Dear Members, Friends, and Colleagues, Yesterday I attended two meetings where state support for museums in New York was discussed. The first was a strategic planning workshop for the New York State Council on the Arts and the second was the Cultural Education Committee meeting of NYSED’s Board of Regents. NYSCA plays an essential role in funding our state’s museums and cultural organizations. The Strategic Planning Workshop included an overview of recent programs and funding in each of NY’s 62 counties. In FY18, $41 million was awarded for program support and $20 million for capital projects; 60% of the program support funds went to organizations with budget sizes under $1 million.  In the museum program, applications from museums with budget sizes under $1 million were reviewed separately from museums with larger budget sizes. We know this shift in policy has made a difference. Since the 2018 funding was announced, several MANY members who had not previously received NYSCA grants were awarded general operating support, often the most difficult funds to secure. I was pleased to sit at a table with the staff of three Capital Region museums, Yolanda Bostic, Principle Policy Analyst for the Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts, and Sports Development Committee, and Elissa Kane, Community Liaison for Assembly Member Patricia Fahy, who reminded us that it is everyone’s responsibility to speak up in support of NYSCA funding. NYSCA will be hosting nine more strategic planning workshops across the state before the end of the year. Lord Cultural Resources is working with NSYCA to engage stakeholders, conduct research, and identify issues and opportunities. We encourage all museum professionals in our state to attend these workshops and support NYSCA’s strategic planning process. The dates, times, and locations of these Regional Constituent Workshops will be announced soon. Details will be posted on NYSCA’s website. I ended the day at the Cultural Education Committee meeting of NYSED’s Board of Regents. The meeting ended with the Commissioner’s Office reiterating budget priorities which included funding for the Museum Education Act. We will soon share advocacy tools you can use to include your voice in support of the MEA as we await the governor’s signature. Thank you for your support of NYSCA and the MEA. Sincerely,  Erika Sanger Executive Director

One of the most important – and sometimes most difficult – questions museum leaders must ask themselves today is one that may seem to have a simple answer, but in reality, is far more nuanced than it appears. 

How can I make my museum accessible to everyone? 

The deeper root of this question lies in one thing: a museum’s resources. How can a museum use its resources – human or otherwise – to make their collections, exhibitions, and staff accessible to the diverse communities they serve? At the Joseph F. and Helen C. Dyer Arts Center at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in Rochester, NY, the staff faces the challenge of understanding how to properly utilize all available resources in order to create a safe, open, and diverse space for the deaf community – and all the various communities in Rochester – head-on.

The Dyer Arts Center opened its doors in 2001 with a mission of showcasing artwork created by students and alumni of NTID, along with works by nationally and internationally known artists, all of whom are deaf, hard of hearing, and allies of the deaf community. Besides the Gallaudet University Museum in Washington, D.C., the Center is the only arts center in the United States whose sole focus is collecting and exhibiting artwork by deaf individuals. As of this year, the Center’s permanent collection is home to over 1,000 pieces created by deaf or hard of hearing artists – the oldest piece in their collection is from 1925.

Tabitha Jacques, who has been Director of the Center for three and a half years, says that the work she and her staff do to service the deaf community is an opportunity to represent their culture. “Often people don’t understand that people with disabilities may have a culture, and deaf people definitely have a culture,” she says. “This is an invaluable resource for deaf people, for deaf young people, to come in and take pride.”

This semester, the Center is home to three different exhibitions, each of which take inspiration from the idea that the Center is a space for the deaf to manifest pride in their community. The first exhibition, 50 Artists 50 Years, the NTID 50^th Anniversary Art Exhibition, opened this summer in celebration of the NTID’s 50^th anniversary. Located in the Elizabeth W. Williams Gallery (the Center’s main exhibition space), the 50 Artists 50 Years features art created by 50 different NTID alumni artists, along with pieces from the Center’s permanent collection. This exhibition, along with a mural by NTID alumna Susan Dupor on display in the Glass Room, will close October 20.

