The relevancy-driven museum focuses its mission and goals on the creation of impactful audience experiences that act as a catalyst for connection to larger societal issues.  Whether it involves the preservation of built or natural environments, tolerance for diverse people and cultures, or advancement of the realm of science, technology and society, the relevancy-driven museum’s learning and teaching experiences embrace the roles of human connection and societal activism.

To register for the conference, click here.

For more information, including lodging, directions, Albany Cultural Passport, Conference Sponsors and the UHA Silent Auction, click here.

Click here for a printable version of the conference brochure.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

8:00a-4:00p Conference Registration
Albany Marriott
Wolf Road

Pre Conference Workshops
The below listed workshops are offered at an additional fee to conference participants

9:00a-4:00p Integrated Pest Management
Historic Cherry Hill
523 1/2 South Pearl Street
Albany, NY
Presenters: Erin Crissman, Curatorial Consultant; Gwen Spicer, Conservator, Spicer Art Conservation

It's a bird, it's a plane ... no, it's a moth!

Develop an IPM program for your institution. This day-long session is specifically geared toward small institutions with limited staff, and for sites that rely on volunteers for part or all of their collections care, maintenance and housekeeping functions.  You need this training class if you have had an infestation in the past, are currently dealing with an infestation, or if you've never had training to help you identify insect damage in your collection.

9:00a-4:00p Building Bridges: Making Historical Records Relevant in the Classroom
Rensselaer County Historical Society
57 Second Street
Troy, NY
Chair: Julie Daniels, Coordinator of Educational Programs, New York State Archives
Presenters: Lawrence Paska, Associate, Social Studies Education Curriculum, Instruction and Instructional Technology Team, New York State Education Department; Amanda Massie, CanalWays Project Coordinator, Waterford Museum; Ruth Ellen Berninger, Executive Director, Columbia County Historical Society; Todd DeGarmo, Crandall Public Library; and others.

As New York State educators work to meet the needs of their students while simultaneously being concerned with state education standards and testing, New York’s cultural organizations are also working to develop programming and resources that will prove to be relevant to the classroom experience.

This workshop will help to bridge the gap between teachers and their community’s cultural organizations. Participants of this full-day workshop will walk away with:
• A better understanding of the New York State Standards for Education
• An inside perspective from a teacher
• In depth knowledge of some of the leading programs offered by New York’s cultural organizations
• Hands-on experience in working to develop education programs that meet the needs of students, teachers, and cultural organizations

9:30a-2:00p The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:  What It Takes To Create a World-Class Guest Services Program
Children’s Museum of Science and Technology (CMOST)
250 Jordan Road
Troy, NY
Presenters: Kathleen S. Dengler, Vice President for Human Resources, Strong National Museum of Play®; Richard A. Battle, Vice President for Guest Services, Strong National Museum of Play®

Strong National Museum of Play® has designed a proven model of extraordinary guest service based on the Disney method. This exemplary program has dovetailed with marketing efforts to produce 100 percent admissions growth and 500 percent growth in membership over seven years.    The session includes role-play and Q-A segments and is a rare opportunity to “ask the experts” about the keys to a successful guest service program.  Strong Museum’s guest services training is highly regarded in the museum world and our presenters are invited to many museums around the country to share their techniques. This is a rare opportunity to hear the philosophy behind the training and to experience a condensed version of these workshops, which represent current best practices in their field.

12:00-4:00p An Adventure in Wonderland: A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of the New York State Capitol
State Street, Albany
Tour led by Assemblyman John J. McEneny

State Street hill, the New York State Capitol has served as the seat of government for New York since the 1880s. The building is a marvel of late 19th century architectural grandeur." Enjoy a tour of the capitol with an added bonus visit to downtown historical 'political hangouts'.

5:00-7:30p Opening Reception/Award of Merit Presentation
Sponsored by Gaylord
Albany Institute of History and Art
125 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY

Our conference kick-off reception takes place at Albany Institute of History and Art, one of the oldest museums in the United States. Join us to honor this year’s Upstate History Alliance Award of Merit winners. Awards will be presented at 6:00p. Behind-the-Scenes tours will also be available on a first-come, first-served basis, some come early to ensure your spot on the tour. Light hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served.

