MPMA

Major Museum Conference in Wichita this Fall

Wichita: The Mountain-Plains Museums Association (MPMA) and the Kansas Museums Association (KMA) will host a joint museum conference September 27 - October 1 in Wichita. The conference will attract museum professionals from a 10-state region in the heartland of America and all over Kansas. It will be one of the largest museum conferences ever to be held in Wichita.

Cultural organizations in Wichita as well as in nearby towns will help host the conference which is expected to attract 500 museum professionals from Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming.

“This conference will provide sessions and workshops on the latest trends in museums. Indeed, what distinguishes this conference from others is that there will be so many sessions, workshops and events that delegates will have a hard time choosing which to attend,” said Mike Smith, Director of the Nebraska State Historical Society and MPMA’s President. Topics that will be covered during the conference include museum exhibits, museum collections, data management, heritage tourism, personnel, education strategies, collaborations between museums and schools, creating engaging tours, websites, museum security, how to get hired by a museum, marketing and branding, special event planning, how to write grants plus many more topics.

“We are especially pleased to have the MPMA and KMA conference in our state,” said Susan Hawksworth, director of the Smoky Hill Museum in Salina and one of the general conference chairs. “It will be a superb opportunity for museums, local historical societies and history and art students to attend a conference which focuses on museum issues.”

“Many of those museum issues,” according to Jay Price, director of WSU’s Public History Program and chair of the conference’s volunteer committee, “will feature the arts, history, and how to get into the museum field.” There will be tours of many Wichita museums, as well as museums in surrounding communities.

Presenters and keynoters will come from all over the country as well as from Kansas. The General Session keynoter will be James Chung, President, Reach Advisors, Albany, NY, who will speak on membership trends and why philanthropic support is booming for some organizations but not for all. Other keynoters include John Bardo, President, Wichita State University; Fred Merrill, Jr., President, Merrill Companies LLC, Overland Park, KS; and Scott Redler, co-founder of the food chain, Freddy’s. Attendees will also hear from Jennie Chinn, Executive Director, Kansas State Historical Society; and the Honorable Jeff Longwell, Mayor of the City of Wichita.

For registration information and to get a copy of the Conference Program, visit www.mpma.net or www.ksmuseums.org. Contact MPMA at 303.979.9358 or by email at mountplains@aol.com, or contact KMA at 316.765.9197 or email director@ksmuseums.org.