Tapestry Newsletter | January 31, 2018
CONFERENCE NEWS
Plans are coming together for an exciting 2018 Conference - a couple of things we have confirmed so far...
  • The conference will be held at the beautiful restored Pennsylvania Match Factory in Bellefonte. Tours of the facility, including behind the scenes collections areas are being planned.
  • The conference will kick off with a reception at the historic Centre Furnace Mansion
  • On Monday, April 16, Seema Rao, author of Objective Lessons: Self-Care for Museum Workers, will be our Keynote Speaker
  • On Tuesday, April 17, John Fea, author of Why Study History? will be our Keynote Speaker
ADVOCACY MATTERS

The Pennsylvania Senate held session on Monday, January 29 and considered the Pennsylvania Museum Preservation Act . The bill was passed, 49-0, and that marks its final consideration with the Senate. The bill will now go over to the Pennsylvania House, and we will continue to monitor its progress. PA Museums encourages our base to reach out to members of the Senate to thank them for supporting the Pennsylvania Museum Preservation Act. Find your Senator here .

The American Alliance of Museums is organizing Museums Advocacy Day in Washington, DC to bring its members together with U.S. House and Senate offices. Museums Advocacy Day is a unique opportunity to join with other museum professionals and supporters to make the case for museums. PA Museums is a proud supporter of Museums Advocacy Day. The 2017 event brought together over 380 advocates in Washington, D.C. Save the dates, February 26-27, 2018.

Governor Wolf is likely to kick off the 2018-2019 budget season with his Executive Budget presentation on February 6, 2018. PA Museums will report on the Executive Budget's line items for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA), and the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) as soon as the documents become available.

PA Museums is watching a few other issues in Harrisburg with interest. There have been developments around how Pennsylvania's voting districts are organized , and while we are some distance from any solution, this issue is causing friction between the Governor's office and the legislature. There will be quite a number of new faces at the Capitol; here's a report on open seats in the House and Senate . A new bill to reduce the size of the Pennsylvania House is getting some traction. There's also no doubt we are heading into an election cycle with candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor in the news. We will be watching for policy positions on arts, culture, and tourism from the candidates in the months to come.
SUPPORT FOR YOUR MUSEUM

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) seeks applicants for its Save America's Treasures grant program. The deadline to apply is February 21, 2018.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) issued a news release about their Keystone Grants for Historic Preservation.

The PHMC's Cultural and Historic Support Grants' application deadline is February 9, 2018.
PA MUSEUMS AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT

PA Museums is pleased to announce our 2018 Special Achievement Awards winners. We hope you will join us at the Pennsylvania Military Museum on April 16 to celebrate these awards.

MEMBERSHIP SURVEY

PA Museums invites our members to take a survey about our services and your relationship with PA Museums. While the survey should not take very long to complete, not more than 3 or 4 minutes, your feedback is crucial to our success in serving our membership. We look forward to sharing key survey results at our conference in April in Centre County.
SURVEY: HELP BUILD A CONFERENCE SESSION!

One of the sessions at the 2018 PA Museums Conference will be about creating exhibitions for small museums and historic sites beautifully and economically. "Exhibits on a Dime" will be presented by Mary Sorensen, Centre County Historical Society and Rita Graef from the Pasto Agricultural Museum at Penn State. As part of their session, they would like to feature ideas of how colleagues from other institutions approach their exhibit planning and display creation and installation.

We invite you to share your tips and ideas, through a survey, that can be shared in the presentation and in an electronic "handout" in one of PA Museum's Tapestry e-letters after the conference. It will be a compilation of tips, tricks and ideas to serve as a resource.

Please contact Mary Sorensen if you need any assistance.
JOB LISTINGS

PA Museums posts jobs regularly on our website.

If your institution or organization is seeking candidates, please send us your job postings or suggest it to your HR manager.

Please click here to go to our jobs page.


RECOMMENDED READING


How Google Arts and Culture's selfie feature fell down on being inclusive.

The American Alliance of Museum published Museums as Economic Engines: A National Report. Check out Pennsylvania's numbers.
PA MUSEUMS IN THE NEWS

There will be free admission to Pittsburgh's Museums throughout February. Here's the plan.

Philadelphia's Museums are getting behind the Philadelphia Eagles as we head into Super Bowl Weekend. We are trying to keep up with the blossoming rivalry with Boston.

The Westmoreland County Historical Society broke ground on their project for Hanna's Town.

Crews have been busy over the winter readying the Flagship Niagara in Erie.

The Jimmy Stewart Museum in Indiana is featuring an exhibit about the film star's career in radio.

Here's a roundup of museum exhibits coming to Philadelphia this Spring.

Pennsylvania's museum community mourns the losses of John L. Kraft, retired from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and Dr. Helen Shannon of Philadelphia's University of the Arts. We extend our condolences to their family, friends, and colleagues.
JOHN ALVITI TO RETIRE

John V. Alviti will be retiring from 23 years of dedicated service to The Franklin Institute Science Museum as Senior Curator of Collections. Prior to his work at the Institute, John most notably served as the Executive Director of the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent and as Executive Director of the Society for the Preservation of Landmarks. In the 1980s, he actively served on the advisory board for the Philadelphia Alliance for Teaching Humanities in the Schools (PATHS) and has more recently been active with the National History Day competition in the city of Philadelphia. As a leader in the Philadelphia area’s museum community, he has participated in the creation of numerous prized museum education programs, such as, the Phil-A-Kid Project, a hands-on History Workshop for 4 th and 5 th Graders; the Peopling of Philadelphia Project, a curriculum which examines nineteenth century immigration in the city of Philadelphia; and, Curatorial Capers, a summer day camp program featuring The Franklin Institute’s collections. The Museum Council of Greater Philadelphia honored John’s commitment to innovation in teaching by naming a fund in his name—The John Alviti Fund in Innovation. Employing his decades of museum experience with educational programs, exhibits, presentations, research, mentorship, and daily guest engagement, John has shared his passion for urban history and material culture, and has inspired generations of museum visitors to explore what inspires them.
PA Museums | 717-909-4951 | rusty.baker@pamuseums.org | pamuseums.org