7:30p Museum Institute at Sagamore Alumni Dinner
DeJohn's Pub
288 Lark Street
Albany, NY

Alumni of the Upstate History Alliance Museum Institute at Sagamore and others interested in learning about this unique professional develop opportunity are invited to this informal dinner. The 2008 Museum Institute at Sagamore will focus on Interpreting Historic Places. A flat rate of $25 per diner includes bread, salad, a selection from a menu of 3 entrée options, soda, coffee and tea , tax and tip. A private cash bar will be available.


Monday April 14, 2008

8:00a-5:30p Conference Registration
Albany Marriott
189 Wolf Road
Please note that all below listed events will be taking place at the Albany Marriott, unless otherwise indicated.

8:00a-5:30p Conference Sponsor Exhibitor Area
Attendees will have the opportunity throughout the day to view tabletop displays and speak with exhibitor representatives. Click here, and check your registration packets, for a complete list of conference sponsors.

8:00a-3:45p Upstate History Alliance Silent Auction
Don’t miss out on your chance to purchase some of the unique and interesting items donated by attendees and other supporters. All proceeds benefit UHA and help us continue to provide a myriad of services to our constituents.

Silent Auction items will be on display beginning at 8:00 a.m. Bidding will end promptly at 3:45 p.m. and winners can pick up their items until 5:30p at the Registration Desk. Remember, cash or check are the only accepted forms of payment.

If you are interested in donating items to the Silent Auction, click here.

7:45a-9:15a Conference Welcome Breakfast & UHA and MANY Business Meetings
Sponsored by Hadley Exhibits, Inc.

Join us for an informal breakfast discussions centered around the idea of the Relevancy-Driven Museum. UHA and MANY Business Meetings will follow.

9:15a-9:30a Break

9:30a-10:45a Concurrent Sessions

Got Name? Get Brand!
Chair: Tema Harnik, Executive Director, Lower Hudson Conference
Presenters: Margaret Anne Tockarshewsky, Marketing and Communications Consultant; Susie Wilkening, Consultant, Reach Advisors; Jacqueline L. Grant, Executive Director, Hudson Highlands Nature Museum; Cynthia Lee, Vice-President of Exhibitions, Programs and Collections, Museum of Chinese in America.
Does your audience really understand who you are?  Explore identity crises, name confusion, mission focus, and renaming with three museums that are strategically repositioning themselves and adding relevance for their audiences. 

Using Cell Phone Audio Guides To Engage Museum Audiences
Chair: April Oswald, Museum Education Director, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute
Presenters: David Asheim, President, Guide by Cell Inc.; Bartholomew Bland, Curator of Exhibitions, Hudson River Museum; Deborah Emmons-Andarawis, Museum Educator / Curator of Temporary Exhibitions, Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site.
Uncover the possibilities of using visitor-friendly, state-of-the art technology to create relevant, dynamic, engaging, and inspiring audio experiences for a new generation of visitors.

Start by Listening:  Creating Meaningful Interpretive Experiences
Chair: Linda Norris, Managing Partner, Riverhill
Presenters: Catherine Harris, Independent Consultant; Ruth Ellen Berninger, Executive Director, Columbia County Historical Society; Lenora Henson, Curator, Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site.
If museums wish to be relevant, we might begin by listening to our audiences at the start of interpretive efforts. Learn from two very different museums how formative and front-end evaluation can make our museums matter.

Innovations in Government Owned Historic Sites
Chair: Donna Harris, Principal, Heritage Consulting Inc.
Innovation at government-owned historic sites has increased of late. Panelists will discuss how NYC, Philadelphia and other locations have taken different roads to preserve their houses, even if they no longer make sense as museums.

10:45-11:00p Break

11:00-12:30p Concurrent Sessions
The sessions offered during this time are sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities and include a THOUGHT/DISCUSSION component following the panel presentation.

Mass Appeal
Chair: Susie Wilkening, Consultant, Reach Advisors
They’re an audience that’s tech-savvy and into social networking. They also go to museums…but maybe not yours. Join in a lively, facilitated conversation with GenY-ers to hear their thoughts about why museums matter to them.

