We are excited to share some news with you! Representatives from the Museums & Race Steering Committee will be in Charlotte, NC, from Friday October 6th till Tuesday the 10th. Our team will be there as panelists in the 2023 annual conference of the Association of Science and Technology Centers. Museums & Race members will present a session on Saturday the 6th, beginning at 1:15 pm, titled “From Assessment to Accountability: Navigating the Twists and Turns of Your Museum’s Racial Equity Journey. Of particular note is that the Museums and Race team will be joined by Joe Imholte, Director of the Bakken Museum and Alison Campbell of the University of Michigan’s Museum of Natural History (UMMNH), for a joint session presentation on the discussion of the Museums & Race Report Card and their work with it. As you might recall from our previous blog post, The Bakken Museum had recently guest written a post at the Museums and Race website where they shared their experience using the Report Card as a part of their institutional equity journey. The University of Michigan’s Museum of Natural History is another institution which has been working with the Museums and Race team to incorporate the framework of the Report Card towards their organizational equity work. And while the Bakken has completed a foundational step in their institution’s equity work, UMMNH is now at the start of this vital journey. Session attendees for this panel will have the opportunity to participate in a discussion with the panelists about their experiences in using the Report Card and to understand the ways in which institutional challenges can be addressed. The organizational differences between the Bakken Museum and UMMNH in using the Report Card will serve as a valuable point of learning for the attendees who might find parallels for their own organizations. Session attendees will also have the opportunity to work in groups to outline goals and initial action steps, based on the framework of the Report Card. Museums & Race intends this session to also serve as a platform for community building on organizational equity work. We are acutely aware of how lonely this journey can be, and fatigue can set in quickly! Having the space to connect with individuals and organizations who are facing the same challenges as you can go a long way in alleviating the sense of loneliness.
Big shout out to ASTC which invited us to host a space for people to connect during this conference! The Museums & Race team was invited to have a deeper engagement during this annual conference, but for this year we have chosen to keep our involvement limited to this session and an hour long follow up in the exhibit hall. If you are in Charlotte for ASTC, but cannot make it to the session, please join us afterwards in the exhibit hall after to keep the discussion going. We hope to have a bigger presence at the ASTC annual conference next year.
Museums & Race 