For the second half of the semester, the Center will zero in further on the theme of pride and accessibility with two new exhibitions, Cultivating Connections and 6x6 Deaf Pride. Cultivating Connections, which will open November 2 in the Williams Gallery, will be a celebration of the Rochester community as a whole. “We have solicited artwork from anyone in the Rochester community, deaf or non-deaf,” Jacques says. “The point is to have a diversity of artwork representing the collective of Rochester.” Jacques’ initial plan for the exhibition was to focus solely on local deaf artists, she says. “But then I thought, ‘Well, why am I now siloing the deaf artists from the Rochester community?’” Because the Center is primarily an exhibition space for deaf artists, up to 50 percent of the artists exhibited in Cultivating Connections will be deaf or hard of hearing, while the rest of the artists will be anyone from the Rochester community as a whole.

The Center’s third exhibition of the semester, 6x6 Deaf Pride, also opening November 2, will take a similar approach to engaging the community as Cultivating Connections by inviting deaf and hard of hearing artists, interpreters, and allies to submit small, 6x6 artworks that focus on what deaf pride means to them. “I wanted to give the opportunity to ask people, ‘Why don’t you represent yourself? Who are you as a member of the community?’” Jacques says. All of the artwork displayed will be up for sale, with the proceeds going directly to the Center.

While inspiring deaf students and visitors to find pride and empowerment through a celebration of deaf culture is the primary goal of the Center, Jacques says that other museums need to utilize their resources to create accessible spaces for deaf and hard of hearing people, too. “Deaf people have different needs, and that doesn’t mean that they can’t absorb information,” she says. “Museums really are an alternative educational center in some ways, [where] you can engage the person in learning. But if the person doesn’t have an accessible space, then you’re blocking them from being able to learn.”

This block, Jacques says, has had a serious impact on the actual amount of cultural education available to deaf people, nor have there been any solid methods for documenting and collecting art by deaf artists. “For me, I feel like this is a necessity. We have to do it,” she says.

But how can other museums do what the Center, a university-backed museum, does? “It’s vital to partner with the community,” Jacques says. “Step one: be open-minded. Deaf people historically have had a negative relationship with museums…engage the deaf community in the discussion.”

Earlier this year, the Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) reached out to Jacques and other community members to get their input on a new exhibition they were prototyping on the science of sound. Jacques says that after they sent their initial didactic information, she and the others noticed the approach the RMSC was taking was too paternalistic. “It was more medical, focusing on hearing loss,” she says. “One of the members of our team talked to them about the concept of deaf gain and other concepts, like, it’s not bad to be deaf. It’s not a loss if you’re deaf. If you’re born deaf and you grow up deaf, you haven’t lost anything because you’ve never had that in your life.”

The RMSC listened to the feedback from Jacques and her team and added information about deaf gain to their prototype. “I was so appreciative because they were very open-minded,” Jacques says. “They wanted our feedback, they wanted our input, they wanted to partner with us, and they wanted to recognize deaf people because they do know that deaf people are critical mass here in Rochester. 

So, to circle back to the question that all museum leaders are asking themselves in an age where the recognition of diverse identities is directly correlated to a museum’s accessibility, how can we make our museums more accessible to everyone, and why should we? The first and most important step, as both Jacques and the RMSC have shown, is to be open to accepting and listening to oft-forgotten voices.

“Deaf art has been in the works for over one hundred years, but there’s no real space to actually show it and talk about it and learn about it,” Jacques says. “I feel honored to work in this area and to continue the mission of making sure that the deaf community all over the world cherishes who they are and what deaf culture has produced and will continue to produce into the future.”  

“What does it mean to become an American?”

This is the question the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library (N-YHS) posed when they launched the Citizenship Project in response to the change in United States immigration laws in January 2017. The Citizenship Project, which officially launched in July of that same year, is an initiative to help green card holding immigrants living in New York become American citizens. Since last July, the N-YHS has been providing free civics and American history classes and other educational tools for aspiring New Americans, helping them to prepare for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) naturalization exam.

The idea of marrying the N-YHS’s mission to promote a love for history through education and programming with the USCIS naturalization test was, for the N-YHS, the logical next step in their goal to engage the communities they serve. “We have a long history at the New-York Historical Society of telling untold stories, and we also have a long history of teaching over 200,000 schoolchildren [American history] each year,” says Jennifer Schantz, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the N-YHS. Schantz also handles all legal affairs for the N-YHS and oversees the Citizenship Project.

