Inside SEMC Summer 2023

INSIDE SEMC

Historic Locust Grove.

Graig Shaak and Robin Person.

semc

Alabama North Carolina

Arkansas South Carolina

Florida Tennessee

Georgia Virginia

Kentucky West Virginia

Louisiana U.S. Virgin Islands

Mississippi Puerto Rico

staff

Zinnia Willits

Executive Director

Carla Phillips

Manager of Communications

and Member Services

Heather Nowak Program Administrator contact semc SEMC | P.O. Box 550746 Atlanta, GA 30355-3246

T: 404.814.2048 or 404.814.2047

F: 404.814.2031

W: www.SEMCdirect.net

E: membershipservices@SEMCdirect.net

Inside SEMC is published three times a year by SEMC. Annual subscription is included in membership dues.

Design: Nathan Moehlmann, Goosepen Studio & Press

The deadline for the Fall 2023 newsletter is November 17, 2023. To submit information for the newsletter, please contact Zinnia Willits (zwillits@semcdirect.net) or Carla Phillips (cphillips@ semcdirect.net).

semc officers

Matthew S. Davis  President matt.davis@gcsu.edu

Director of Historic Museums,  Georgia College, Milledgeville, GA

Dr. Calinda Lee  Vice President sources.lee@gmail.com

Principal, Sources Cultural Resources  Management, LLC, Atlanta, GA

Deitrah J. Taylor  Secretary dtaylorhistorian@gmail.com

Public Historian,  Milledgeville, GA

Scott Alvey  Treasurer Scott.Alvey@ky.gov

Director, Kentucky Historical Society,  Frankfort, KY

Heather Marie Wells  Past President heathermarie.wells@crystalbridges.org

Digital Media Project Manager, Crystal Bridges  Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR

semc directors

Glenna Barlow gbarlow@columbiamuseum.org

Curator of Education,  Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC

Alexander Benitez beniteza@portsmouthva.gov

Director of Museums and Tourism,  City of Portsmouth,  Portsmouth, VA

Tafeni English tafeni.english@splcenter.org

Director, Alabama State Office,  Southern Poverty Law Center/Civil  Rights Memorial, Montgomery, AL

Katie Ericson kericso@emory.edu

Director of Education,  Michael C. Carlos Museum,  Atlanta, GA

Nancy Fields Nancy.fields@uncp.edu

Director and Curator, The Museum of  the Southeast American Indian,  Pembroke, NC

Brigette Janea Jones

Brigette@arabiaalliance.org

Assistant Executive Director,  Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area,  Stonecrest, GA

Pamela D. C. Junior pamela1junior@gmail.com

Former Director, Two Mississippi Museums,  Mississippi Department of  Archives & History, Jackson, MS

Rosalind Martin rmartin@knoxart.org

Director of Education,  Knoxville Museum of Art,  Knoxville, TN

Michelle Schulte mschulte@lsu.edu

Chief Curator, LSU Museum of Art,  Baton Rouge, LA

Michael Scott mscott@solidlight-inc.com

Project Manager,  Solid Light,  Louisville, KY

Ahmad Ward award@exploremitchelville.org

Executive Director, Historic Mitchelville  Freedom Park, Hilton Head Island, SC

Lance Wheeler lwheeler@civilandhumanrights.org

Director of Exhibitions, National Center  for Civil and Human Rights,  Atlanta, GA

semc executive director’s notes

It’s hard to believe we are in the final months of summer 2023! As I enter my third year as Executive Director of this amazing organization and we continue to move purposefully forward, I am beginning to see/ feel workflow patterns emerge related to SEMC’s year-round programs and events that were upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. This makes it easier to plan (and plan, and plan, and then execute) but we have also learned that the new “normal” is less about settling in — rather, as a professional organization we are committed to being nimble, adjusting, evolving in real-time (rather than a glacial place) and to listening, learning and understanding the movement and growth of the museum field in order to support our members.

Speaking of summer though, these months are rapidly becoming some of the busiest for SEMC staff. Summer has become a time to solidify all the pieces that will create the spectacular 2023 Annual Meeting mosaic this fall in Louisville including, conference registration, hotel blocks, speakers, sessions, events, transportation, SWAG, networking events and celebrations, the Expo Hall, workshops, sponsorships, scholarships, competitions, awards, the annual meeting program.... OH MY! It goes without saying that it takes a village to coordinate all these moving parts and our annual

meetings would not be successful without the tireless work of SEMC staff (thank you Carla Phillips, Heather Nowak, and SEMC’s AWESOME summer intern, Leila Withers), Committees (thank you Local Arrangements and Program Committee!), Competitions and Scholarship Chairs and Committees (thank you Scott Warren, Michelle Schulte, Amanda Briede, and Deb Rose Van Horn) and Awards Chair and Committee (thank you Rosalind Martin!) and of course the stellar event coordination of Hutchinson Design Group! I am thankful to the SEMC Council and all our partners and supporters that will make SEMC2023 an amazing experience for ALL our members. Early bird registration runs through September 15, 2023. Take advantage of the discount and make your travel plans today. The room block will fill and the 2023 Expo Hall will sell out — do not delay!

