Sarah Turner recently attended the American Alliance of Museum’s Annual Meeting and Expo in Baltimore, Maryland – May 19-22. Here, she shares with us her experience!
____
During the spring, I was awarded a fellowship from AAM and CurCom (Curator’s Committee of the American Alliance of Museums) to attend the conference and participate in a CurCom luncheon and meeting. During my last two internships, I worked directly under the curators of the Lynchburg Museum and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. While at these internships, I was able to gain skills and experience as a curator. It was great to connect with a network of museum professionals in the curatorial field from across the country and to hear about new exhibitions and innovations at their museums. This year the AAM conference theme was “The Power of the Story” – many of the sessions surrounded a Museum’s role in storytelling. The presentations gave a voice to professionals in different positions within the museum to explain how their work helps tell a story to the public.
I was particularly drawn to sessions put on by programming directors, ones who are making remarkable strides to engage the community and create collaborations within the institution. Notable individuals included Tania Katan, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; Kenneth Foster, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Rebecca Edwards, J. Paul Getty Museum; and Maria Morati, independent exhibition developer. There were a few sessions that were overwhelmingly attended by a majority of conference members which included Nina Simon of Museum of Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History and Fred Wilson, who shook the museum world 20 years ago with “Mining the Museum.” Be sure to check out my eportfolio to see my notes from the conference.
Sarah Turner is a first year Arts and Administration Master’s Candidate working towards a degree in Community Arts with a Museum Studies Certificate. She received her B.A. at Lynchburg College, Virgina in American History. She is now an intern at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) in Oregon.
