WORKSHOPS AT MPMA'S 2010 CONFERENCE
Workshops are held Monday and Tuesday during the conference.
To register: Download program and fill out registration form.
Scroll down for complete descriptions and presenter names
Monday, September 13, 2010
1. Cleaning Museum Artifacts - all day
2. Research Techniques - afternoon
3. Your Vision - Your Exhibits - afternoon
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
4. The Exhibition that Keeps on Giving - morning CANCELLED
5. Carving the Future for Area Teachers - morning
6. Interpretive Writing - morning
7 Insurance 101: Protecting Your Collection - morning
8. Can't you get a Volunteer to Help? - morning
9. Inexpensive, Quick Custom-Made Mannequins - morning
Full Workshop Descriptions
Monday, September 13, 2010
Full-Day Workshop 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
W1 Cleaning Museum Artifacts: What’s
Right and What’s Wrong?
This workshop is designed for collections staff from any type of museum with little or no formal conservation training but
who are often faced with “sprucing up” collection artifacts for storage or exhibition purposes. The workshop will include
a PowerPoint lecture, discussion and hands-on demonstrations of assessing different types of artifacts for the potential of
simple cleaning, followed by a discussion of the use of common commercial cleaning products that can be harmful
to artifact materials. A variety of safe (and often inexpensive) cleaning products ranging from simple pure solvents to
microcrystalline waxes, etc. will then be introduced through hands-on demonstrations. Participants will come away
knowing when simple cleaning procedures may be used and when a professional conservator needs to be called. A
notebook of technical leaflets with recipes and directions for the use of safe cleaning agents will be provided for each
participant. Lunch on your own. *The discounted cost of this workshop is a one-time special offer for
MPMA delegates.
Presenters: Elisa Redman, Associate Director of Preservation
Services, and Neil C. Cockerline, Director of Preservation
Services, Midwest Art Conservation Center, Minneapolis, MN
Half-Day Workshops 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
W2 Keeping the Lifeblood Flowing:
Research and Research Techniques
in Museums
If your museum doesn’t do research, it’s as good as dead.
Research is critical to a museum’s basic operations, ranging
from exhibits and public programs to collections
management. Yet many museums neglect this most important
component of their operation. This workshop will
demonstrate how research can be a justifiable part of every
museum’s operation as well as show how it can be specifically
applied to programs, exhibits and collections management.
It will include techniques for object research as well as tips
for research in general. The presenters will each bring their
unique perspectives on doing research in various aspects of
museum operations and at a diversity of museum sizes.
Chair: Steve Friesen, Director, Buffalo Bill Museum and
Grave, Golden, CO
Presenters: Elisa Phelps, Director of Collections and Library
Division, Colorado Historical Society, Denver, CO; Peggy
Schaller, President, Collections Research for Museum,
Denver, CO; Henry Crawford, Curator of History, Museum
of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
W3 Your Vision – Your Exhibits
This fun, hands-on workshop provides a rare opportunity to
interpret and design an exhibit for your own museum or
cultural center. Learn about the design process from concept
to completion and come away with an understanding of how
community partnerships and involvement can enrich the
integrated design process.
Presenters: Bianca Message, President, and Amy Willson,
Designer, André & Associates Interpretation & Design Ltd.,
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Half-Day Workshops 8:00 am – 11:00 am
W4 The Exhibition that Keeps
on Giving
Extend the reach of your exhibitions into your
community and in other museums. If your visitors
love it, then run with it in new and various ways.
Make the exhibit research, planning, programming
and implementation available in numerous forms,
both physical and digital. Then market these
elements using the new media. You’ll create new
audiences as you reach for “infinity and beyond.”
Together, we will think through how some of the
tools we all have can be refocused to squeeze more
value out of our creative work. You may bring exhibit
information to be used in activities. Please consider
ahead of time an exhibition developed by your
institution that was either enormously successful and
popular with visitors OR one you feel could have
been so with some tweaking. By the end of the
workshop, you will have an outline of development
steps to take back to your museum. Bring your
wireless laptop and work as we go.
Presenters: Maureen Ose, Communications
Coordinator, International Quilt Study Center &
Museum, Lincoln, NE; Marin Hanson, Curator
of Exhibitions, International Quilt Study Center
& Museum, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
W5 Carving the Future for Area
Teachers
Informal educators provide quality curriculum based
activities for students and for teachers. As
education standards evolve and changes are made,
teachers find themselves looking for Continuing
Professional Development credits. Learn how to
become a certified provider of continuing
professional credits for teachers in your area.
Chair: Susan Rowe, Education Program Manager, Lubbock Lake Landmark/ Museum of Texas Tech
University, Lubbock TX
Presenters: Anne Lewis, Non-Point Source
Pollution Information & Education Project
Coordinator, South Dakota Discovery Center &
Aquarium, Pierre, SD; Emily Arellano, Manager,
Education Programs, National Ranching Heritage
Center, Lubbock, TX
W6 Interpretive Writing
This workshop features the tenets of interpretive
writing as they apply to museums. The basics of
writing are presented through advanced concepts,
and all within a fun learning environment.
Participants will learn how to create clear, dynamic
and concise texts that can reveal meanings and
provoke visitors to care about resources. Through
interactive activities, participants will develop new
skills, be challenged to write about an artifact and
will learn how to deliver compelling messages.
Presenter: Dr. Alan Leftridge, Writing Consultant, National Association for Interpretation, Swan Valley, MT
W7 Insurance 101: Protecting
your Collection
This workshop is designed to offer participants
all of the resources and materials they need to
understand and implement all types and levels
of museum insurance. Topics covered include
what to insure, policy exclusions and
conditions, insuring loans, deductibles,
certificates of insurance, bidding, terms and
claims. Discussion will include some of the
more “exotic” coverages including terrorism
and earthquakes. Handouts and other
materials will be provided.
Chair: Victoria France, Managing Director, Fine Art Division, Robertson Taylor Insurance Brokers, Sherman Oaks, CA
Presenters: Mark Janzen, Registrar/ Collections
Manager, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita KS;
Pat Roath, Registrar /Collections Manager,
Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT
W8 “Can’t You Get a Volunteer to
Help with That?” Ideas for
Improving Your Volunteer
and Internship Programs
What can make your volunteer/intern program
satisfying and beneficial for staff, volunteers and
interns? How can the quality of your
volunteer/intern training program be
improved? Do you have a volunteer/intern
training program? This workshop will
summarize best practices for these programs
and provide the tools for participants to figure
out how to improve their own volunteer and
intern programs. Participants will also receive
samples of useful orientation, training and
administrative materials that they can take
home.
Presenter: Marne Bariso, Volunteer and Intern Coordinator, Chicago History Museum, Chicago, IL
W9 Inexpensive, Quick, Easy-to-
Make, Reusable, Artifact-
Friendly, Custom-Made
Mannequins
Historic clothing requires properly sized
mannequins to achieve the appropriate look
while supporting the garment. Here’s the rub:
commercial store mannequins are often the
wrong size, shape and material; purchased,
custom-made mannequins are expensive; and
most museum-made mannequins require time
and talent to create. Solution for those doing
an exhibit with a tight budget and schedule: the
pole mannequin. This mannequin is easily
made from everyday materials that your
museum may have and/or can purchase at local
hardware and fabric/craft stores. Participants
will make a scaled mock-up of a mannequin to
take home.
Presenters: Jenny Yearous, Curator of
Collections Management, and Bryan
Turnbow, Preparator, State Historical Society
of North Dakota, Bismarck, ND