Traditional Exhibits Are History
Chair: Kathryn Murano, Collections Department Coordinator, Rochester Museum & Science Center
Presenters: Debra Jacobson, Director of Marketing & Community Affairs, Rochester Museum & Science Center; Leatrice Kemp, Librarian/Archivist, Rochester Museum & Science Center; Erin Roth, Head of Youth and Family Programs, Rochester Museum & Science Center.
How can museums stay relevant? RMSC discusses strategies for developing an exhibit on the Underground Railroad that transform the museum into a resource for the community and vice versa.

Using Reader’s Theater with Children to Interpret Provocative Themes
Chair: Becky Watrous, Education Director, Historic Cherry Hill
Presenters: Don Wheeler, Retired Elementary Teacher
Historic Cherry Hill has transformed the content and interpretive approach of its core school program to reflect the site’s new interpretive mission.  Increasingly museums are undergoing change in response to scholarship that broadens perspectives on the past.  Designing school programs that do not dilute the power of new ideas is a challenge for museum educators now and in the future.  This session will describe how one museum met this challenge by creating a meaningful learning experience for children that connects them to larger societal issues.

The Story of Us: The History of Relevancy in Museums
Chair: Name: Kerry Lippincott, Education Coordinator, Chemung County Historical Society
Patriotism, ethnic pride, entertainment, remembrance, tourism.  Since 1773, the relevance of museums has been constantly changing.  The Story of Us will trace the development of the relevancy-driven museum in the United States.

12:30-2:00p Keynote Luncheon
Sponsored by the New York Council on the Arts

Keynote speaker, Emlyn Koster, President and CEO of the Liberty Science Center, is at the helm of one of the museum field’s most relevancy-minded institutions. Internationally experienced and dedicated to improving the links between science and society, he is prominent writer and speaker about the external responsibilities of science museums as well as an active contributor to the field.

2:15-3:30p Concurrent Sessions

Succession Planning:  What is It and Why Aren't You Doing It?
Chair: Anne Ackerson, Director, Museum Association of New York
Presenters: Joan Baldwin, MANY Succession Planning Project Coordinator; Mark Mortenson, CEO, Buffalo Museum of Science; Stephen Perkins, Director, Bennington Museum (VT)
This session debuts MANY's new white paper on succession planning which will reveal research findings and discuss potential ways to approach change and transition in your institution.

Internships and the Small Museum: A Case Study
Chair: Joy Houle, Director, Saratoga County Historical Society
Presenters: Rebecca Codner, Curator, Saratoga Springs History Museum; Gertrude B. Hutchinson, Archivist, Foundation of New York State Nurses; Dr. Ivan Steen, Director, Public History Program & Associate Professor, Department of History, University at Albany, SUNY.
What is a “good” internship program? Hear about it from two former interns who are now employed in the museum field, one museum director and one public history program director.

Using Collections
Chair: Erin Crissman, Curatorial Consultant
When objects are donated to museums, they sometimes have an abrupt switch from “use” to “display only” in their lives. This session will explore creative new ways of using collections in museum settings.

Weeksville: Black and Green – Two Centuries of  Sustainability
Chair: Elissa Blount Moorhead, Director of Programming and Exhibitions, Weeksville Heritage Center
Presenters: Jennifer Scott, Director of Research, Weeksville Heritage Center.

3:30-4:00p Break
Sponsored by Riverhill
Take this time to grab some refreshment, organize your thoughts, and visit:

UHA Silent Auction - Bidding Ends at 3:45

Resume Review Center - What are the skills and experiences that potential employers are looking for? Bring your resume and review it with the leaders in the museum field at the Resume Review Center. Sign-up for your appointment at the Conference Registration Table.

4:00-5:15p Concurrent Sessions

Can We Predict Success? Results of Recent Research
Chair: Joann Lindstrom, Independent Consultant
Join a panel discussion with dynamic, creative museum entrepreneurs about what factors helped their museums succeed. The results of recent research may surprise you!

Creative Space for Family Learning
Chair: Lisa Jemison, Interpretative Naturalist, The Wild Center
By looking closely at the natural world and interpreting what they see with art, families learn about nature both by personal observation and by interaction with staff naturalists and interpreters.

The Dead Will Rise: Living History and the Collective Memory
Chair: Sara Doane, Executive Director, Tioga County Museum
Presenters: Wesley Saavedra, PhD Candidate, Binghamton University.
History museum have the unique task of making the dead talk. This session will provide living historians with techniques to create impactful audience experiences by connecting issues of collective historical memory and the present day with voices from our past.

