2019 CONFERENCE

September 25-28 | Kodiak, Alaska

CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS: DIVERSITY, EQUITY, ACCESSIBILITY, AND INCLUSION

The museum field is currently engaging in critical conversations regarding how our institutions can evolve to become more equitable, inclusive, diverse, and accessible. Topics of these conversations include (but are certainly not limited to): how to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve at the staff, board, and volunteer levels of our institutions; ways to include underrepresented or marginalized communities at all levels of the interpretation of history and culture; how to make inclusivity a key part of museums’ institutional values and culture; and how to work towards the systemic change necessary to be successful in these processes. These important conversations are as challenging as they are engaging, exciting, and forward thinking. Alaska museums have a responsibility to take on these important issues and discuss them in their communities and institutions as well as within our statewide community of professionals so that we may grow and improve together. It is through these conversations, and important work that must follow them, that we will shape the museums of the future.

This year’s theme is inspired by the work of the American Alliance of Museums’ Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI) Working Group. The working group published a report last year that provides five insights, each with a call to action, regarding the values of DEAI. The full DEAI Working Group report can be found here. 

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