While the summer months involve overseeing a whole lot of committee work, they are also a time for SEMC travel which is exciting after the last few years. My regular trips to the SEMC office in Atlanta now include dropping in to programs and events to support the Atlanta area and surrounding museums. We are also actively considering sites for SEMC2025 (SEMC2024 will be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) which involves visiting the cities and museums under consideration, also a summer activity. Stay tuned for updates on

Dear SEMC:

AAAM swag.

SEMC2025 later this fall! Finally, in late July I was thrilled to represent SEMC at my first Association of African American Museums (AAAM) Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The short reaction to my experience at AAAM is simply “WOW.” This was an incredible convening of over 600 museum professionals representing black museums and industry partners from across the country! It was wonderful to see so many SEMC members in attendance, reconnect with individuals I have not seen in person in several years and consider ways that SEMC and AAAM can continue to partner and support our members through collaborative programming and networking. It was truly a wonderful experience with high-quality professional sessions, speakers, and events. Thank you to everyone at AAAM for providing such a warm welcome! It was also beneficial for me to experience a conference as a first-time attendee. Those of us who have been going to SEMC for a LONG time often forget what it is like to arrive for three days of networking as a first timer. Now

I remember, and our staff is committed more than ever to ensuring that those who are new to our conference know what to do, where to go, and have opportunities to network and socialize beyond the sessions. We are on it! Now is a good time to mark your calendars for the SEMC2023 Know Before You Go session (via Zoom) on October 24 at 12pm EST which will be a great start to answering all your conference questions. Also, don’t miss our upcoming monthly virtual programs or peruse previous recordings — a benefit of your SEMC membership.

I hope you enjoy this edition of Inside SEMC! We are thankful to all who contributed content, memories, ads, and design. I sincerely hope your summer has included downtime to recharge, reset and get ready for the fall. We can’t wait to see you in Louisville!

Respectfully, — Zinnia Willits ,

Save the Date for Table Talk 2023!

Mark your calendars for the Table Talk session at SEMC2023. This year Table Talk will take place on Sunday, November 12, from 8:30 to 10:00 pm at the E&S Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky. Transportation to and from the event will be available.

First introduced at SEMC2022, “Table Talk” invites museum practitioners to engage in dialogue around provocative topics regarding the industry as a means of challenging the status quo and broadening people’s perspectives about the field as a whole. These critical conversations aim to push individuals beyond the limits of business as usual, and into more intentional and innovative thought processes to reimagine museums. Plan to join the 2023 session for real conversation about the real work that needs to happen in this field.

SEMC2023, November 13–15, 2023, Louisville, Kentucky

semc president’s address

Greetings, SEMC Members!

I hope this message finds you well and gearing up for a fall full of exhibitions, programming, and other events at your respective museums. Your SEMC Staff, Council, and Committees have been busy over the summer preparing for #SEMC2023 in Louisville, and I hope you enjoy reading more about the upcoming annual meeting in this issue. We have a wide diversity of sessions, workshops, offsite programming, and various group engagements that will certainly make this our best conference yet. I hope you will make plans to join us in Louisville!

Our field continues to work through the aftermath of the COVID19 Pandemic and also to address multiple issues related to pay, equity and inclusion, robust interpretation, and issues related to collection ethics. It is important to build and reach out to colleagues and develop professional networks. SEMC provides a great opportunity to network and develop friendships to address issues we are all facing in the field and to help find solutions in your respective spaces. I know I rely heavily on my network of friends and colleagues from SEMC to help me work through these issues and more. If you find yourself in need of assistance, please reach out to me or any of our professional groups and we will help you get engaged with those who can help.

Finally, I wanted to thank you all for the kind notes and messages I received upon the death of my father. I certainly felt the support of this fantastic organization and it meant a great deal to me and my family. I hope you all have a fantastic fall and I look forward to seeing you in November in Louisville!

Best,

— Matt S. Davis , SEMC President

MEMBERSHIP CORNER

Welcome to the Conference!

Professional conferences such as the Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) Annual Meeting, are connected and supported by the museum industry and its leaders from around the region. SEMC 2023 will consolidate everything you could ever want to know about your future profession into three-plus days of informative sessions and exciting special events.

If you are a first-time attendee or still thinking about attending, read on for tips to get the best experience out of your conference adventure!

