potter, of the Chrysler, is happy to report that her program has expanded the museum’s audience base and is breaking down traditional barriers to engagement with art. It centers on the notion of glass art as performance art, part of the Chrysler’s

Ms. Potter notices that people today are looking for experiences over “things.” There is a philosophical shift away from objects into the process of how they’re made. The final product is a souvenir or relic of the act of making, and in the case of glass-blowing, the act itself is a performance.

“More Than Meets the Eye” at the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Glass Studio.

After receiving numerous sketched designs, Maupin and Linton selected ten

diences at Virginia’s Art Museums and paired them with fabric from four different communities in northern Australia: Babbarra Women’s Corporation, Injalak Arts and Crafts, Erub Erwer Meta, and Merrepen Arts. Patterns were made by Linton and Dorothy Smith, Costume Shop Supervisor in the Department of Drama, and local seamstress Beth Neville Evans. Seven students from various disciplines enrolled in Linton’s course and successfully constructed their garments during the Fall 2015 semester. Part of the course involved learning about Indigenous Australian art and culture through visits to the Kluge-Ruhe Collection and by skyping with textile artists in one of the communities where the fabric was made. The project culminated on March 19, 2016 with an evening fashion performance titled Culture Couture at the Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville. The project, sponsored by the U.Va. Arts Council, the Embassy of Australia, the U.Va. Parents Committee, the U.Va. Department of Drama, and the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, introduced Charlottesville to Indigenous Australian fashion and the remarkable creativity of U.Va. students. In addition to Aboriginal art-inspired fashion, the evening featured Australian-themed food as well as music trio Biliirr, with Lucy Simpson and her sisters Nardi Simpson and Jilda Andrews (Yuwaalaraay), who gave their first American performance as part of the evening’s celebration of Indigenous creativity.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA)

At the VMFA, visitors can experience the museum in a unique way by visiting the Art-Cycle interactive space. Inspired by the UCI Road World Championships that took place in Richmond in September 2015, Art-Cycle challenges visitors to tinker, experiment, create, engage, and reflect in the space. Running from September 2015 – June 2016, the hallmark of Art-Cycle are the bikes themselves. Visitors can take a virtual tour on a bike through works in VMFA’s collection. The participatory exhibit uses an Arduino board, open source processing script

created by a professor at VCU, and a 6-minute video featuring works from the permanent collection. The youth of Richmond Cycling Corps are featured at the beginning and end of the video.

ArtCycle at the VMFA. Photo: David Stover © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts In addition to the virtual bike tour, which inspires the visitor to learn more about the permanent collections and to go see the pieces of art themselves, the space features hands-on stations that relate bicycle parts and shapes to art. Visitors can use a Spirograph, work with gears, design their very own cycle racing shirt, and tinker with spokes and straws. The space is geared toward visitors of all generations. Additionally, yet another local partnership – with Richmond artist Matt Lively – resulted in a mural that not only enlivens the space with playful bicycle-themed art, but also provides a backdrop for the all-important visitor selfie.

had 45 minutes to develop a 5-7 minute experience around their work that would be enacted with the audience. The participants were asked to take a risk, create something new and not to teach – the focus was on experience and the possibility of failure. According to ArtMuseumTeaching.com, a Mashup “focuses … on the creation of experiences with objects, people, stories, and surroundings.” VAM’s own Rebecca Guest was able to attend the MOCA event as a participant. Rebecca described how one group approached the project, when presented with Crystal Wagner’s art piece called Surface Tension. The group asked the other participants to examine the piece and brainstorm a sound that they felt represented the piece. Each group shared their sound, and then all the groups demonstrated their sounds in unison. Museum Mashups are another indication of this trend that seems to be moving toward focusing on experience and participation – on active learning around art rather than passive observation. Of course, there will always be intrinsic value in viewing, studying, and contemplating art. Today’s art museums are recognizing that these are not, however, the only ways to experience art. As technology increasingly enables our engagement with art on various levels, and as museum visitors’ expectations change, the increased focus on experiential learning and participatory programming are part of a natural evolution. To be sure, it is an exciting time to engage at one of Virginia’s many museums!

