Focused Discussions
Presenters are each assigned a numbered table in a large meeting room for the full session (usually about 45 minutes), during which time they converse and interact with interested delegates who join them at their table. The discussion may begin with the author presenting a synopsis of their work, to generate discussion on the topic. Authors are encouraged to bring copies of their papers and/or a short handout summarizing their work for distribution at their tables. Multiple authors of a single paper may participate, and one article per roundtable may be submitted for publication.
Featured Reinventing Museum Studies for the Pandemic and Post-pandemic World View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Laura-Edythe Coleman, Heather McLaughlin
Museums and the university programs that train new museum professionals have struggled to compensate for the difficulties of the pandemic. Now, as we begin to surface from the depths of the pandemic, we have a moment to reflect on what we should change. Instead of seeing the pandemic restrictions as confining, our graduate program in museum leadership has leveraged this moment to create new ways of training museum professionals. While we have offered classes online for more than a decade, the pandemic pushed our professors to craft virtual experiences to replace the traditional hands-on practicum/apprenticeships. Not satisfied with Zoom, we have embarked on a journey to create augmented and virtual reality educational materials. In this focused discussion session, participants will have the opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of shifting to virtual instruction methods to teach the next generation of museum professionals about material culture. In particular, we focus on the role of new instructional methodologies to create an equitable and inclusive education for museum students in a post-pandemic world.
Riverscapes and River Stories: Situating Place-based Learning
Focused Discussion Jen Cline, Brad Winn, Peter Hussey
This session tells the story of how three faculty members at a community college came together to create an institutional educational framework that merges the museum with the classroom, while emphasizing the concept of storytelling as a sociopolitical way to take ownership of “place”. In 2017, Lewis and Clark Community College faculty worked with the State Superintendent of the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site to create a two-year honors education program where the classroom became a web of local museums. The stories at each museum became “the professor”, and the students were encouraged to tell their own “river story” as a way to connect to physical place, social space, and develop agency through storytelling. This is a reimagining of “the museum” as a single place, and rethinking how students can be involved in the storytelling of space by adding their own chapters to the larger narrative. “Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Who is Qualified?: Education in Accessibility and the Arts View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Mary Hull, Felicia Knise Ingram
In North Carolina, few academic museums or galleries offer positions (part/full time) related to accessibility due to various barriers such as lack of funding. Moreover, those who hold such titles rarely receive a formal education in accessibility until in the field; this training is usually self-directed. This focused discussion will highlight various topics that include accessibility positions within a museum and gallery space as well as the importance of an early education in accessibility and the arts to make the most impact. Methods to prove the benefits of such education include examples of current programming implemented at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Take away materials include a resource guide for training options and potential avenues for support in regards to how to implement such programming into galleries and museums.
