Join Greg Dietzenbach at AMM 2025 for a lively and enlightening presentation on crafting exhibits that connect with young audiences and leave a lasting impression. He’ll explore these lessons by highlighting Lincoln’s Springfield , an immersive exhibit that aimed to reach the notoriously elusive 10–to-14-year-old demographic.

In these turbulent times, museums and institutions face unprecedented challenges in safeguarding their invaluable collections. This session will provide you with strategic insights and practical tips for loss prevention and risk preparedness, focusing on common insurance losses such as floods and water damage to collections.

“Navigating the Turbulent Waters of DEIA” will delve into how politics impact the policies at museums and cultural institutions. We cannot ignore the laws and regulations that impact the livelihood of our communities, staff and volunteers. Let’s learn how to advocate for a workplace where everyone feels they belong!

Anticipating or beginning a building project, or even dreaming of the future? Join this crash course in successfully planning for a capital project led by a panel of multi-disciplinary museum planning, design, and construction experts. Learn where to begin and how to plan for funding and managing costs.

Learn how to navigate the “crosscurrents” of museum operations to create exceptional experiences for all. This session offers scalable strategies for optimizing operations, engaging communities, and enhancing guest satisfaction, with practical tools and examples for institutions of any size.

Unleash Creativity: Discover a dynamic model for museum-school collaboration. Learn how the German American Heritage Center + Museum partners with a local school and a design firm to provide students with unique, real-world learning experiences. Explore innovative approaches to engage students and enhance your museum’s community impact.

Traditionally, museum collections have existed within a binary, characterized by either permanent collections or those with a temporary designation, such as a study or education status. What if there were additional options? This session examine stategies for navigating the tensions between activating collections and historic spaces while managing both responsibly.

Join the Illinois State Museum and Illinois State Historic Sites to explore how leadership, trust, and accountability opened doors to collaboration and community engagement. Our story is about institutions that devoted decades to learning difficult lessons separately and our commitment to not only collaborating but also doing a better job.

In this session, learn how the German American Heritage Center and Museum is prioritizing collaborations with other institutions and integrating projects like exhibitions, programming, and events to attract new and more diverse visitors. Participants will gain comprehensive insights into crafting compelling in-house exhibitions and thematic programming.

Bring the museum to the community when they can’t come to you. Learn how the Illinois State Museum’s On the Road programming showed up for the public at a time when the museum’s building was inaccessible. Reevaluate your programming, consider alternative venues, and dive deep into your community.

Join us for an engaging session where you will discover dynamic, accessible resources using museum primary sources to enhance student learning. Explore how the State Historical Society of Iowa’s collections foster critical thinking and inquiry. Learn practical tools like Primary Source Sets and Goldie’s History Kits for impactful classroom teaching.

Recently, Visit Quad Cities, the Figge Art Museum, and John Deere have collaborated on several exhibitions and experiences for visitors and residents. How did these public-private partnerships come to be, how is it going, and what’s next? Discover early lessons learned from each organization, and their plans for what’s next.

This session will discuss how one museum supports art education by navigating connections with local schools among changing populations and trends. The presentation and discussion will focus on serving the needs of multiple school districts and our community through outreach and integrated school programming that generate annual events and exhibitions.

Even if your role in the museum doesn’t involve planned giving, you will benefit from thoughtful insights about the field and how planned giving should be a part of every advancement program.

Navigating the ‘Crosscurrents’ of the museum collections profession? Join our ‘Ask the Registrar’ roundtable! Share your challenges, learn from diverse colleagues, and gain practical solutions for collection care. Our expert panelists will guide open dialogue, fostering a supportive network and empowering you to navigate the future with confidence.

We are perfectly efficient and relevant – said no museum leader ever! If capacity constraints and siloed mentalities are keeping you from operating at what you KNOW could be a higher level, come join us for examples and ideas about aligning your organization’s work for greater impact and mission achievement.

RFPs get a bad rap—but RFPs can be a game-changer in how you run projects of any size, making strong choices for your organization and the financial bottom line. We will leverage case studies to showcase the roles that RFPs play in projects ranging from gallery renovations to new museums.

Black Earth/Big River, an immersive natural history exhibit at the Putnam Museum and Science Center, was recently updated to introduce the scientific knowledge of Native Americans (Traditional Ecological Knowledge/TEK).

Learn the benefits of integrating cultural content into science galleries, and the challenges of accessibility in a 25-year-old exhibit.

How can museums create trusted spaces through the built environment when capital projects often lag behind the pace of societal change? The Springfield Art Museum (MO) expansion and renovation project serves as a case study for navigating various crosscurrents while staying true to a vision of a museum for all.