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)

Virginia MOCA participated in a nationwide Museum Mashup event this past February. The Museum Mashup started at a National Art Education Association (NAEA) conference in 2015 as an attempt to shake up traditional conference lecture sessions. The first Mashup included over 100 participants, who were randomly assigned into groups of three and assigned an art object. They

Spring 2016

Making the Most of your M

by Heather Widener

As you know, VAM recently redesigned its membership program. As of December, 2015, every staff person, volunteer, or board member involved with a VAM member museum enjoys full VAM membership benefits. As such, simply maintaining one Museum level membership provides professional development, career services, plus an array of professional resources for everyone associated with the museum. All of these benefits are included in one annual membership fee, which VAM to base upon museum state budget.museum association in the VAM iscontinues the finest (and largest) VAM is welcomed to an Evening in Yorktown during its 2016 Annual Conference. Members have What do these changes mean to you, opportunities to network and engageand in professional development throughout the year. nation. Our goal is to meet the needs of our museum members, however? Read on to learn how to best take best advantage of alltoward that our new work our vision: • Virginia Certificate in Museum Manage• Banking services through Langley Federmembership program has to offer. ment program al Credit Union • Annual Conference registration Benefits of Museum Membership • Professional development workshops Membership has Value • Career support through VAM The Virginia Association of Museums How does this translate to value for your • VAM Voice quarterly news magazine (VAM) is the finest and largest state museum? Let’s look at an example. Museum • Legislative alerts association in the Ourmembers X is a small to mid-sized institution, with , including the museum staff, volunteers, andnation. board of all Virginia • Virginia Museum Advocacy Day and goal is to always meet the needs of our an annual budget of $400,000. Based bership program. Nowand your museum full VAM AAM’sincludes Museums Advocacy Day members, work toward ourmembership vision: upon that, their VAM membership dues • Free posting to VAM’s job board and A united museum community inspiringin your would equal $300. For that price, everyon, volunteer, or board member involved museum. access to member resumes the world around us. It has never been one associated with Museum X can then • Use of VAM’s logo to show that you are a become members of VAM. Museum X’s easier for your museum to become an part of our dynamic museum community Board of Directors are able to stay abreast active part of development, VAM, and to easily justify e providing professional career services, and professional the membership dues to your museum’s of issues and best practices in the Virginia our museum simply by maintaining one membership. All of these benefits own stakeholders. For the first time ever, Additionally, members can access the museum community. The museum’s small following through our affiliates: mbership fee, based upon yourmuseum museum budget. EVERYONE at your will be able staff may choose to use their memberships to take advantage of free or discounted to read the VAM Voice news magazine, • Health plans through Optima Health access to: and one volunteer attends a workshop on

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Membership for Everyone!

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Museum Budget All-volunteer; < $ 25,000 $ 25,001 - $ 100,000 $ 100,001 - $ 250,000 $ 250,001 - $ 500,000 $ 500,001 - $ 1,000,000 $ 1,000,001 - $ 2,500,000 $ 2,500,001 - $ 4,000,000 Over $ 4,000,000

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also access: alth y Federal Credit Union

Membership Fee $ 50 $ 150 $ 225 $ 300 $ 500 $ 650 $ 850 $ 1,100

Want to demonstrate a higher level of commitment to Virginia’s museum community? Consider a Leadership museum membership. At $2,500, Leadership members allow VAM to provide free student membership. Leadership members are recognized on our website, in our annual report, and at our annual conference. Consider paying it forward today.

Museum’s Membership in VAM visitor services and saves $25 because of the museum’s membership. The museum’s educator decides to attend VAM’s Annual Conference, at a savings of $50 over the non-member price, and chooses to join the Virginia Certificate in Museum Management program (and saves the membership fee of $45). After a big exhibition closes at the museum, five of its staff and volunteers head to a VAM networking event, where they enjoy a social evening with peers, and meet new colleagues in their local area. The museum director chooses to join the VAM contingent at AAM Advocacy Day in Washington, DC (and saves $75 through VAM membership). The museum’s marketing director accesses VAM white papers on blogging, how to create a social media policy, and responsive web design, helping move the museum forward through effective public relations. A collections professional at the museum hears of VAM’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts competition, and decides to nominate an item from the museum’s collection, garnering local press coverage and engaging new audiences. When the museum has a staff position to fill, the director posts the job to the VAM job board for two months, at a savings of $50. At the end of the year, Museum X has not only recouped well over half of the dollar amount paid in membership dues through program discounts, but it has had opportunities to engage at the national, statewide, and local levels and to access resources that allow the museum to more effectively meet its mission. The return on Museum X’s investment is worthwhile in many ways.