You learn really cool stuff. SEMC 2023 will be overflowing with information about industry standards, best practices, current trends, and important museum services (including swag!). The best part? You can sort through the entire schedule prior to arrival and plan to attend the workshops, sessions, and special events that are of interest to YOU. With so much to offer, there will be plenty of opportunities to learn and have fun.

You will meet incredibly successful (and incredibly NICE) museum professionals. If you are still searching for your dream job, the SEMC Annual Meeting will

be an opportunity to interact directly with friendly people actively working in the field who are ready to answer your questions and provide the guidance you need to keep your career moving forward! You’ll get to hang out with the speakers, exhibitors, and museum professionals from around the region, which puts you in a unique position to network, ask questions, and learn more about the things that interest you. Don’t forget about the SEMC staff! We’re running the conference but also having a lot of fun. Stop by the registration area with questions or just to chat. We’re passionate about making sure you have a great conference experience!

Register today (the student rate is $100) and make plans to meet us in Louisville this November. You’ll have the best time and walk away with new friends, colleagues you can check in with, and plenty of knowledge about your future career in the museum field.

— Carla Phillips , SEMC Membership & Communications Manager cphillilps@semcdirect.net

Chloe Catrow and Kaniah Pearson at SEMC2022.

PROGRAMS CORNER

Mid-Year Meeting, March 2023

For the first time since 2020, the Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) Mid-Year Meeting was held fully in person. The SEMC Program Committee (PC) and Council members gathered in Louisville, Kentucky from March 1–3, 2023. The meeting proved to be a successful return to the pre-pandemic model. Attending virtually was necessary for a few members and the virtual component will remain an option in the spirit of accessibility. However, it was extremely exciting and rewarding to be in a room full of people having face-to-face discussions!

Wondering what exactly the “mid-year meeting” is?

Each year in March, the SEMC Program Committee gathers in the Annual Meeting host city to spend a day reviewing, debating, and ultimately selecting the annual meeting program sessions. This Committee always has its work cut out, and this year proved no different with over 100 session proposals to choose from for 62 available spots. The review day is long, and the debate is spirited, but this year’s Co-Chair

Timia Thompson did an amazing job keeping the discussion neutral and centered around inclusivity. Even after hours of discussion, and many “counterpoints,” this group of 30+ remained friends at the end of the day! Involvement in the SEMC Program Committee is a wonderful and FUN way to get involved in our organization and add your input to the Annual Meeting Program. Consider joining the PC for SEMC2024 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana! Applications will open shortly after SEMC2023 concludes.

The SEMC Council also meets at the mid-year meeting to conduct Council business, discuss the budget, and strategize for the future. For those on both Program Committee and Council, it can be a jam-packed few days. It is not ALL work though. We build in time for fun as well! Representatives of the Local Arrangements Committee will attend the Council meeting to provide an overview of the planned conference events. The Council and Program Committee also toured the conference spaces at the host hotel.

Matt Davis, Zinnia Willits, Michele Schulte, and Patrick Martin, at the mid-year meeting, Louisville, Kentucky.

In addition, these hard-working SEMC volunteers get a preview of what the annual meeting host city has to offer. Each year is different, but this year, we had the wonderful opportunity to tour Roots 101 African American Museum. Founded by Lamont Collins in 2020, the Roots 101 African American Museum is a place where visitors can see themselves in history, explore the African American story in its entirety, and gain a greater understanding of the achievements, cultural contributions, and experiences of the African

American community. The museum gets its name from the idea that the first class taken on any subject in higher education is “101,” and that idea is therefore applied to their exhibitions in order to create an immersive introduction to learning African American history. During our group’s visit, Mr. Collins led a fantastic discussion, and we had the opportunity to see and interact with historical artifacts and tour the exhibits which left a lasting impression. Special thanks to Mr. Collins for graciously opening his museum to give us an impactful and memorable experience. If you would like to visit Roots 101 during your time in Louisville, it is located at 124 N 1st St, Louisville, KY 40202, just a short walk from the Galt House Hotel.

Lamont Collins and Pamela D.C. Junior at Roots 101 African American Museum, Louisville, Kentucky.

Program committee at mid-year meeting, Louisville, Kentucky.

Program committee at mid-year meeting, Louisville, Kentucky.

Did you know that the Louisville Annual Meeting is now 5 years in the making? After the SEMC2020 Louisville meeting was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the planning did not stop. The Local Arrangements Committee remained steadfast and refocused its efforts on a successful 2023 meeting. SEMC extends a heartfelt THANK YOU to the Louisville Local Arrangements Committee. We are especially grateful to the 2020 and 2023 Local Arrangements Committee

Co-Chairs, Cynthia Torp, and Chris Goodlett, and all who demonstrated grace, resilience, empathy, and stability during these difficult years. Now, ONWARD to SEMC2023 where we will meet together, stronger, and better!

