Presenting “Wanna Start Something?” Photo by Maria Mortati.
Hello from windy and warm Houston!
This year I had the great fortune to present in two sessions at the American Association of Museums 2011 Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo‚ “The Future of Exhibiting: Voices from NonTraditional Museums” and “Wanna Start Something? Programming from the Ground Up.” Creating an AAM session proposal last year, navigating the selection process and then finally getting to be up on the panel was a long and ultimately rewarding experience.
I want to thank Paul Orselli of POW! for being our enthusiastic and provocative chair and Maria Mortati of the San Francisco Mobile Museum project and Jon West-Bey from the American Poetry Museum for sharing their stories and the views on the multivalent definition of “museum” and how we all fit together into the world family of museums.
Booth at the Expo with Mannequins Photo by Maria Mortati.
Also many thanks to Leslie Howard, chair of the National Emerging Museum Professional Advisory Council, AAM for inviting me to share the birth of Girl Museum to encourage others to have ideas and the confidence to try them out. Also thanks to my fellow panelists, Ian Kerrigan of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and Sheetal Prajapati of MoMA for providing helpful advice and examples of hard work and dedication to make ideas into reality.
There were several sessions I made it to that were inspirational, challenging, and frustrating, so that is probably the right balance for a national conference.
Thank you to everyone for being welcoming of Girl Museum and we hope to see you all again next year.
-Ashley E. Remer
Head Girl
Girl Museum Inc.