Get Your Staff On Board

If you are a leader of a VAM member museum, make accessing member benefits easy for all the staff, volunteers, and board members at your museum by using the following tools and tips: • First, connect the folks at your museum with VAM, so that they may get news, program alerts, and notice of professional development opportunities, networking events, advocacy alerts, and more. There are several ways to do this:

OPTION 1: Send VAM a spreadsheet of contact information for the people associated with your museum. The spreadsheet must include, at a minimum, a field for first name, a field for last name, a field for email, and a field for title. Spreadsheets should be emailed to membership@vamuseums.org. OPTION 2: Contact VAM to get a customized signup URL for your museum. VAM’s website includes a template letter to distribute this customized URL to everyone at your museum and let them sign up if they are interested in taking advantage of the benefits of VAM membership. Email membership@vamuseums.org or call the VAM office at 804.358.3170 to get your museum’s URL or with any questions. • You may request VAM materials (member brochures, bookmarks, pencils, and bumper stickers) for distribution to the staff, volunteers, and board members at your museum. Make your request to membership@vamuseums.org. Quantities are limited. • Additionally, we have the following available for download: - VAM benefits listing to distribute to your staff, volunteers, and board members. - VAM logo for use on your website - let others know you are a proud member of VAM. If you work with a Virginia museum, be sure to inquire with your museum director as to whether your museum is a current member of VAM. If so, be sure to take advantage of all that VAM membership has to offer, and let your director know how you feel about the value of VAM membership. As always, if you have any questions or need some assistance, please contact us at the VAM office (804.358.3170).

Helpful Links • Packet for Members • Museum Membership Information • List of Benefits • How to Use the VAM Website • Template letter for distribution to member museum employees / volunteers / board members

Spring 2016

Spring 2016 Workshops PHILANTHROPY FORUM *Offered as a 1/2 day option or as a full day workshop Monday, May 9, 2016 Virginia Museum of Transportation Roanoke, Virginia

VAM Certificate in Museum Management Credit: Collections or Exhibitions

Join VAM for a full day of fundraising training or select from one of two topics – donor retention and crowdfunding - for a half day focus. Learn helpful insights and how-to strategies from top development professionals who will help you reach in to improve donor retention and reach out to attract new crowdfunded income. Speakers: Allan Burrows, President, Capital Development; Jeff Liverman, Executive Director, Jacksonville Center for the Arts; Dr. Jessica Turner, Museum Director, Birthplace of Country Music VAM Certificate in Museum Management Credit: External Relations

BOTH A BORROWER & LENDER BE

Program Updates

Friday, May 20, 2016 Science Museum of Virginia Richmond, Virginia

SEEING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES: UNTANGLING YOUR COLLECTIONS MESS Monday, June 6, 2016 Hermitage Museum & Gardens Norfolk, Virginia

Did you inherit a collections mess? Are you moving your archive? Maybe you have more cannonballs than you know what to do with? Learn about processes, resources and helpful tools, not to mention “been-there-done-that” advice to help guide your plans for tackling your collection. Speakers: Beth Austin, Hampton History Museum; Colin Brady, Curator, Hermitage Museum and Gardens; Diane Cripps, Curator, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum; Harold Jacobson, Petersburg Museums VAM Certificate in Museum Management Credit: Collections

How to ready a panel exhibition for travel and then what to expect on the receiving end, plus how to work with multiple lenders – both public and private – when borrowing objects for exhibitions. Items covered include: forms, insurance, transportation, responsibilities, and making “the ask.”