Turn your museum board into your secret weapon! Your board can be your greatest asset—boosting engagement, financial sustainability, and advocacy—but it also comes with challenges that test even seasoned leaders. Join this lively session to tackle the good, bad, and messy, and leave ready to build a high-performing, collaborative board.

The State Historical Museum of Iowa has recently made significant advances in the accessibility of exhibits for people with disabilities. Lindsay Keast and Bettina Dolinsek will share their successes and challenges with various building navigation technologies. They will also discuss other free ways to make museums more accessible.

Interested in learning how your museum can be racially inclusive in your programming and beyond? This session will provide insights into creating diverse community connections that bring relevance to your museum.

“Increase attendance by removing your audiences’ perceived barriers. It can be as simple as reminding them how easy and fun it is to visit. Your visitors will feel like they have a personal concierge and your visitation numbers will show it! In this 60-minute workshop you’ll learn how to create a content-focused marketing plan with a service mindset designed to engage audiences and boost visitation.

Together we’ll create:
– Mini visitor journey maps that identify intersection points for exhibits, programs, events, and amenities that combine to create new ways to present museum experiences
– Concierge content ideas
– a list of actionable ideas to create concierge content on your website, in your e-news, on your social media feeds, and more.

This session is led by marketer and technologist, Despi Mayes. She has 12 years of museum experience with roles at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Plus, over a decade of marketing planning and digital strategy at creative agencies, non-profits, and as an independent consultant.

A good Collections Management Policy (CMP) guides the life of a collection responsibly and consistently. Updates are inevitable and necessary to reflect current best practices and institutional needs. We will offer insights on how we navigated, negotiated and compromised to upgrade or create a CMP that fits our institution.

“Testing…Testing… Is this thing on?” Learn from the hosts of Unbound: A Collection of Indiana Stories, a podcast from the Indiana Historical Society, about their podcasting journey and the steps you should consider for starting your own.

Unlock the power of partnerships with the Putnam Museum and Quad Cities Cultural Trust! Explore inspiring case studies, discover practical strategies for collaboration, and learn how to strengthen your institution’s impact. Engage in interactive discussions and leave with tools to create innovative, sustainable partnerships in your own community.

There are numerous ways AI applications integrate themselves into workflows and content development at museums. From the helpful and harmless applications, to the bold and transformative, this session will discuss real-world examples of the good, the bad, and the scary of incorporating AI at your museum.

Your exhibit is demanding a refresh and major experiences are failing—but lack the resources to completely redevelop it. We’ve all been there. Let’s get scrappy! Through this interactive session, you will learn through the case studies of seasoned exhibitions professionals of how they flexed their creativity to retool their exhibits.

Explore a case study of one museum’s sustained and multi-faceted relationship with a local school district. Discover the STEAM learning programs created through listening and learning, and participate in one of the activities yourself! Discuss what strategies you can use to sustain a partnership that can thrive through difficult changes.

Museum funding is at an especially turbulent time. Registrars are expected to stretch budgets further. This session will speak directly to those museum professionals that handle loans and acquisitions by covering what art shippers do, when it is appropriate to use an art shipper, and suggesting ideas for reducing cost.

This panel discussion helps museum directors and CEOs continue their professional growth by exploring advanced leadership development opportunities, emerging trends and technologies, and strategies for ongoing learning. Experts will provide practical tools and insights to help directors refine their leadership skills, innovate, and ensure long-term success for their institutions.

Navigating Collaborative Exhibit Development tackles the intricacies of creating meaningful exhibits today. This session provides tangible resources for working with varied communities and stakeholders; creating easy to use documents to guide planning, writing, and oversight; and creatively addressing design, budget, and schedule constraints that embrace varied perspectives, goals, and outcomes.

Discover how hands-on, play-based learning in museums nurtures children’s cognitive, social, and emotional growth. Learn from experts across science, history, and art museums as they share interactive strategies that foster critical thinking, empathy, and resilience. Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your approach to engaging young learners!

Let’s re-learn our ABCD’s!
A: Why do some people feel they have “A”ccess?
B: How do we make museums places for others to feel they “B”elong?
C: Should we create “C”ommunity content?
Let’s “D”eep-Dive into practical applications! Bring ideas & stories of access, a sense of belonging, and inclusion.

Join Rebekah Beaulieu, Taft Museum President & CEO, and Jim Bush, Winkler Group CEO, to explore strategic planning trends and what’s working for museums. Using case studies, they’ll identify a process that leads to greater impact, more community inclusion, sustainable revenue, and a museum positioned for a successful capital campaign.

Join the Detroit Institute of Arts and SmithGroup to explore the challenges, opportunities, and processes associated with leveraging infrastructure upgrades to modernize storage and gallery spaces of a works-on-paper collection. The presentation will address environmental control considerations, strategic energy conservation measures, and design opportunities and solutions.