— Heather Nowak , SEMC Program Administrator hnowak@semcdirect.net

SEMC Council at mid-year meeting, Louisville, Kentucky.

WOW Interactive Wall Audubon Insectarium, New Orleans, LA

Introducing the 2023 Plenary Session Panelists

SEMC is excited to introduce and spotlight the speakers for the 2023 Annual Meeting plenary session which will take place on Monday, November 13, 2023 at 9am at The Galt House Hotel. This year’s conference theme is Truth Builds Community; we are excited to see what ideas the panel will bring to the table when speaking to our SEMC community. Each panelist has a very rich, interesting and impressive background, and each will be specially highlighted in this year issue of Inside SEMC!

The plenary panel host will be Andre Kimo Stone Guess. He is a native Louisvillian and grew up in the Smoketown neighborhood. He brings over 20 years of experience in the arts sector, working with arts organizations and individual artists. Before leaving Louisville for New York in 2000, Guess served as Vice President for the Lincoln Foundation, Inc. He notably served as the Vice President and Producer of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) in New York City and as President and CEO of the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh. He has also owned and operated his management consulting firm, GuessWorks, Inc., for over 14 years. During that time, he managed the careers of world-class artists and consulted on many projects. He currently serves as the President & CEO for the Fund for the Arts.

Leila Withers , SEMC Summer 2023 Intern

Andre Kimo Stone Guess.

Our first panelist is Jecorey “1200” Arthur, an awardwinning teacher, musician, and activist from the West End of Louisville, KY. He earned his nickname “1200” after teaching himself to produce hip hop on a KORG D-1200 studio at age 12. A decade later he earned his Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Arts in Teaching at the University of Louisville. He has also founded 1200 LLC, an independent music agency specializing in compositions, performances, and events. He most recently earned the title of Councilman, as the youngest elected official in city history, representing Louisville Metro Council District 4. As a musician, Arthur has performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Big Ears Festival, Forecastle Festival, and Jungfrau Erzähl festival; performed as a soloist with the Stereo Hideout Brooklyn Orchestra and the Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Nashville, Columbus, and Oregon Symphony Orchestras; performed as the first hip hop artist with the Louisville Orchestra including world premieres of folk opera The

Jecorey “1200” Arthur.

Way Forth and rap opera  The Greatest: Muhammad Ali , where he starred as his hometown hero; and composed music for theatre, film, television, radio, podcast, and studio albums. As an activist, Arthur has produced multi-media educational content about the state of Black America, organized hundreds of events hiring thousands of regional artists, and used the arts to advocate for policy change. As a member of the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) Foundation—he writes policy, organizes campaigns, and trains activists across the U.S. Arthur has been featured on Al Jazeera, PBS, BET, BBC, CBC, NPR, NYT, and more. Arthur is a professor at the Historically Black College and University—Simmons College of Kentucky, an artist roster member of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), and an endorsed artist with Salyers Percussion. In 2019 he became a BMe Genius Fellow, using his reward to help open the Parkland Plaza, an outdoor green space, community venue, and natural playground in his childhood neighborhood. Since joining Louisville Metro Council, he has legislated dozens of policies focused on abolishing poverty. You can follow Arthur’s work online at @jecoreyarthur, @1200llc, and @parklandplaza.

Silas House is our next panelist, he is the nationally bestselling author of the novels—Clay’s Quilt, 2001; A Parchment of Leaves, 2003; The Coal Tattoo, 2005;  Eli the Good, 2009; and  Same Sun Her (co-authored with Neela Vaswani) 2012, and Southernmost (June 2018)— as well as a book of creative nonfiction—Something’s Rising, co-authored with Jason Howard, 2009; and three plays. His new novel, Lark Ascending, was published on September 27, 2022. House is a former commentator for NPR’s “All Things Considered.” His writing has appeared recently in Time, The Atlantic, Ecotone, The Advocate , Garden and Gun , and Oxford American . House serves on the fiction faculty at the NaslundMann Graduate School of Creative Writing and as the NEH Chair at Berea College. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the recipient of three honorary doctorates, and is the winner of the Nautilus Award, an EB White Award, the Appalachian Book of the Year, the Storylines Prize from the New York Public Library/NAV Foundation, the Lee Smith Award, and many other honors, including an invitation to read at the Library of Congress. Southernmost was a longest finalist for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and appeared on several Best of 2018 lists including  The

Advocate,  Booklist,  Paste,  Southern Living,  Garden and Gun, and others. The book was given the Weatherford Award as well as the Judy Gaines Young Award. In April 2023, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear appointed Silas House as the 2023-24 Kentucky Poet Laureate.

