2025 Conference Program
Wednesday, June 11
Tentative Schedule – Subject to change
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
7:45 – 8:45 am – Heritage Breakfast Gathering
9:00 am – Exhibit Hall opens
9:00 – 10:15 am
Digital Preservation & Metadata: Best Practices For Collection Management
Presenter:
- Sam Rintoul, Mnemosyne Archives
Digital Preservation and Metadata are vital to museums and archives alike, but why? Whether you are new to the world of digital preservation and metadata and not confident of the exact role they play in your institution, or a seasoned professional just looking to brush up on current and best practices, there is something in this session for everyone.
Together we will explore two important topics for museums and archives: Digital Preservation and Metadata Management. Digital Preservation: from the basics to best practices, and the challenges and benefits of digitizing collections. Metadata: what is metadata and the role it plays in collections, accessibility through metadata and best practices for metadata. This session will include fruit snacks and a hands-on activity.
Serving Workers & Communities: Union Campaigns At Two Washington Museums
Presenters:
- Erika Bentley Holland, Washington Museum Association
- Josh Davis, Seattle Art Museum Visitor Services Officers Union
- Tahlía Segura, Seattle Art Museum Visitor Services Officers Union
- Marce Soto-Ramirez, Seattle Art Museum Visitor Services Officers Union
- Kato Lujan Camacho, Tacoma Art Museum Workers Union
- Steve Rue, Tacoma Art Museum Workers Union
- Kellz Moylan, Tacoma Art Museum Workers Union
Museums are cultural cornerstones, yet their workers often face low pay, poor working conditions, and limited advancement opportunities. Unions empower workers to advocate for fair wages, better working conditions, and greater transparency.
Museum workers have been unionizing in waves since 2020 according to Museums Moving Forward data. This trend is exemplified by two local examples: Seattle Art Museum and Tacoma Art Museum.
SAM Visitor Services Officers Union’s experience demonstrates the power of organizing. Facing resistance from management and the Board, they launched an independent union campaign. While going independent limited their resources, it strengthened workers’ resolve and unity. Their campaign focused on fair pay and benefits and expanding workplace democracy.
The pandemic intensified preexisting, systemic issues at Tacoma Art Museum. After significant layoffs, mostly frontline staff, they continued to suffer from staff departures. TAM Workers United joined with the growing national movement of museum workers in Cultural Workers United. After a year-long campaign focused on equity and diversity, TAMWU became Washington’s first multi-department art museum union.
Underpaid, overworked staff is a barrier that keeps institutions from serving communities effectively. SAM VSO Union and TAMWU’s stories show positive change is possible when workers build relationships and collaborate.
Building Partnerships With Tribal Institutions
Presenters:
- Mytyl Hernandez, Hibulb Cultural Center, Tulalip Tribes
- Emilie Miller, Senior Curator, Hibulb Cultural Center, Tulalip Tribes
Historically, Tribal Museums and perspectives have been excluded from discussions regarding tribal history and culture as told by non-Tribal Institutions. Although much of history can be found online, you cannot accurately tell the history of Washington State and its Indigenous Peoples without the input of its local tribes.
Building partnerships between non-Tribal Institutions and Tribal Museums is vital for sharing stories and histories. This lecture will give tips and tricks to build long lasting relationships with Tribal Institutions. Strong and long-lasting relationships are necessary to achieve mutual goals and to ensure the needs of both institutions are met.
We count on the commitment and partnerships between Tribal and non-Tribal institutions throughout the state and country to dismantle the colonization of Tribal materials and histories. Building new partnerships ensures the proper representation of Tribal History, while allowing the opportunity for Tribes to tell their own story.