The N-YHS’s long history of preserving New York history and promoting education stretches all the way back to its founding in 1804, when it became the first museum to open in New York State – in fact, their museum predates the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art by 70 years. According to their website, the eleven founders of the N-YHS lived through the American Revolution; their experiences living under British occupation led them to believe that “New York’s citizens needed to take decisive action to preserve eyewitness evidence of their own historical moment.” The founders feared that “’dust and obscurity’ would be the inevitable fate of accounts and artifacts if left in the hands of private individuals,” and thus, the N-YHS was born.

Now, the N-YHS is bringing the founders’ original mission of preserving history and telling the American story to the 21^st century with the Citizenship Project. “It’s a perfect project for us,” Schantz says.

Here’s a little background behind the core inspiration for the Project – helping aspiring New Americans become citizens: By the end of 2017, there was a backlog of nearly 730,000 pending naturalization applications at the USCIS, according to a report from the National Partnership for New Americans, an alliance of immigrants’ rights groups. In 2017, there were over 925,000 applications for naturalization submitted to the USCIS, the report says. To put that into perspective, the USCIS naturalizes approximately 700-750,000 immigrants as citizens each year; 716,000 New Americans were granted citizenship in 2017.

These numbers are indicative of the times aspiring New Americans are living through – with the change of immigration laws and an increased divide on the debate of immigration to the United States, the pressure to obtain citizenship is higher than ever. But with the help from the N-YHS, the daunting task of applying for citizenship, taking the 100-question exam, and waiting to hear from the USCIS is made easier.

The Citizenship Project is made up of a 24-hour in-depth course that uses art and documents from the N-YHS’s collection to help its students study for the naturalization exam. But the coursework goes beyond rote memorization of American history and civics. Students are introduced to the N-YHS’s collection of objects and documents, giving them the chance to interact with the history they’re studying. “It allows the students to dig deeper, because it doesn’t only address the questions themselves, but also talks about what it means to be a citizen and the rights and obligations of citizenship,” Schantz says. “It’s not lecture; it’s interactive. It’s a really sort of vivid way to make these stories come alive.”

Schantz says that, since the launch of the program in July of last year, her team has taught over 1,000 students to date through the direct services provided in their galleries. Since then, the N-YHS has brought the Project outside of their walls, offering classes off-site. “We find that a lot of people prefer to stay in their neighborhood,” she says. “Our third venture is to develop an online course, so that everyone in the nation, New Americans or even students, can benefit from our collections.”

In addition to their on- and off-site classes and the upcoming online course, the Citizenship Project’s team of educators has also begun offering teacher-training courses in partnership with the USCIS. In April, the N-YHS hosted an all-day training with the USCIS for other community organizations and museums who wanted to bring the educational methods the Citizenship Project’s educators use in their own programs.

The impact the Citizenship Project has had on the N-YHS’ community has been tremendous, according to Schantz. Last year, the N-YHS hosted two naturalization ceremonies in their galleries, one of which was presided over by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who had reached out personally to ask if she could participate. “It was a wonderful day,” Schantz says. “The new citizens were so proud to be in the audience and to hear her speak and talk about how meaningful it is to become an American.”

For Schantz, the Citizenship Project is a true reflection of the N-YHS’ primary goal as a cultural institution. “Our mission is to make history matter, or ‘because history matters,’” she says. “I think that the most effective programs are those that adhere to the vision and mission of the institution, and so what’s beautiful about the Citizenship Project is that we’re doing what we do best – teaching American history and making history matter.”  

Photos courtesy of Don Pollard.

What are museums without their curators? Who else would dedicate their time and responsibility to the cataloguing, maintenance, and interpretation of an institution’s collections?

For Anastasia James, Curator of Exhibitions and Programs at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz, the role of the curator as storyteller is what has drawn her to this kind of work. This semester, James has worked hard with her team on the curatorial design of not one, but three new exhibitions at the Dorsky. We spoke with her to learn more about her love of history and art, her mission as a curator at a university museum, and what visitors at the Dorsky can expect from the fall exhibitions.

How long have you been working in museums?

I have been working in museums for 10+ years in various curatorial capacities.

What made you want to be a curator?

I knew I wanted to work in museums from a very early age. I have always been curious about history. Fun fact: I began volunteering for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History when I was about 10 so it is never too young to start! Joking aside, the path to being a curator isn’t always easy and I would say that the reason I stayed on the path was due to a number of mentors who have, over the years, provided encouragement and support in ways that have deeply affected me and I am grateful from their support.