Vian Sora, an artist from Baghdad, Iraq, will complete our plenary panel. Having been born and raised during multiple wars, Sora’s paintings are informed by her life. Sora’s works, infused with emotional tension and based on confronting destruction and decay, challenge the boundaries of life through intentional color contrast within abstract landscapes. Sora’s visions fuse her own experiences with Iraqi history, cultural identity influences, and painterly abstraction. Though they are largely abstract, Sora’s paintings suggest figures and places, including gardens and war zones, landscapes of lush fertility and terrible decay, cycles of life and death. She is a first-generation immigrant painter addressing the effects of war and displacement. The foundations of her paintings utilize dark stains and clashing surface textures, which she often disrupts with vibrant paths of color that weave throughout the compositions, reflecting a journey to find harmony within the chaos. The figures and faces that emerge in her frenzied arrangements are references to the bodies, collective and individual, who have been devastated in

Silas House.

the ongoing hostilities that besiege her home country. Sora prides herself in being a self-taught artist, currently working in Louisville, Kentucky, who has received degrees in computer science and an MBA. She studied printmaking under the tutelage of Suleyman Tekcan at the Istanbul Museum of Graphic Arts (IMOGA). Sora’s exhibitions have been held in Louisville, Baghdad, Istanbul, and Dubai, including at Dar El Cid Museum, Kuwait, IMOGA, and the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul. She recently participated in the KMAC Contemporary Art Museum Triennial and has participated in the International Art Festival, Baghdad, and the Sharjah Biennale. Her work has been collected by the Speed Art Museum and KMAC Contemporary Art Museum.

We would also like to highlight this year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Kevin W. Cosby . For more than 40 years, Dr. Cosby has served as the Senior Pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church, the largest African American Church in the state of Kentucky, as well as the largest private employer of African Americans in the state. In 2005, Dr. Cosby was inaugurated as the 13th President of Simmons College of Kentucky. In 2007, he led the once fledgling college to reclaim its original campus that was lost during the Great Depression, expanded

the college’s campus to three locations and was officially designated as the nation’s 107th Historically Black College & Universities (HBCU). He continues to serve as the President. He has been consistently listed among Kentucky’s most influential leaders. He was selected as Louisvillian of the Year in 2007. He was ranked #1 of the Top Ten Religious Leaders in Louisville by  Louisville Magazine in the October 2011. In 2012, he was inducted into the Hall of Distinguished Alumni at Eastern Kentucky University. In 2015, the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights inducted Rev. Dr. Cosby into the Gallery of Great Black Kentuckians, the 56th African American afforded this honor. Rev. Dr. Cosby has authored five highly-acclaimed books:  Get off Your But!: Messages, Musings & Ministries to Empower the African-American Church;  As They Went;  Treasure Worth Seeking; Who’s Your Daddy?: Life Lessons from the Prodigal Son and Loyal to the Royal. His latest book was released in 2021 entitled: “Getting to the Promised Land: Black America and the Unfinished Work of The Civil Rights Movement.” The book is a Biblical commentary on the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS). His keynote speech on Wednesday, November 15, will incorporate the messages from his extensive professional experience and body of work.

Vian Sora.

Dr. Kevin W. Cosby.

Kentucky Derby Museum

GET READY FOR SEMC2023 IN LOUISVILLE!

Chris Goodlett , Local Arrangments Co-Chair and Senior Director of Curatorial and Educational Affairs, Kentucky Derby Museum;

Cynthia Torp , Local Arrangements Co-Chair and Owner & CEO, Solid Light

Louisville, Kentucky has many monikers: Gateway to the South, Bourbon City, Derby City, and River City are just a few. For those of us on the Local Arrangements Committee—we call this beautiful city, “home.”

We are fortunate to have a rich, cultural scene in Louisville that includes many museums, galleries, and cultural institutions, and are excited to share them with our SEMC friends.

Before we dive in, we want to acknowledge the work that has gotten us to this point. The SEMC journey to Louisville began in 2015, when Louisville Tourism

reached out to secure the Annual Meeting. What began as a—dare we say “typical”—conference pitch and planning experience with the formation of the Local Arrangements Committee in 2018 to represent twenty-five organizations across Louisville and the Commonwealth, was derailed as the final details of the 2020 conference were coming together. We all know what happened.

As the 2020 conference dates passed, many of us wondered when we would be back together in person. How would we reconnect in such, “unprecedented,” times? Or after? Is it even possible?

Fast forward to “navigating a new normal,” the Local Arrangements Committee reconnected after the worst of the pandemic. Prepared to dive back into planning, we learned, even in the best of circumstances, the conference would not be able to come to Louisville until 2023. Three years past our intended conference, here we are—and we could not be more thrilled to share this year’s theme, sessions, evening events, and more with you!

The SEMC 2023 theme is Truth Builds Community Louisville was at the center of the 2020 social justice movements that arose throughout the country. We are proud to share that many of our cultural institutions took an active role in creating programs and exhibits to shed light, lift up underserved and underrepresented peoples, and create space for community engagement for healing and open dialogue. This theme is an acknowledgment, and challenge, that our institutions must continue to lead in confronting the truths in our communities, both past and present, to be a force for positive change from within.

