WestMuse Blog

Here on the WestMuse Blog, you’ll find a variety of articles and resources to help guide you through this difficult time as we all stay home to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

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January 29, 2011
By Heather Ferrell

State Capitol Museum

In a proposal released to the public in December,  Gov. Chris Gregoire recommended cutting state funding for Spokane’s Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture’s (MAC) state by just over forty percent. According to a January 24, 2011 article by Lauren Lynch— this would be enough to maintain minimal staff for building and artifact care, but prevent the...
January 25, 2011
This year's Program Committee Meeting at the Liljestrand House was a fascinating exercise and a wonderful experience working with a great group of people.  This year's conference is going to be a strong one, with session proposals from WMA, the Hawai'i Museums Association, the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, and the Pacific Islands Museums Association. It was an exciting...
November 26, 2010
I love conference time because it just feels good to be around people who like museums as much as I do, and have dedicated their working life to making museums incredible places for their communities. I have been blessed to be a part of two organizations that hold incredible conferences: the Western Museums Association and the British Columbia Museums Association. In October 2010, I was lucky...
November 26, 2010
By Heather Ferrell
As a result of improved fiscal management and the dedicated commitment of board, membership, and volunteers, the WMA has been able to financially reposition itself and contract with Hauck & Associates, Inc., to manage the daily operations of the organization.
Following the most successful Annual Meetings in the past five years, the Board of Directors of WMA is pleased to...
November 17, 2010
By Arthur H. Wolf
Several years ago it occurred to me that there might be fewer years ahead than there had been behind me, and I decided to plan for how I might pay back some institutions and organizations that had been formative, instructive, and beneficial to me over the past 35 years or so. In our household we have always supported annual contributions and memberships to museums, food banks,...
November 16, 2010
by Stephanie Weaver
I was privileged to be one of about 300 people in the room at the first TEDxSanDiego. TEDx are independently organized events following the TED conference format. If you aren't familiar with TED talks, they are amazing, short, focused talks by the world's best speakers and thinkers, which are broadcast live (and recorded). (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design,...
November 11, 2010
By Gypsy McFelter
I recently wrapped up the summer season working as a Visitor Use Assistant at one of the nation’s most popular landmarks – Yosemite National Park. And just like any major museum, zoo or aquarium, Yosemite has its most popular attractions, and its lesser-visited areas. But how do you attend to the needs of up to 4 million visitors per year, when your ‘museum’  is the size of...
November 3, 2010
by Stephanie Weaver
We were lucky to have Dr. Falk with us to kick off this year's conference in Portland, and also to be part of a visitor satisfaction panel the following day. If you haven't read his newest book, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, here are some highlights:
Dr. Falk's extensive research has found that people have a series of identities that we take on and off throughout...

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