Our Mission

The Museum Association of New York helps shape a better future for museums and museum professionals by uplifting best practices and building organizational capacity through advocacy, training, and

networking opportunities.

2022

MEMBERSHIP

We closed 2022 with 733 members, a 6% increase from 2021.

STRATEGIC PLAN

In 2022, MANY adopted a new strategic plan with key goals: Maintain Fiscal Sustainability, Expand Services to the Field, Strengthen our role as Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion, and Justice Advocates and Practitioners, Grow Organizational Capacity, and Invest in Board Governance and Development.

ADVOCACY

56 museum professionals advocated on behalf of NYS museums for the American Alliance of Museums Virtual Museums Advocacy Day in February 2022–the highest number of delegates from any state.

The American Alliance of Museums awarded Executive Director Erika Sanger the 2022 Advocacy Leadership Award for her work on behalf of museums in New York and across the nation.

The Museum Study Act S.8934 (Cooney)/A.9710 (Barrett) passed the New York State Assembly and Senate almost unanimously, the bill was included Governor Hochul’s mass veto of all bills that did not have funding attached. It was reintroduced and funding is included in the proposed 2023-2024 budget bills. The proposed study will identify and gather data about all museums in the state including information on size, hours of operation, visitor statistics, funding sources and amounts, and the subjects of their collections. 

PROGRAMS

After a two-year hiatus in response to the pandemic, the 2022 annual conference “Envisioning Our Museums for the Seventh Generation” was held in Corning, NY April 9 - 12 and was attended by 300 museum professionals. 

From January to August, we partnered with Museum Hue to produce “Museums Support Democracy” a 7-part webinar series attended by 869 people from 48 states and 8 countries. The series was produced with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Humanities NY. 

From October to December, we produced a 6-part webinar series “Meet MANY Online” that featured six of the highest-rated presentations from the 2022 annual conference. The series was attended by 722 people from 45 states and 8 countries.

GRANTMAKING

The regranting partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts allowed MANY to reach 102 museums with a total of $500,981 in grants. We are grateful for the Pomeroy Foundation’s continued support for the Pomeroy Fund for NYS History that allowed MANY to grant 20 museums $5,000 each towards education programs. 

BUILDING CAPACITY, CREATING SUSTAINABILITY, GROWING ACCESSIBILITY

MANY served 96 museums and their 179 staff members through the IMLS Cares Act funded project “Building Capacity, Creating Sustainability, Growing Accessibility” with hundreds of hours of training and program support. 

MANY Membership as of December 31, 2021