What’s your favorite thing about being a curator?

Hands down, my favorite thing about being a curator is that I get to tell and share stories through the display of art and the creation of catalogs. I genuinely believe that it is through the making of art and the sharing of diverse stories that communities become stronger and strangers become allies. Although I have a sophisticated understanding and passion for art and culture, I like to play with the idea of expertise by promoting a variety of voices in order to make the arts accessible to a more diverse audience. A few ways that I do this is through the display of both popular and fine art forms, a prioritization of accessible language in the galleries, and through more playful types of programming that challenge the format of the stuffy lecture.

When did you officially start at the Dorsky?

I began my position as Curator of Exhibitions and Programs about a year ago, Fall 2017.

What’s it like working in a university museum?

Early formative experiences, youth programs in fact, opened the door to a career where, from my position of privilege in cultural institutions, I have been able to provide safe spaces for people through the conduit of exhibitions and programs. One of the main reasons I accepted this position was because I knew that I would be working for and with a diverse student body. At SUNY New Paltz, where the student body is majority minority, I want to say to the students that The Dorsky sees them and that we value diversity and inclusion and that it is important to me that this be reflected in our programming.

Tell me about the exhibitions coming up this semester at the Dorsky.

This semester we are opening three new exciting exhibitions: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: The Trans List, an exhibition by the acclaimed photographer of 40 portraits of transgender individuals curated by me; Alive and Yelling: Trans Zines and Radical Subcultures curated by two SUNY New Paltz students in conversation with and in reaction to The Trans List; and Community and Continuity: Native American Art of New York curated by Gwendolyn Saul and John P. Hart of the New York State Museum. Additionally, on view are works from our permanent collection and Time Travelers: Hudson Valley Artists 2018.

David Bunn Martine, Mandush, Shinnecock Sachem of the 17th Century, 2013, acrylic and oil on canvas, courtesy the New York State Museum.

What’s your vision for the 2018-2019 school year?

My vision for the upcoming school year is to create exhibitions, programs, and publications that prioritize alternative narratives–projects that aim to not only bring visibility to diverse identities, but empathy, understanding, and acceptance.

What’s the most exciting exhibition and/or program happening this semester?

One exciting program we have on the calendar is a performance by author, actor, gender theorist, recovering Scientologist, and transgender pioneer Kate Bornstein. I polled the students on who, out of the subjects of The Trans List, did they want to visit our campus and unanimously they told me Kate. So, I made it happen. She will be performing a brand-new performance titled, “Trans: Just for the Fun of It.” I expect a lot of buzz around this event as she is currently starring in the Broadway play “Straight White Men.” 

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Alok Vaid-Menon, 2016, inkjet print, courtesy the artist; Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Laverne Cox, 2015, inkjet print, courtesy the artist.

Do you have a favorite exhibition you’ve worked on since you started working in museums?

Oh, there are so many! I have been so privileged to work on exhibitions and publications with an incredible group of artists.  As I continue to develop my curatorial voice, it has become a priority for me to exhibit artists whose practice turns a critical eye on subjects of identity. Most recently, my retrospective, “Cary Leibowitz: Museum Show” which travelled from the Contemporary Jewish Museum, SF to the ICA Philadelphia and then the CAM Houston featured 30 years of work that seamlessly blended comedy and neurosis in such a way that questions about identity become a commentary on the self/other. In addition to curating, I have also edited a number of books including “Billy Name: The Silver Age, Works from Andy Warhol’s Factory” and “Brigid Berlin: Polaroids.” I see my editorial work as an extension of my curatorial practice and the process of making a book is very similar to curating an exhibition in that it requires prolonged engagement with an artist or their work which is something I find extremely rewarding.

Tell me one fun fact about yourself – museum/art-related or otherwise!

My first job in the art world involved cataloging Andy Warhol’s underwear.

Learn more about the Dorsky’s current exhibitions here.

Dear Members, Friends, and Colleagues,

A couple of weeks ago we sent out the call for proposals for our 2019 Annual Conference. In case you missed it, you can find the call and the proposal form here.

I hope you will take a few minutes to read the call and think about the ways in which your experience and your voice can help strengthen us all as museum professionals. We selected Cooperstown, the historic Otesaga Resort and Hotel, and Mohawk Valley cultural institutions for our conference because of their deep roots in American history and the arts. There will be great food and drink, a phenomenal lakefront view, and 400 museum professionals - who could ask for more?

