Welcome from the NMAM President
The 2009 New Mexico Association of Museums Annual Conference couldn’t be in a better city to commemorate our theme, Celebrating Heritage. This is a milestone meeting that celebrates NMAM’s 40th Anniversary, the Museum of New Mexico’s 100th Anniversary, and the opening of the New Mexico History Museum. It also provides an opportunity to begin discussions about our role in New Mexico’s 2012 Centennial Celebration.
All of our museums are feeling the economic pinch in these turbulent times. Our 2009 conference, perhaps like none other, is a valuable forum to bring colleagues together to share insights on the challenges we face, the successes we’ve realized, and the creative solutions we’ve devised to propel us forward in spite of the recession. Our colleague Mary Case—a principal with QM2, Conference Responder at our 2007 Silver City meeting and leader of the recent AAM webinar Straight Talk: Museums Rising to the Financial Challenge, says it simply: "Align your mission, vision, and values, then play on whatever platform you are given."
Our platform, Celebrating Heritage, offers a cornucopia of sessions and roundtables to explore new strategies for the future. Topics include collections stewardship, affordable exhibit design, technology solutions, and engaging audiences through innovative programs, exhibitions, and the social web. Three museums—New Mexico History Museum, Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, and New Mexico Museum of Art—will offer specialized tours of exhibitions and collections storage areas. An ever-popular interactive session from years past, Hot Topics, is making a comeback. New Mexico Highlands University Media Art students will once again showcase interactive exhibition technologies, and a pre-conference workshop will be devoted to user-friendly Web site management.
NMAM’s Annual Meeting Committee—Selena Connealy, Pat Price, Nicolasa Chávez, Laura Lovejoy-May, and Lorraine Rotunno—has planned a stellar conference with Kirk Ellis, Emmy-winning writer-producer of John Adams, as our keynote speaker. Events include a welcoming reception at the stunning New Mexico History Museum, cocktails at the Governor’s Mansion, and dinner at the Hotel Santa Fe. Plan to stay in Santa Fe for the post-conference tour that takes us to Pecos National Historical Park and the Forked Lightening Ranch once owned by Greer Garson and built in 1925 for famed rodeo producer Tex Austin by John Gaw Meem. I hope to see you in Santa Fe for this spectacular annual gathering that commemorates NMAM’s forty years of commitment to furthering the goals and professionalism of our State’s diverse museum community.
Laurie Rufe
NMAM President
Annual Meeting
