PA MUSEUMS CONFERENCE REGISTRATION IS OPEN

PA Museums’ annual meeting will be held April 14-16, 2024 in Harrisburg.

In case you have not had a look at our preliminary program, we are thrilled to have outstanding Keynote Addresses both Monday and Tuesday. Monday John E. Simmons, author of Things Great and Small, will offer a look at collections management policies. Monica O. Montgomery will address our attendees on Tuesday with her presentation, Avenues to Action: Keys to Community Engagement. The PA Museums conference this year offers 15 educational sessions including case studies, fundraising, career advice, collections care, and more.

Lodging for the conference will be on your own. PA Museums has reserved special rates on rooms for our 2024 conference attendees at Harrisburg’s Crowne Plaza. You can make your reservations online or by calling 717-234-5021. The cutoff date for our room deal is March 27. Valet parking at the Crowne Plaza is $25/day, and the hotel is .6 miles from the State Museum.

For those traveling by car, there are several parking options available. Metered parking spaces and city parking garages are available within a 3 block radius of the Museum. Visit Park Harrisburg for more information about rates; the parking garage closest to the State Museum is the South Street Parking Garage.



Registration is open now and the preliminary program is available for our annual conference.

ADVOCACY

The PA House returned to session on March 18, and the Capitol is buzzing with activity. Negotiations around the budget are in a quiet stage, and basic positions from both Republicans and Democrats center around what the spending priorities will be and what can be understood about Pennsylvania's financial position given a healthy rainy day fund, speculations about revenue projections, and a longer trend that shows a structural deficit.

Pennsylvania's cultural sector is largely flat funded in Governor Shapiro's Executive Budget, and efforts are underway to advocate on behalf of the field. On March 19, Citizens for the Arts organized an Arts Advocacy Day that brought over 50 advocates together with the bi-cameral, bipartisan Arts and Culture Caucus. Advocates heard from the caucus leaders, Senator Jay Costa (D-43), Senator Pat Stefano (R-32), Representative Joe Ciresi (D-146), and Representative R. Lee James (R-64) in support of advocacy efforts. Citizens for the Arts' is asking lawmakers to increase the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts' line item for Grants to the Arts to $15 million. PA Museums is calling for an increase in the Cultural and Historical Support grants line item in the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's budget from $2 million to $6 million. PA Museums will call on our membership to support our request when we feel the timing is appropriate.

PA Museums will be providing testimony to the House Tourism & Economic & Recreational Development Committee on March 21 at Woodmere Art Museum. The committee will hear testimony around Michael's Law, which will require public accommodations to waive admission fees for personal care attendants whose attendance is necessary to enable individuals who require care to attend events.

The PA Senate considered SB228, the Museum Abandoned Property legislation, and almost unanimously passed the bill out of the Senate. The bill will head to the PA House State Government Committee before consideration there. PA Museums has been supportive of this bill, and we will continue to track its progress.

MEMBERSHIP

The Ephrata Cloister is looking for a Museum Curator. We updated our jobs listings last week. If your organization has a job to post with PA Museums, please review our guidelines and contact us. You can also complete and submit your job posting on our easy-to-use form.

One of our PA Museums members shared that there is a working group centered on supporting activities for the Semiquincentennial. The group is running a free virtual tavern for anyone who wants to talk about program planning or anything at all related to the upcoming anniversary event. Here's the link to participate.

You can join members and friends of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) for a free and informal conversation, networking, and community-building event on Tuesday, March 26 from 3 – 4 p.m. Participants will discuss how museums and historic sites can serve as an election polling station, participate in voter registration drives, and participate in other civics activities and resources. The AASLH History Hour is a new and free monthly networking event that brings the history community together for an informal discussion of important topics in the field. Register here.

Many of our members receive membership renewal requests in March, and we are very grateful for the support of our membership. Thank you very much for joining or renewing your membership with PA Museums.

PA MUSEUMS IN THE NEWS

Fox 29 visited the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

WESA had a look behind the scenes with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's revamped Egypt exhibit.

Erie News Now had the scoop on solar eclipse activities with the ExpERIEnce Children's Museum.

WTAE shared that the Director of Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum announced he was stepping down.

WHYY's Studio 2 took a deep dive into what's going on at the Museum of the American Revolution.

KDKA reported on Fort Ligonier's receiving a 2024 Americana Corner Preserving America grant.

TribLive covered Bushy Run Battlefield's celebration of Charter Day.

RECOMMENDED READING

PA's Department of Community and Economic Development shared a report on tourism in 2022.

A Goodwill store in Pennsylvania found itself with a very rare gold Lego mask worth over $18,000.

The Getty made nearly 88,000 images available to use however you like.

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