We believe this is so important that we also added an opening plenary session on Monday morning of the conference. We invited several important local and

regional artist activists to share the work they are doing and discuss ways we can all take an active role in social and cultural justice and equality. Be sure to grab your seat early!

Our hope for you is that while you are taking in the learnings of the conference, you will also allow time to experience Louisville. The scheduled annual meeting tours and events will provide a window into the Louisville region’s arts and cultural sector. For those with the urge to explore independently, there are an array of dining choices and entertainment activities. We have a plethora of distilleries in the city and the region—and many restaurants and bars are part of the Urban Bourbon Trail. We often joke that “we eat bourbon with a fork” here because many chefs find fantastic ways to incorporate it into their cuisine. We have a beautiful park system and walkable downtown. We would be remiss if we forgot to mention our host site, The Galt House Hotel, which is one of the city’s most storied hotels.

It has been a long journey planning this conference, and we look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to experience Louisville and the wonderful program our team has assembled for you.

21c Museum Hotel

KMAC Museum

Muhammad Ali Center

Historic Locust Grove

A  SPECIAL THANKS

SEMC Endowment Contributions

Many thanks to our recent endowment contributors for investing in the future of SEMC!

When you are thinking of honoring or remembering someone, please consider a contribution to the SEMC endowment. For more information, contact Executive Director Zinnia Willits at 404.814.2048 or zwillits@semcdirect.net

Anonymous,  in honor of Graig Shaak

Elise LeCompte

Rosalind Martin

Nathan Moehlmann

William Paul, Jr.

Graig Shaak

Heather Marie Wells

THE PAST PRESIDENTS CIRCLE

Members of the Past Presidents Circle contribute $150 annually for at least two years to the endowment fund:

George Bassi

Sharon Bennett

David Butler

Charles “Tom” Butler

Tamra Sindler Carboni

Micheal A. Hudson

Darcie MacMahon

Douglas Noble

Robert Rathburn

Graig D. Shaak

Robert Sullivan

Zinnia Willits

Kristen Miller Zohn

THE WILLIAM T. AND SYLVIA F. ALDERSON ENDOWMENT FELLOWS

Thirty members of SEMC have made commitments of distinction as Alderson Fellows. Their investment of at least $1,000 each is a significant leadership gift, reflective of a personal commitment to the professional association that has meant so much to each of them.

Platinum Alderson Fellows

(minimum $5,000)

Sylvia F. Alderson

Bob Rathburn

Graig D. Shaak

Nancy & Robert Sullivan

Medallion Alderson Fellows

(minimum $2,500)

George Bassi

Sharon Bennett

David Butler

Tamra Sindler Carboni

William U. Eiland

Martha Battle Jackson

Pamela Meister

Richard Waterhouse

Alderson Fellows

(minimum $1,000)

T. Patrick Brennan

Michael Brothers

W. James Burns

Matthew Davis

Horace Harmon

Brian Hicks

Pamela Hisey

Micheal Hudson

Kathleen Hutton

Rick Jackson

Andrew Ladis

John Lancaster

Elise LeCompte

Allyn Lord

Michael Anne Lynn

R. Andrew Maass

Darcie MacMahon

Susan Perry

Robin Seage Person

Robin Reed

Allison Reid

Steve Rucker

Michael Scott Warren

Heather Marie Wells

Kristen Miller Zohn

SEMC contributors at the 2022 annual meeting.

Other SEMC Contributions

ANNUAL MEETING TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIPS

Ashleigh Oatts

Heather Nowak

Michael (Scott) Warren

Heather Marie Wells

GENERAL OPERATING

Scott Alvey

Patrick Daily

Matthew Davis

William Eiland

Nick Gray

Hutchinson Design Group

R. Andrew Maass

Katy Menne

Lauren Pacheco

Marianne Richter

Michelle Schulte

Michael Scott

Heather Marie Wells

Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation

Institute of Museum and Library Services

HANDUMY JEAN TAHAN

INTERNSHIP FUND

Rebecca Bush

Joy Tahan Ruddell

Joshua Whitfield

LAPAGLIA FUND

Carolyn Reams

Elise LeCompte

LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

Robin Reed

Michael (Scott) Warren

Heather Marie Wells

Lance Wheeler

Association of African American Museums

MARTHA BATTLE JACKSON JIMI FUND

Angie Albright

Claire Gwaltney

Lauren Virgo

Michael Warren

Heather Marie Wells

JEKYLL ISLAND MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

Mary Miller

Heather Nowak

National Museum of African American History and Culture-Office of Strategic Partnerships

Smithsonian Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past

Jekyll Island Authority

SEMC Active Memberships

SEMC thanks all our active members, including those who have recently joined (in bold). Without your support and participation, we could not provide region-wide services such as our awards and scholarship programs, as well as our outstanding Annual Meetings and nationally acclaimed Jekyll Island Management Institute. If you are an individual member and your museum is not an institutional member, please encourage them to join. For information on memberships and benefits visit semcdirect.net, email memberservices@semcdirect.net, or call 404.814.2047. For your convenience, the last page of this newsletter is a membership application.