Threads That Built Countries: Lace & Lacemaking Tying Together Communities
Presenter:
- Louise Palermo, Executive Director, Columbia Gorge Museum
In discovering boxes of lace in our collection storage, we realized this important economic contribution has been overlooked and taken for granted by history. Lace has been an historical indicator of wealth and power from the 15th century to the early pioneer days of our state. This session introduces the economic contribution, primarily but not exclusively, by women in the lace-making industry. It also introduces a 2026 initiative that will bring world-renown lace-makers to the region to re-introduce this historical industry and express contemporary stories. Learn how you can bring this to your museum and partner with us on creating a large-scale lace installation that teaches lace-making and creates a visual story of the Columbia River Gorge. Participating is Maggie Hensel-Brown (https://www.maggiehenselbrown.com/) and Sonia Kasparian (Project Runway Season 17) as well as Washington-wide lace guilds.
10:30 – 11:45am
Emergency Response Networks Meetup
Hosted by SHERN, SHEPARD, and PC-CERN
Join the Seattle Heritage Emergency Response Network (SHERN), Spokane Heritage and Emergency Preparedness and Response Division (SHEPARD), and Pierce County Collections Emergency Response Network (PC-CERN) for an informal conversation about emergency response networks across the state, who help cultural organizations prepare for and respond to emergencies and disasters affecting cultural resources and collections. All are welcome to attend, whether you are a current member of a network, interested in joining, or just interested in learning more about how emergency response networks could support your region.
Same Thread, Different Garments: Using Art & Inquiry To Create Belonging
Presenters:
- Lindsey Newton, School Program Manager, Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture
- Dillyn Adamo, Learning and Engagement Coordinator, Museum of Northwest Art
In this interactive session, participants will hear from two educators from museums on different sides of the state, as we explore how art and inquiry are used to create belonging in their unique communities. MoNA and the MAC both use Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) in their school partnership programs to foster engagement between students and the museum’s mission and values, but they apply the VTS methodology in different ways that are adapted to their contexts and goals. VTS is a research-based, international teaching method that uses works of art to support observation, creative and critical thinking, listening, and communication skills in all students. In VTS, visual art is the catalyst for complex thinking, cooperative learning, and language development.
For MoNA, the emphasis is on art integration in K-12 classrooms, which closely aligns with their mission ‘to integrate art into the lives of all people.’ For the MAC, whose school partnership program has pushed the VTS method into new content areas, the emphasis is on curriculum alignment to keep it a steady and heavily used method for teachers. Both institutions see VTS as a powerful tool. We will explore how inquiry-based methodologies can be used to foster community, learn how museums of different scales can use VTS within school partnerships, and continue to ask, ‘What more can we find?’ as we engage our audiences.
Weaving The Common Threads Of Washington Museums, Libraries, & Archives
Presenters:
- Sharon Streams, Center for Advances in Libraries, Museums, and Archives (University of Washington iSchool)
- Brandon Locke, Center for Advances in Libraries, Museums, and Archives (University of Washington iSchool)
- Prof. Lane Eagles, University of Washington iSchool Museology Program
Did you know that the University of Washington’s Museum Studies graduate program joined the Information School in 2023? Did you know that the school launched the Center for Advances in Libraries, Museums, and Archives (CALMA) in 2024? These exciting developments provide a unique foundation here in Washington for growing a stronger sense of community and collaboration among our region’s museums, libraries, archives, and the university. In turn, those connections can be applied toward addressing research questions, student learning, professional development, emerging practices, and societal trends that impact us all. This session will share results from a study on research topics that span across cultural heritage and memory institutions, and will bring working examples of cross-sector partnerships between the Information School and museums. This will be followed by an interactive discussion of attendees’ vision of strong collaboration with libraries, archives, and the university; and what their hopes and fears around having such a community may be.
Building The Right Team For Exhibit Development
Presenters:
- Mytyl Hernandez, Hibulb Cultural Center, Tulalip Tribes
- Emilie Miller, Senior Curator, Hibulb Cultural Center, Tulalip Tribes
This session will showcase Hibulb Cultural Center’s four-month process on the development of the exhibition, Tabtabəb: Traditional Languages of the Coast Salish Peoples. This process includes the development of an exhibit team featuring experts from various tribal departments and community volunteers, sourcing unique materials for cost-effective design/displays, and innovative learning opportunities through technology.
12:00 – 2:00 pm – Annual Meeting Lunch
2:00 pm – Exhibit Hall Closes
