Request for Session and Workshop Proposals

DEADLINE: November 1, 2006

 

Shake It Up: Museums Activate and Innovate

Western Museums Association 2007 Annual Meeting

Oakland, California         October 10-14, 2007

 

Guidelines and submission form at http://www.westmuse.org/oakland_rfp.html   

 

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Shake it Up: Museums Activate and Innovate. Join the Western Museums Association for our 2007 Annual Meeting in Oakland, California, on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay and bordering the infamous town of Berkeley. The area is renowned for social activism and newsworthy events - it's a place never lacking for attention from the rest of the nation. Communities here are known for alternative perspectives, quirkiness of character, and a laid-back mellowness sometimes mistaken for social detachment - in 1937 Gertrude Stein claimed of Oakland  that "there is no there there." But when challenged, residents here speak up, act up and fire up with serious purpose to address issues and find solutions. The area has historically been in the vanguard of social movements like free speech, black power, and gay pride; lifestyle trends like organic foods, green living, and websurfing; and local innovations like the Segway, the Popsicle, the martini, the fortune cookie, and blue jeans.

 

Oakland is the ideal venue for us to convene and rally our own innovative and activist sides. In addition to sessions that teach the nuts and bolts and basics of our profession, we are also seeking proposals that ask the challenging questions: How resistant are we to change? Do we advocate for our professional role in our museums and assert ethical practices? Is our museum socially responsible, and how far can we or should we push agendas and personal views? Do we stick to traditional practices, tried and true or do we explore the newest innovation and techniques? How far can we push the envelope in our programming, or do we protect our broad constituent base by remaining neutral, and potentially irrelevant - what's our responsibility? How do we maintain funder and sponsor relationships but still stick with our vision, which may or may not align with theirs? What can we say about censorship - not to mention self-censorship - when threatened by funders, media, or politicians? Are our human resource policies humane and serving our employees well? How do we make choices between social responsibility and responsible business practices? Submit a session proposal and ask the questions that you want to probe. 

 

Oakland is located a short distance across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco. In the fall, the Bay Area natural environment is at its most spectacular, with sunny days, bright skies, and green hillsides. World renowned museums on both sides of the bay include this partial list: (in San Francisco) M.H. de Young Museum and the Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the Diaspora, the Mexican Museum, Yerba Buena Center, California Historical Society, GLBT Historical Society, the Exploratorium; (in Oakland/Berkeley) the Oakland Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archives, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, the African American Museum & Library of Oakland, the Pardee Home Museum, Lawrence Hall of Science, and the USS Potomac.

 

So join us as we speak up, act up and fire up our inner radicals in Oakland, California and experience the there there.

 

Program Co-Chairs                 

Greta Brunschwyler, Director, Nevada State Museum              

Yvonne Sharpe, Deputy Director, Craigdarroch Castle

 

Host Chairs

Joe Brennan, Director of Facilities, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Lori Fogarty, Executive Director, Oakland Museum of California