STUDENT ($25)

Deborah Aronin, Durham, North Carolina

Phyllis Asztalos, Tallahassee, Florida

Dianna Bradley, Tallahassee, Florida

Jon Broadbooks, Cooperstown, New York

Sean Burke, Knoxville, Tennessee

"SinceI'vebeenatthemuseumforthelast9 years,nothinghasbeenastransformativetoour operationthanmakingtheswitchtoCatalogIt.”

SaraWilson,MuseumExecutiveDirector

Jacob Coburn, Cullowhee, North Carolina

Cassandra Erb

Kyndall Fairbanks, Apopka, Florida

Nathan Fleeson, Lawrenceville, Georgia

Anita Funston, Asheville, North Carolina

Evangeline Giaconia, Gainesville, Florida

Claudia Hawkins, Milledgeville, Georgia

Parker Hiley, Decatur, Georgia

Lilly Honea, New Hope, Alabama

Zoe Hume, Tallahassee, Florida

Melody Hunter-Pillion, Cary, North Carolina

Ivy Johnson, Gainesville, Georgia

Megan Keener, Merritt Island, Florida

Indira Lessington, Charleston, SC

Benjamin Malik, Acworth, Georgia

Rebecca Marine, Oak Grove, Kentucky

Madison McCormick, Elmira, West Virginia

Julia Mileski, Williamsburg, Virginia

Rachel Mohr, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Grace Moorman, Athens, Georgia

Andrea Nero, Buffalo, New York

Samantha Oleschuk, New Hill, North Carolina

Suzanna Parker, Sparta, Georgia

Kaniah Pearson, Atlanta, Georgia

Sarah Robles, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Corinne Roth, Milwaukee, WI

Jasmine Sears, Atlanta, Georgia

Apoorva Shah, Miramar, Florida

Thomas Strebeck, Columbia, SC

Megan Tewell, Johnson City, Tennessee

Eileen Tomczuk, New Orleans, Louisiana

Alyssa Watrous, Rome, Georgia

Diana Wilder, Jeffersonville, Indiana

Ashley Williams, Tallahassee, FL

Leila Withers, Atlanta, Georgia

INDIVIDUAL ($45)

Krishna Adams, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Jess Alden, Atlanta, Georgia

Emilie Alfino, Sanibel, Florida

Nancy Allred, Cary, North Carolina

Jasmine Alvarado, Conyers, GA

Lauren Aristizabal, Bradenton, Florida

Becca Barnes, Cartersville, Georgia

Kathleen Barnett, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Amber Barnhardt, Athens, Georgia

Austin Bell, Marco Island, Florida

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Eboni Belton, Columbia, South Carolina