Speakers: Barbara Batson, Exhibitions Coordinator, Library of Virginia; Mary Helen Dellinger, Curator, Manassas Museum; Rebecca Rose, Registrar, Virginia Historical Society

Workshop Registration: 9:30am - 10:00am Workshop: 10:00am - 3:00pm Registration: $80 - non-members $55 - members $30 - student members

Save the Date for #VAM2017 March 18 - 21, 2017

Roanoke, Virginia

Virginia’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts Top 10 has helped capture public attention and support for conservation. Here’s what participants had to say in their Top 10 press coverage: “Virginia’s Top 10 campaign offers an interactive opportunity for supporters of Muscarelle Museum of Art to become engaged in bringing the importance of this mission into the public spotlight.” Aaron De Groft, director and CEO of the Muscarelle Museum of Art Business Wire (2014) “Sometimes we aren’t sure just how many people we are able to reach. We are a small museum on a hill in Southern Appalachia, but we work hard to bring our community exhibitions that are of the caliber you could find in a major city. . . . Minnie Ma spent much of her life amidst the mountains that I can see from my office. She would never have expected her name and her painting to be printed in newspapers across the nation. She would be so amazed. The national attention it has brought to Minnie Ma’s story and paintings and the William King Museum is extraordinary.” Leila Cartier, curator, William King Museum of Art Bristol Herald-Courier (2013) “I am very pleased that our artifacts were recognized,” Elder said. “Our honoree status will raise awareness in the community about our Mill House collection and start us down the road to the conservation of these historically valuable items.” Dolores Elder, curator, Occoquan Historic Society Inside NOVA (2015) “This has been a great program for us, and we are very happy to have raised awareness of these historic photos,” said Long. “We were pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming support we garnered, which proves once again what great supporters our historical society has.” John Long, director, Salem Museum Roanoke Times (2015)

2016 Top 10 nominations will be accepted in June. Learn more at www.vatop10artifacts.org and nominate an artifact in 2016!

Spring 2016

The Virginia Museum of Transporta by Fran Ferguson

he Virginia Museum of Transportation is the state’s official transportation museum, but like most museums in Virginia, receives no state funding. Local government support represents only a tiny fraction of overall revenue. We are located in Roanoke’s former Norfolk & Western freight station, a nearly 100-year-old building that has never been completely renovated. Challenges are many, but over the last ten years, the Museum’s attendance has grown from 12,000 to 50,000 annual visitors, and the museum has seen the addition of new galleries, exhibits and programs. The VMT’s recent success is due to:

Member Profile

• Surveying guests and other constituents, and making their wishes—not the board’s or staff’s— top priority • Partnering with every organization imaginable • Nurturing our corps of volunteers • Being willing to take risks • Converting our biggest asset into a revenue-generator. Roanoke is world-famous for the amazing steam locomotives that were designed and built here by the Norfolk & Western Railway. No other railroad in America could touch the N&W’s record for power and efficiency. The Virginia Museum of Transportation, then, is the only place you can see the best of the best: the Norfolk & Western Class J 611 passenger locomotive, the Class A 1218 freight locomotive, and the Class Y6a 2156* coal-hauling locomotive. These three engines have become known as the Norfolk & Western “Big Three.” Each of these locomotives is the sole survivor of its type, and visitors travel to Roanoke from over 50 countries annually to see these stars in our collection.

Norfolk & Western’s Big Three: the Class Y6a 2156* coal-hauling locomotive, the Norfolk & Western Class J 611 passenger locomotive, and the Class A 1218 freight locomotive.

The most popular of the Big Three is the Class J 611, a National Historical Mechanical Engineering Landmark also known as the Queen of Steam, and the Spirit of Roanoke. With its bullet nose, elegant streamlining, and incredible power, it evokes memories, family stories, and nostalgia for a period of American prosperity. It is a traveling history, science and technology lesson on the rails. In 2013, the Museum began a capital campaign to restore the 611, which last ran 20 years ago. Telling of its international reputation, funding came from every state and 19 countries, with only 6% of funding originating in the Roanoke Valley. The Museum gratefully acknowledges support from Norfolk Southern and thousands of donors who made the restoration possible. The locomotive was restored to operating condition after a year-long effort undertaken at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC. The 611 triumphantly returned to Roanoke under its own steam in May, 2015, and pulled a successful season of excursions across western,