We received hundreds of pages of comments about last year’s conference, including that 90% of Rochester attendees were likely to come to Cooperstown. People attend the MANY conference because it is aspirational and inspirational. It helps people connect with colleagues and learn about new approaches they can bring back to their organizations. We look to include sessions that give useful, practical guidance, build skills in content areas, explore new philosophies, and shift ways of interpreting collections.

I’ve been thinking about Access and Identity - the 2019 Conference theme - as an important exercise in collective intelligence. I like to think about the conference in this context, because we crowdsource content, assess with peer review, leverage our social capital to create fabulous special events, ask you to help us share through social media, and lastly, assess with a polling system. A strong sense of who we are and who we want to be as New Yorkers and New York museums can emerge in a conference like ours, where we can create a space to discuss and perhaps even safely disagree about our future as a field and make room for the broadest definitions of identity as museum professionals and as institutions.

Proposals for Access & Identity are due October 24, 2018. You can download the call for proposals here and the proposal form here.

Feel free to pick up the phone and call us to talk about a proposal or the conference. We love to hear from you!

See you on the road!

Erika Sanger

Executive Director, MANY

As fall begins, the MANY staff and board know we will be seeing colleagues in September in Catskill, Canandaigua, Fort Ticonderoga and in Cooperstown for 2019 conference planning. But there are so many opportunities for museum professionals in October, it could be renamed “Continuing Education Month” and we could start a new tradition with all of the choices of places and ways to learn.

I don’t think I’d be exaggerating if I said that all of the museum professionals I know enjoy learning. We devour texts, track down clues to unlock mysteries, and joyfully attempt to decode beauty in nature, art, and material culture. Learning from peers in small group settings may be my favorite way to learn.

I’ll start the month of October at the Long Island Museum Association’s Roundtable at the Long Island Children’s Museum on the first. On the 4th, I’ll be at the Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center in Nyack at MANY’s Mid Hudson Meet-Up at the Hopper House.

On the 10th in Syracuse, I will participate in the “How to Facilitate Community Conversations with Humanities New York” workshop at the Erie Canal Museum, tour the museum, and welcome colleagues for our Central Region Meet-Up.

Coming from the education and development side of museums, my most recent learning has been in exhibition and facilities design. I am beyond excited for our behind-the-scenes tour at Hadley Exhibits on October 11th in Buffalo. I hope that you can join us there for our tour, Meet-Up, and special workshop, “How to Write Labels Your Visitors Will Want to Read,” led by Erin Doane, Curator at the Chemung County Historical Society.

Growing up on Manhattan Island with the East River outside my window, I learned at an early age that water both connects and separates us — we crossed New York Harbor on bridges, through tunnels, and stood at the back of the Staten Island Ferry, watching the skyline fade. At the New York State Canal Conference October 14-16 on Staten Island, participants will celebrate the role that New York Harbor has played in the success of the State’s historic inland waterway system.

On Tuesday, October 16, we will continue our waterfront celebrations at the Brooklyn Historical Society’s new DUMBO location with a Humanities New York workshop, a tour, and a Meet-Up with the Brooklyn Bridge acting as a backdrop to frame our conversation.

From the 140th annual meeting of the American Folklore Society in Buffalo, to the Re-Visioning Change workshops in the Southern Tier and Capital Regions where the most highly rated presenters from our annual conference will reprise their presentations and interactive programs for colleagues who couldn’t make it to Rochester, MANY will be present all season to help shape the future of our profession.

I’d love to hear from you if you will be learning alongside me this October! Send me an email and let me know where I might find you in the next chair or gallery.

Safe travels,

“Brooklyn is incredible, Brooklyn is an adjective,” says Marcia Ely, Vice President of Programs and External Affairs of the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS).

And she’s right. With a new location in the famous DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) neighborhood, an exciting permanent exhibition celebrating all things Brooklyn and water, and big plans for the future, the Brooklyn Historical Society is ready to amplify the already elevated stature of one of New York City’s five boroughs.

“We’re at a really exciting phase in our history,” Ely says. The Brooklyn Historical Society has been an institution of Brooklyn for 155 years. Founded in 1863 in the middle of the Civil War by prominent Brooklyn residents as a collecting institution, BHS (then called the Long Island Historical Society) has grown and evolved into a thriving urban history center that brings Brooklynites and visitors alike together to learn and celebrate the rich and unique history of New York City’s largest borough.

