The windows in the MANY office look out onto the Hudson River just below the Green Island Bridge where boats approach the northern most navigable point before they turn west onto the Erie Canal or Mohawk River. As I begin my third year as Executive Director of MANY at the eastern edge of New York’s crossroads, I am excited to imagine the routes we will travel north, south, and west in the coming months. Our programs start early this year to help get MANY members and colleagues out in the glorious fall weather. You can check out our entire fall event schedule and register for programs here.

On August 30, MANY will be at the Thomas Cole House with a grant program workshop led by Humanities New York, a tour of the historic house, and a Meet-Up on the lawn. I enjoy thinking of Cole as an immigrant to New York whose perspective as a newcomer helped him see and reflect how culture and nature are inextricably linked in our American identity. If you are a museum professional in the Capital Region, register now because space is limited! If you are from outside the Capital Region, but plan to travel “upstate” for the Labor Day holiday, think about coming up on Thursday and joining us.

Come to Canandaigua on September 6 and see all that the Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park has to offer. Restorations have breathed new life into the historic gardens, making this a must-see on any travel to the Finger Lakes. Join us at Sonnenberg for a Collections Assessment for Preservation Workshop followed by a tour of the gardens, green house, and mansion topped off with a MANY Meet Up.

We asked Visioning Change annual conference attendees to let us know the programs that they enjoyed most and found most useful. We took those top-ranked presentations and created four Re-Visioning Change Workshops for those who could not join us in Rochester. The first will be on Friday, September 14th at SUNY New Paltz where Micah Blumenthal, Storyteller/Co-Workshop Leader, TMI Project and Kara Gaffken, Director of Public Programming, Historic Huguenot Street will present Reclaiming Our Time: Making History Relevant by Connecting Slavery and Racism in Modern America, Miranda Peters, Collections Manager, and Margaret Staudter, Registrar, Fort Ticonderoga will share Skeletons in the Closet: How to Tackle the Biggest Collections Challenges Head On and Ken Meifert, VP, Sponsorship & Development, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will discuss Members? Donors? I Just Need People to Support My Mission…

Dedicate a day to professional development and join us at Fort Ticonderoga on September 20. The Fort opens at 9:30 AM and Meet Up participants will receive free admission all day. At 1:30 we will enjoy gorgeous, sweeping vistas of the Green and Adirondack mountains during a narrated 90-minute boat tour aboard the Carillon on Lake Champlain. At 3:30 Fort Ticonderoga Museum staff will share their unique approach to telling history. Collections, Curatorial, and Public History staff will discuss how their annual focus on a single year of Ticonderoga’s history delivers specific and powerful experiences through collaborative and creative approaches. Our Meet up at 5:30 will offer beer, wine, and light refreshments and time to network with your North Country colleagues. Admission, the tour and Meet Up are free, but tickets for the boat tour are first-come, first-served with discounted tickets at $30 per person.  

We close September at Great Camp Sagamore with the 2018 Museum Institute Leaders Define Leadership. We are excited to announce that this year includes a “Night at the Museum” at The Adirondack Experience and a boat tour on Raquette Lake. Formal sessions will include building cultural competence, supporting financial and human resources, enhancing board capacity, and creating professional communities. The program is structured so that each attendee will step into the role of and explore what it means to be a museum leader. At the time of publication of this e-newsletter, there were only nine spaces left!

Thank you for your support and look forward to seeing you in my travels,