Note from the President
Dear NAME Colleagues,
The National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME) is a Standing Professional Committee of the American Association of Museums (AAM). Our constituency is the community of exhibition professionals. That seems pretty straightforward, but this community is evolving, diversifying, and expanding in ways that we could never have predicted a decade ago. Now, NAME membership includes not only designers of all stripes (3D, environmental, graphic, and digital), but also exhibition developers, education specialists, writers, project managers, interactive specialists, senior executives, curators, students, artists, and a significant number (you know who you are) of polymaths and professionals without a category.
Along another axis, NAME members are increasingly moving between museum staff positions and independent work. As a result of changes in the rules governing SPC’s, independent exhibition professionals can now be officers of these committees, and I am delighted that Doug Simpson of Cambridge Seven Associates is now the Vice President of NAME.
So, what is a museum exhibition professional? After nearly three decades working among, next to, below, and above exhibition people, I can identify a few unifying characteristics. Independence, creativity, commitment, flexibility, and humor seem to unify our profession as much as the actual work we do. Somehow we always seem to know another exhibits person when we meet them—we are the ones actually looking at the exhibits at openings and AAM parties (or maybe looking behind the exhibits to see how they actually work). I am biased. I think exhibition people are the most interesting, lively, opinionated people in the museum profession.
So, that is why I am proud to be the President of NAME. I have been watching with admiration as my predecessor, Phyllis Rabineau, has coalesced the Board into a cooperative group with a strategic plan to serve the exhibition community at large. And she has been able to advance the organization in some durable and significant ways. Most visibly, the NAME journal, The Exhibitionist, is evolving into an increasingly important publication for our diverse field. With the help of a dedicated group of volunteers, a newly created Editorial Board, and a staff editor, Gretchen Jennings, we have great plans for upcoming editions.
Under Phyllis, the NAME Board also undertook a survey of our membership, designed and analyzed by Randi Korn & Associates, which brought the needs of the museum exhibition community into focus. The take-away message from that survey is that exhibit people look to NAME to provide community and professional development. New and established professionals are looking for opportunities to network locally and nationally, and students are seeking mentorship in entering the field.
NAME can and should play that role in several ways. At the AAM national meeting, we offer Fellowships to students to subsidize their participation in the conference. In 2007, we tripled the number of NAME Fellows to three students from a pool of fifteen applicants. At the annual AAM meeting, we sponsor more than a dozen sessions and other learning opportunities, along with a slate of larger scale meetings and great parties. NAME regional representatives participate actively in the regional museum associations, and in national competitions for excellence in exhibition related practices.
The very medium through which you are reading this letter, the World Wide Web, offer opportunities to build community that we are planning to tap in the coming year. We have been very fortunate to secure the pro bono participation of Ideum, an international leader in designing online museum experiences, to lead our new foray into more active and participatory experiences on the web. And we have some very talented and committed volunteers who will be helping with that effort. Look for more in this space soon!
As a Standing Professional Committee of the American Association of Museums, NAME is officially part of AAM. We are energized by the new commitment and focus that AAM’s leadership, with the encouragement and guidance of AAM President Ford W. Bell, are bringing to the field. AAM is listening and leading, and we are proud to be part of that effort.
NAME is an all-volunteer organization. Every one who is contributing energy, wisdom, experience, and other resources is doing so out of their commitment to the exhibition profession. It seems that we are all stretched by an expanding web of responsibilities, both professional and personal, and I am extremely grateful for the dedication of the current NAME Board and our predecessors. It is a great group, and I am proud to be part of it.
Thank you for your interest and participation in NAME. I hope you are either a member of NAME, or will consider joining and supporting the exhibition profession. I look forward to meeting you all at upcoming AAM meetings and regional conferences, please introduce yourself to me and to NAME Board members and let us know your thoughts and concerns.
Eric Siegel
Note from the President
Dear NAME Colleagues,
The National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME) is a Standing Professional Committee of the American Association of Museums (AAM). Our constituency is the community of exhibition professionals. That seems pretty straightforward, but this community is evolving, diversifying, and expanding in ways that we could never have predicted a decade ago. Now, NAME membership includes not only designers of all stripes (3D, environmental, graphic, and digital), but also exhibition developers, education specialists, writers, project managers, interactive specialists, senior executives, curators, students, artists, and a significant number (you know who you are) of polymaths and professionals without a category.
Along another axis, NAME members are increasingly moving between museum staff positions and independent work. As a result of changes in the rules governing SPC’s, independent exhibition professionals can now be officers of these committees, and I am delighted that Doug Simpson of Cambridge Seven Associates is now the Vice President of NAME.
So, what is a museum exhibition professional? After nearly three decades working among, next to, below, and above exhibition people, I can identify a few unifying characteristics. Independence, creativity, commitment, flexibility, and humor seem to unify our profession as much as the actual work we do. Somehow we always seem to know another exhibits person when we meet them—we are the ones actually looking at the exhibits at openings and AAM parties (or maybe looking behind the exhibits to see how they actually work). I am biased. I think exhibition people are the most interesting, lively, opinionated people in the museum profession.
So, that is why I am proud to be the President of NAME. I have been watching with admiration as my predecessor, Phyllis Rabineau, has coalesced the Board into a cooperative group with a strategic plan to serve the exhibition community at large. And she has been able to advance the organization in some durable and significant ways. Most visibly, the NAME journal, The Exhibitionist, is evolving into an increasingly important publication for our diverse field. With the help of a dedicated group of volunteers, a newly created Editorial Board, and a staff editor, Gretchen Jennings, we have great plans for upcoming editions.
Under Phyllis, the NAME Board also undertook a survey of our membership, designed and analyzed by Randi Korn & Associates, which brought the needs of the museum exhibition community into focus. The take-away message from that survey is that exhibit people look to NAME to provide community and professional development. New and established professionals are looking for opportunities to network locally and nationally, and students are seeking mentorship in entering the field.
NAME can and should play that role in several ways. At the AAM national meeting, we offer Fellowships to students to subsidize their participation in the conference. In 2007, we tripled the number of NAME Fellows to three students from a pool of fifteen applicants. At the annual AAM meeting, we sponsor more than a dozen sessions and other learning opportunities, along with a slate of larger scale meetings and great parties. NAME regional representatives participate actively in the regional museum associations, and in national competitions for excellence in exhibition related practices.
The very medium through which you are reading this letter, the World Wide Web, offer opportunities to build community that we are planning to tap in the coming year. We have been very fortunate to secure the pro bono participation of Ideum, an international leader in designing online museum experiences, to lead our new foray into more active and participatory experiences on the web. And we have some very talented and committed volunteers who will be helping with that effort. Look for more in this space soon!
As a Standing Professional Committee of the American Association of Museums, NAME is officially part of AAM. We are energized by the new commitment and focus that AAM’s leadership, with the encouragement and guidance of AAM President Ford W. Bell, are bringing to the field. AAM is listening and leading, and we are proud to be part of that effort.
NAME is an all-volunteer organization. Every one who is contributing energy, wisdom, experience, and other resources is doing so out of their commitment to the exhibition profession. It seems that we are all stretched by an expanding web of responsibilities, both professional and personal, and I am extremely grateful for the dedication of the current NAME Board and our predecessors. It is a great group, and I am proud to be part of it.
Thank you for your interest and participation in NAME. I hope you are either a member of NAME, or will consider joining and supporting the exhibition profession. I look forward to meeting you all at upcoming AAM meetings and regional conferences, please introduce yourself to me and to NAME Board members and let us know your thoughts and concerns.
Eric Siegel