Throughout its history, BHS has borne witness to the ever-changing landscape of Brooklyn, from its tremendous growth as a rural center to one of the most well-known cities in the United States. In 1881, the Society opened their landmark location at 128 Pierrepont Street, a Queen-Anne style building designed by renowned architect George Browne Post, where they’ve resided ever since.

But in 2017, BHS decided it was time to continue their growth in new ways, opening a second location in the Brooklyn Bridge Park in DUMBO.

“One of the really interesting things about the DUMBO location is where it’s housed,” Ely says. BHS DUMBO is nested in the newly renovated Empire Stores, an historic warehouse that brings back memories of Brooklyn’s historical nickname as the “Walled City,” because of the brick warehouses that lined the city’s coastline. Empire Stores is one of the last remaining 19^th-century warehouses in Brooklyn that retains its original features. At a time when Brooklyn was one of the largest commercial waterfronts in the world, the warehouse was home to “countless tons of coffee, sugar, jute, animal hides, and many other commodities,” according the BHS website.

The BHS is the only cultural institution in the Empire Stores, which is otherwise home to office space, restaurants, and stores. “For us, having this second space has been really transformative, because it’s very different foot traffic, it’s a very different audience that you capture down there in DUMBO,” Ely says. “There’s a really beautiful balance and comparison between our main site, which is in Brooklyn Heights but on a fairly quiet, residential street, and the hubbub and vibrancy of DUMBO,” she says. “It’s been a huge, wonderful journey for us.”

And now, after the DUMBO location’s inaugural exhibition of Brooklyn Waterfront photography closed in January, BHS is continuing their mission of celebrating and exploring Brooklyn’s history with their new long-term exhibition, “Waterfront.”

“Waterfront,” which Ely says is a very ambitious long-term exhibition, is the first major exhibition specifically dedicated to telling the history of Brooklyn’s coastline. The exhibition and multimedia experience opened in January of this year, and so far, she says, people love it. The exhibit space isn’t large – in fact, BHS DUMBO itself only takes up 3,200 square feet of space in the Empire Stores – but its multiple levels expand its potential far beyond that of physical space. “It has lots of nooks and crannies,” Ely says.

Take, for example, the exhibition’s two digital installations: “At Waters Edge,” an eight-minute multimedia experience and video that tells the history of Brooklyn’s waterfront, starting over 20,000 years ago with the glacier that formed the Brooklyn coastline; and “History in Motion,” an interactive video that lets visitors insert themselves into Brooklyn’s past using Kinect technology.

“I think one of the nice things about this exhibit is that you can literally spend 20 minutes or you can spend three hours here,” Ely says. Whether visitors want to explore an installation of archaeological artifacts that were excavated from the landfill underneath Empire Stores in the 1970’s, or listen to the BHS’s impressive collection of oral histories from “Brooklynites of all kinds,”that won a 2018 MANY Award of Merit for Innovation in Collection Access, or even play with the Waterfront Neighborhoods Magnet Wall, a kid- and adult-friendly ten-foot magnetized landscape that invites visitors to reimagine the coastline, there is truly something for everyone in DUMBO.

“We want to be the place that people come first to understand a little bit of background on Brooklyn before they go off and explore the rest of the borough,” Ely says. “We want to tell the history of Brooklyn that’s being made right now, as well as tell the stories that have been forgotten.”

The Brooklyn Historical Society: DUMBO will also be hosting the Museum Association of New York’s seventh Meet-Up of the fall on October 16, 2018. Registration is open here.

Words by Sarah Heikkinen. Photos courtesy of the Brooklyn Historical Society.

Everybody feels welcome at a zoo. Whether you’re a young child seeing an elephant for the first time, an animal lover hoping to get more involved in your community’s conservancy efforts, or a group of friends looking for a fun thing to do on a summer weekend, zoos are universal.

At the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, NY, new steps are being taken to broaden their audience and engage their community, all while promoting the idea that everyone, humans and animals alike, will always be welcome inside.