central and northern Virginia. Tickets are now on sale for the 2016 season, with eleven trips planned across Virginia and North Carolina. Visit FireUp611.org for more information. In 2015, the Museum also debuted a children’s book about 611 called Dash Dupree and the Queen of Steam, and in mid-2016, the Museum will release its first documentary, 611: American Icon. Shot in 4K, the documentary, which is funded in part by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, showcases the history of the Norfolk & Western, the restoration process, and an opportunity to watch 611 thunder past under steam in excursion service. The benefits of converting 611 from a static display into a living, breathing, operating steam excursion engine are many: • 611 now serves as a traveling ambassador for Roanoke and the Virginia Museum of Transportation • The museum has significantly raised its profile—and visitor and donor bases—internationally • Earned income from excursions are

ation: Quite a Trip! enabling the museum to invest in much-needed infrastructure and visitor amenities, as well as new exhibits, and soon, a new building to house the Big Three and provide venue and educational space. Joining the Big Three in the museum’s rail yard are about 40 other pieces of rail equipment: steam, diesel, and electric locomotives, a variety of passenger and freight cars, and cabooses. Modern Norfolk Southern trains roll by all day to the delight of visitors. Inside, we host a collection of antique automobiles spanning the 20th century, including two extremely rare vehicles made in Virginia. We are grateful to the Virginia Historical Society for its loan one of these, a Kline Touring Car built in Richmond. About half of the cars in the automotive gallery are on loan, allowing us to rotate exhibits and keep our exhibition fresh. We opened our aviation gallery in 2012, the first gallery developed after we created our master interpretive plan. The gallery enabled us to test a variety of ideas and offer what visitors wanted more of in the museum: more people’s stories, more videos, more interactive exhibits and a more clearly articulated story arch. New exhibits developed since then have included more of these successful features.

change every couple of months. Our educational programs have grown sharply, again by tailoring our offerings to the needs of our customers, the area’s schools. Full-day curricula for kindergarten, fourth and seventh grade students have been developed in partnership with the Roanoke City Public Schools, each covering a couple dozen SOLs in all disciplines to make the program extremely valuable to teachers. The seventh graders use digital tablets to guide them in discovery-based learning throughout the Museum, which includes taking small group selfies with our exhibits. The Museum welcomes visitors seven days a week, and looks forward to opportunities to partner further with museums across Virginia. *611 will be at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC or pulling excursions until its return to Roanoke on April 26. 2156 is on loan from the Museum of Transportation, St. Louis, MO. The Virginia Museum of Transpor tation 303 Norfolk Ave SW Roanoke, VA 24016 540-342-5670 www.VMT.org www.FireUp611.org Kline Touring Car, on loan from the Virginia Historical Society (top); children enjoy the O Gauge model train displays at the Virginia Museum of Transportation

“Children” of all ages love our O Gauge model train displays— for who doesn’t become a kid watching model trains? Volunteers work on our layout weekly, adding miniature buildings, people, and trains, with special emphasis on the lower-level “kid-height” window boxes. Trains roll past holiday- or story-themed displays that

Spring 2016

Book Review

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. by Heather Widener “People in the growth mindset don’t just seek challenge, they thrive on it. The bigger the challenge, the more they stretch.” – Dweck, pg. 21 Mindset: The New Psychology of Success is about how our preconceived ways of seeing the world affect our reactions, our decisions, and even our happiness, effectiveness, and success. Through years of study and research, author Carol S. Dweck has boiled down much of our way of approaching the world into either what she terms a “fixed” mindset or a “growth” mindset. The fixed mindset is just that – a mindset based on the assumption that the world, a person’s intellect, innate abilities, etc. are fixed (i.e., She is more successful than I am, therefore she must be more intelligent than I am.). For someone with a fixed mindset, intelligence and ability are innate. The conclusion is that the power to change does not lie within us. Throughout her book, Dweck proves this approach can be limiting, and that everyone can work to change their mindset.