Reaching Out to the World: Video Conferencing and Distance Learning Opportunities
Chair: John Buchinger, Associate Director of Education, New York State Historical Association
Meeting audience needs, and finding new ways to present and interpret offerings are possible with the use of Distance Learning. Comprised of many different technologies and approaches, this session will look at ways museums are using this approach to meet missions and reach new audiences beyond the physical walls of their institutions.

6:00-8:00p Networking Reception
Sponsored by Archives Partnership Trust
New York State Museum
Cultural Education Center
Albany, NY

Welcome first time attendees and catch up with old friends over drinks and light hors d’oeuvres. Join your colleagues from across the state for an evening of informal networking at the New York State Museum.

8:00-10:00p  UHA Fundraising Event
C.H. Evans Brewing Company
Albany Pump Station
19 Quackenbush Square
Albany, NY
Join us for this unique “Friendraising” event which will feature an evening discovering this third generation New York brewery begun in 1786. The cost to attend this event is only $45 which includes a choice of entrée, salad, bread, unlimited soda, coffee & tea.
A cash bar will be available to sample Award Winning brews. All proceeds go to support the Upstate History Alliance.


Tuesday April 15, 2008

8:00-10:00a Poster Session Presentation
Sponsorsed by New York State Historical Association and The Farmers' Museum

A newly expanded feature at this year's conference! Enjoy breakfast refreshments and then visit our three Poster Session Events:

Student Poster Presentations: Check out the latest research and developments being uncovered by the museum field's emerging leaders.  

Funders Poster Presentations: Learn about the funding opportunities available to New York State's cultural organizations and make connections with the organizations that are eager to support your organization. 

Issues Poster Presentations: Stay current on the issues that are affecting the museum field.

8:00-10:00a Resume Review Center
Remember to sign-up for your appointment at the Conference Registration table.

10:00-11:00a Closing Keynote Address
Speaker: Philip Morris, CEO, Proctor's Theater, Schenectady
Talk about relevancy-driven – Philip Morris joined Proctors in 2002 and has shepherded a nearly five-year, $30 million transformation of one of the capital region's oldest and best known playhouses into the centerpiece of Schenectady's downtown revitalization efforts. To be a driving force in the city's revitalization, the theater has to be "an engine that's there every day," he says. He believes the 81-year-old nonprofit institution in the heart of downtown has hit a "tipping point" in which its awareness and popularity are about to explode.

Post Conference Workshops
The below listed workshops are offered at an additional fee to conference participants

12:00-4:00p Museum Board Empowerment Program: Roles and Responsibilities of a Museum Board of Directors
Pruyn House
207 Old Niskayuna Road
Presenter: Susan Weinrich, CCSNYS, VP Organizational and Community Development

This workshop, supported in part by New York State Council on the Arts and presented by CCSNYS, will provide museum board members a fundamental overview and general orientation to the key governance knowledge and skills needed to serve on a board and to develop and maintain a well-run board. Discussions will focus on the meaning of being a fiduciary and how museum boards should delegate governance and operational tasks to board officers, committees and museum staff.

12:00-4:00p Curating a Brand Experience
Colonie Center
Wolf Road
Albany, NY
Presenter: James Chung & Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors

As museums continue to compete against a multitude of leisure time and educational activities, standing out becomes even more challenging. Yet some brands are thriving in a hyper-competitive environment. For them, it's all about their staff, their community, and the connections they help their audiences build — keys for any organization trying to be relevant to as large of an audience as possible.

Join James Chung and Susie Wilkening of Reach Advisors for a “backstage” tour of some of America’s largest retailers as we examine what it takes to “curate” a brand experience. This tour of Colonie Center Mall will most likely make stops at: L.L.Bean, Sephora, Claire’s, Cheesecake Factory, American Eagle and Barnes & Noble. Meet with
store managers, and get insider tips about what makes those brands great.

12:00-4:00p Preserving New York's History: Tour of Peebles Island
Waterford, NY
Visit the rehabilitated textile factory that is the home to the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Bureau of Historic Sites in Waterford, NY. Located at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, the Bureau is responsible for providing program and technical support to OPRHP’s 36 state historic sites and five state historic parks. Tour will include a behind-the-scenes visit to art conservation labs, archeology, curatorial, collections management and interpretation units.