“Everybody can play a role in making a difference in saving animals from extinction,” says Pamela Reed Sanchez, President and CEO of the Zoo. “We can all be conservationists, we can all be environmentalists.” This message of inclusivity is what has propelled the Zoo forward into a brand-new chapter since 2016, with a complete overhaul and transformation of the Zoo’s brand and an exciting capital campaign that will fund a long-awaited expansion.

But, Reed Sanchez says, none of these new developments at the Rochester-based zoo would be possible without the support of their community. “You have to have a wide swath of the community aware of what you’re doing and in support of what you’re doing if you’re going to be successful in a campaign,” she says. When Reed Sanchez stepped into the role of President and CEO of the Zoo four years ago, she brought with her over 20 years of experience in arts and cultural development and strategic management, along with a background in environmental and technology policy. This experience, she says, has helped her inform what the Zoo does and how they can effectively communicate their vision and mission to the Rochester community.

When Reed Sanchez started her new position, she says one of the first things she did was meet with local community leaders, asking them all the same question: What do you think the brand of the zoo is, and what do you think the zoo’s role is in the community? The responses were overwhelmingly similar, and not entirely unsurprising.

“We had a very strong brand as a great place to take little kids on a sunny day,” she says. “We weren’t reaching intergenerational audiences. We weren’t reaching teenagers, let alone millennials, and people were not viewing the zoo as a conservation organization.”

In 2016, the Zoo unveiled their newly developed brand to the public, with fresh logos and designs around the park itself, all of which centered more on the “why” of what the Zoo does. This reimagining of the Zoo’s identity led to a retooling of their mission statement: “Seneca Park Zoo inspires our community to connect, care for, and conserve wildlife and wild places.” The Zoo’s new mission shorthand’s to “Connect. Care. Conserve.”

The Zoo’s steps to redefine themselves and become relevant to their community now and in the future has led to their latest venture – a five-year capital campaign, “Wilder Vision” that began in 2017. The goal of the campaign is to raise $60 million to fund an “awe-inspiring transformation” that would expand the Zoo by four acres and increase its footprint by 20 percent. The campaign began with a commitment from Monroe County’s of $37 million. The Seneca Park Zoo Society will be raising the rest of the funds, with the board committing to raise 100 percent of the remaining money for the expansion.  

The Zoo has already begun this exciting transformation, adding state-of-the-art habitats like the new “Animals of the Savanna” habitat to house new species, opening on September 13. Between now and 2022, the Zoo will also demolish the original Main Building (built in 1931), construct and debut a new cafe, begin tram service, and open another main habitat and brand-new guest services facilities.

Reed Sanchez says that the support from their funders and donors, who are primarily local to the Rochester area, is directly affected by the relationships and trust she and her team have built with them. The Zoo applies the same techniques used to engage their community to further involve their funders. “We educate them about what zoos actually are and what our role is. They start realizing, ‘Oh my goodness, this is a treasure for the region. This is going to make Rochester a better place,’” she says. “There’s a pride; you can actually see people stand up straight when they see what’s happening here.”

This instillation of pride in the Zoo and in the unique culture of Rochester is part of what Reed Sanchez and her staff are capitalizing on with the radical transformation underway right now. By modernizing their identity and expanding their footprint, the Seneca Park Zoo is redefining what it means to be a zoo.

Words by Sarah Heikkinen. Photos courtesy of the Seneca Park Zoo.

Living in the great and unpredictable state of New York can sometimes be a challenge for its year-round residents. Each season brings on a different extreme: heat, cold, inclement weather…you name it, New Yorkers have seen it. But how can cultural institutions prepare for the worst? What resources are there for museums to learn how to protect and preserve their collections?

That’s where the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) comes in. This November, in partnership with New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP), MANY will be hosting a “Risk Management for Collections” workshop with the RCE at the Oneida County History Center in Utica, NY.

We talked to Renate van Leijen, Advisor of Safe Heritage at the RCE, and Bart Ankersmit, Ph.D., Senior Researcher at the RCE and mastermind behind the program, to learn more about “Risk Management for Collections,” the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, and why the Dutch are coming back to New York.

Here are five things you need to know before you join us in Utica on November 13.