The second mindset is the growth mindset, in which a person takes a more open approach to abilities, intellect, and change. Those with a growth mindset are more apt to take on a challenge and put real effort into doing hard things, because they see effort as a real means to improvement – they live in a world where ability and excellence are not fixed but instead grow through effort. The tenets of this book are applicable to everyone. Museum directors would benefit by considering how their own mindset affects their leadership style, while visitor services professionals and museum educators should consider how mindset informs their approach to visitors – particularly to students. Regardless of your role within your museum or in business, consider Dweck’s Mindset a tool you can use to better understand yourself and others. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (December 26, 2007) ISBN-10: 0345472322 ISBN-13: 978-0345472328

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Director’s Corner grams funded by this grant is the Collective Wisdom conference exchange. A cohort of 18 LAM (library, archive, museum) representatives will attend 3 national conferences this year (one each in the library, archive and museum sector) and then share what they’ve learned with LAM organizations as well as organizations like VAM. They’ll look at questions such as: How do these conferences work similarly? What do they do differently? What can we learn from each sector? What challenges do we all have in common that we could build on together?

Dear Members, It was so wonderful to see so many of our members at our recent conference in Williamsburg! The entire VAM staff looks forward to the conference all year—not just because it is our biggest event, but because it is our best opportunity to engage with our members, to listen to what is going on in all of our Virginia museums, to celebrate new jobs, retirements, and students entering the field, and to work together with our board to provide a great program. Now that the conference is completed for another year, we can turn our focus to some of the other programs and services we are committed to. Many of these, like workshops, Top 10 Endangered Artifacts, and our career services are well-known and popular among our members, who benefit directly from them. A couple, though, are broader in scope, affecting museums nationwide as well as in Virginia. VAM is proud to have been asked to sit at the table for these projects, and work hard to make sure that our input leads to positive outcomes that come home to our members in the long run. How does this work, and what exactly are we working on?

Coalition to Advance Learning

This project is funded by IMLS, and is designed to improve continuing education and professional development in museums, libraries and archives. Specifically, the projects we work on as part of the national advisory committee focus on removing the barriers that exist between sectors, and find ways to educate across sectors, so that all three types of institutions can benefit. One of the pro-

I am very proud to announce that VAM will have our very own member of the cohort— Christina Newton has been selected to participate in this very important adventure. VAM members will benefit from all the new knowledge that Christina brings back and shares. Congratulations Christina!

Museums United

This project is also funded by IMLS. VAM is one of five key partners on this grant, along with four other state museum associations. The goal of this project is to build the capacity of all our 45 state museum associations, including VAM. While we are one of the largest state museum associations, what we have learned from this project is that all of the associations do creative work, and have resources that all of us can share to better serve our members. Pooling our resources and building our connections with each other, will also help VAM’s members—we can take what we learn and bring it back to you in the form of new workshops, conference sessions, and other resources. VAM will always expend our energies and resources to serve our members; these national partnerships will never take away from that energy. Instead, they add to what we can provide to you, and increase our knowledge of the museum field, and those of our close colleagues, libraries and archives. Sincerely,

Jennifer Thomas Executive Director Virginia Association of Museums

Our Governing Council President, Gary Sandling VP, Planning & Resources, Gretchen Bulova VP, Programming, Rob Orrison Secretary, Dana Puga Treasurer, Eric App Past President, Al Schweizer Ex-Officio Members, Robert C. Vaughan and Jeffrey Allison D i re c to r s Paige Backus Jamie Bosket Dr. Mikell Brown Karen L. Daly Charles Grant Debi Gray Joe Keiper

Lisa Martin Jeffrey Nichols Scott Stroh Vanessa Thaxton-Ward, Ph.D. Sarah Whiting Charlotte Whitted Eric S. Wilson

O u r Sta f f Executive Director, Jennifer Thomas Assistant Director, Christina Newton Communications Director, Heather Widener Membership Coordinator, Rebecca Guest Accountant, Su Thongpan O u r Co nta c ts Phone: 804. 358.3170 Fax: 804. 358.3174 www.vamuseums.org O u r Vo i ce VAM Voice is published quarterly for our members. The editor encourages readers to submit article proposals. Contact the communications director for more information. O u r N e ws D e a d l i n e s Spring: February 15th Summer: May 15th Fall: August 15th Winter: November 1st Our Vision A united museum community inspiring the world around us. Our Mission The Virginia Association of Museums is a statewide network serving the museum community.