1. The program is an extension of Dr. Ankersmit’s previous work.

After finishing his Doctorate in Inorganic Chemistry, Dr. Ankersmit started working at the RCE – then known as the Central Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science – in 1996. He initially worked on the preventative conservation of silver artifacts, but after four years, his interests shifted to risk management. In 2009, Ankersmit published new climate guidelines for Dutch Museums, in which, he says, “a decision-making process is presented that combines the value of the building and the objects with climate risks to find an optimum mitigation strategy.” At the end of 2016, Ankersmit and his colleague, Marc Stappers, published an English translation of the guidelines: Managing Indoor Climate Risks.

Over the past few years, Ankersmit has developed a risk management tool through several workshops in close collaboration with the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) and the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI). This internationally cooperative work is what led to the publishing of the “Risk Management for Collections” workbook, which will be distributed at the November workshop.

2. We may not be able to avoid natural disasters, but we can still prepare for them.

“Preparedness is really an important issue,” says Ankersmit. “Because we as heritage professionals can’t avoid a flooding of rivers, [it is our job] to ensure that water does not threaten the collection.” Ankersmit and van Leijen say that disaster preparedness for a museum’s collections is a lot like making an emergency plan for other disasters. They suggest that museum professionals write up emergency response instructions and stay in close contact with emergency responders in their towns. “Make sure that they know you have vulnerable heritage [collections],” they say.

3.  Attendees will learn a lot in just one day.

Although the “Risk Management for Collections” workshop is only a one-day training program, Ankersmit and van Leijen say participants will leave with new knowledge about how to prepare for the unexpected. Through the program, attendees will learn more about the relationship between cultural values, susceptibility, and exposure that make up many of the risks posed to collections. Ankersmit and van Leijen will also explain two of the tools that make up the Risk Management approach: the QuickScan and ABC Method and introduce participants to the “10 agents of deterioration.”

4.  New York State has strong ties to the Netherlands.

Time for a brief history lesson! After several thousand years of being inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian Native Americans, what is now known as New York State was visited by Henry Hudson, an English navigator sailing for the Dutch East India Company in 1609. Before the colony was seized by the British in 1664, who renamed it New York, the Dutch built Fort Nassau in what is now present-day Albany, settled New Amsterdam (present-day Manhattan), and parts of the Hudson Valley, and established the colony of New Netherland.

What does this have to do with Risk Management for Collections, though? The State Historic Site system consists of 35 sites owned and operated by the OPRHP – six of these sites, five of which are in the Hudson Valley, are connected to the Dutch’s heritage in New York State. “This valuable training opportunity will allow the OPRHP to share this newly acquired knowledge with all of the many historic sites and museums connected to Dutch heritage in the Hudson River Valley Corridor of New York, raising the capacity of many institutions,” Ankersmit and van Leijen say.

5. This program is valuable to anyone and everyone working in museums.

This workshop will teach attendees how to apply value- and risk-based decision-making to achieve sustainable conservation and preservation action plans for their collections. “Participants will be shown how to look at hazards and risks in an integral way,” Ankersmit and van Leijen say. “We need to step outside our comfort zones and think about processes or events that can take place that were not yet seen as relevant risks.”

The Risk Management for Collections workshop will be held at the Oneida County History Center on November 13, 2018, from 9:00am to 3:30pm. All attendees are invited to join MANY for a reception at 4:30 following the workshop. Register today; space is limited!

* * *

Dr. Bart Ankersmit is a Senior Researcher at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands in Amsterdam (RCE). After receiving his Doctorate in Inorganic Chemistry, Ankersmit started working at the RCE in 1996. His work began with a four-year EU project on the preventive conservation of silver artifacts and has shifted to managing risks to collections. In 2009, Ankersmit published the new climate guidelines for Dutch museums, Managing Indoor Climate Risks, in which a decision-making process was presented that balances the value of the building and the objects with climate risks to find an optimal mitigation strategy. An updated and translated version was released in 2016.

Renate van Leijen is the Advisor of Safe Heritage at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands in Amsterdam (RCE). The Safe Heritage program at the RCE focuses on risk and crisis management, emergency planning, incident registration, and collection assistance with special attention given to awareness and prevention. They share information, develop products and services with and for the heritage managers, heritage advisors, and directors. 

About the RCE: The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed) is part of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The RCE helps other parties to get the best out of cultural heritage. They are closely involved in listing, preserving, sustainably developing and providing access to the most valuable heritage in their country. They are the link between policymakers, academics and practitioners. They provide advice, knowledge and information, and perform certain statutory duties. 

Words by Sarah Heikkinen.

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,