Rex Bennett, Cookeville, Tennessee

Victoria Berry, Stillwater, Oklahoma

Erin Blackledge, Brandon, Mississippi

Steven Blashfield, Richmond, Virginia

Maggie Bond, Lexington, Kentucky

Lori Boyer, New Orleans, Louisiana

Kathleen Boyle, Brentwood, Tennessee

Marcie Breffle, Atlanta GA

Amanda Briede, Louisville, Kentucky

Margaret Brown, Durham, North Carolina

Bridget Bryson, St Petersburg, Florida

Jenny Burney, St. Louis, Missouri

Rebecca Bush, Columbus, Georgia

Jayd Buteaux, New Iberia, Louisiana

Samantha Bynum, Paris, Arkansas

Madeline Calise, Melbourne, Florida

Colleen Callahan, Richmond, Virginia

Sharon Campbell, Travelers Rest, South Carolina

Danny Carroll, Newport News, Virginia

Staci Catron, Atlanta, Georgia

Maggie Claytor, Charleston, South Carolina

Brittany Cohill, Jacksonville, Florida

Schelly Corry, Pineville, Missouri

Leah Craig, Bowling Green, Kentucky

Matthew Davis, Gray, Georgia

Debra DeBolt, Pensacola, Florida

Dean DeBolt, Pensacola, Florida

Patty Dees, Cartersville, Georgia

Bartholomew Delcamp, Winter Haven, Florida

Kathryn Dixson, Atlanta, Georgia

James Draper, Merritt Island, Florida

Didi Dunphy, Athens, Georgia

Christian Edwards, Pittsboro, North Carolina

William Eiland, Athens, Georgia

Trudi Ellerman, Atlanta, Georgia

Linda Endersby, Lincoln, Nebraska

Siera Erazo, Charlotte, NC

Scott Erbes, Louisville, Kentucky

Lindsay Fairbrother-Henige, Waxhaw, North Carolina

Tyler Fasnacht, Buford, Georgia

J.R. Fennell, Lexington, South Carolina

Jay Ferguson, Louisville, Kentucky

John Fields, Birmingham, Alabama

Marvin Fonseca, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

Meghan Forest, Asheville, North Carolina

V. Taylor Foster, Louisville, Kentucky

Robin Gabriel, Georgetown, South Carolina

Brian Garrett, New York, NY

Brian Garrett, Atlanta Georgia

Rachel Gaudry, New Orleans, Louisiana

Glen Gentele, Orlando, Florida

Meghan Gerig, Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia

Hannah Gibbs, Lenoir, North Carolina

Mandy Gibson, Hendersonville, North Carolina

Rachel Gibson, Charlotte, Tennessee

Hermina Glass-Hill, Midway, Georgia

David Goist, Asheville, North Carolina

Bess Goldy, Louisville, Kentucky

Claudio Gomez, Knoxville, Tennessee

Cindy Green, Franklin, Tennessee

James Gregory, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Kristi Grieve, Cartersville, Georgia

Carolyn Grosch, Asheville, North Carolina

Floyd Hall, College Park, Georgia

Dawn Hammatt, Abilene, Kansas

Natalie Hefter, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Bethany Hawkins, Nashville, Tennessee

LaQuinton Holliday, Meridian, Mississippi

Kelsey Horn, Golden, Mississippi

Michele Houck, Huntersville, North Carolina

Marion Hudson, Dallas, Georgia

Tiffany Hughes, Cartersville, Georgia

Kathleen Hutton, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Marian Inabinett, High Point, North Carolina

Lynette Ivey, Kennesaw, Georgia

Emily Jones, Cleveland, Mississippi

Patricia Kahn, Sarasota, Florida

Diane Karlson, Little Rock, Arkansas

Ryan Kasley, St. Petersburg, Florida

Rachel Katz, Atlanta, Georgia

Martha Katz-Hyman, Newport News, Virginia

William Katzman, Livingston, Louisiana

Shane Keil, Jackson, Mississippi

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Marianne Kelsey, Greensboro, North Carolina

Kecia Kelso, Montgomery, Alabama

Valarie Kinkade, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Glenn Klaus, Alexandria, Virginia

Adam Knight, Fort Myers, Florida

Lauren Kraut, Gainesville, Virginia

Anne Lampe, Baltimore, Maryland

Karol Lawson, Lynchburg, Virginia

William Lazenby, Chantilly, Virginia

Elise LeCompte, Gainesville, Florida

Carla Ledgerwood, Atlanta, Georgia

Calinda Lee, Atlanta, Georgia

Leslie Leonard, Raleigh, North Carolina

Anne Lewellen, Jacksonville, Florida

Cindy Lincoln, Raleigh, North Carolina

Lydia Lingerfelt, Cartersville, Georgia

Felise Llano, Tampa, Florida

Ellen Lofaro, Knoxville, Tennessee

Catherine Long, Cumming, Georgia

Rebekah Lopez-Farrer, Bentonville, Arkansas

Kate Macginnis, Atlanta, Georgia

Deborah Mack, Alexandria, Virginia

Darcie MacMahon, Gainesville, Florida

Ty Malugani, Birmingham, Alabama

Hannah Marley, McClellanville, South Carolina

Sylvia Marshall, Salisbury, North Carolina

Rosalind Martin, Knoxville, Tennessee

Mersia Martin, Woodstock, Georgia

Sarah Maske, Ellerbe, North Carolina

Kali Mason, Dallas, Texas

Tori Mason, Nashville, Tennessee

Mary Massie, Forest, Virginia

Maggie McAdams, Harrodsburg, Kentucky

Barbara McClendon, Jackson, Mississippi

Marion McGee, Washington, District of Columbia

Kimberly McKinnis, Norfolk, Virginia

Hilda McSween, Fort Pierce, Florida

Amberly Meli, Tallahassee, Florida

Katy Menne, Leland, North Carolina

Cindee Millard, Waco, Texas

Tricia Miller, Athens, Georgia

Kristin Miller-Zohn, Columbus, Georgia

WE LISTENED. WE LEARNED. WE INNOVATED.

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Kate Moore, Marietta, Georgia

Nicole Moore, Canton, Georgia

Stephanie Moore, Asheville, North Carolina

Kandace Muller, Luray, Virginia

Chris Munster, Greensboro, North Carolina

Brian Murphy, Florence, Alabama

La Ruchala Murphy, Columbia, South Carolina

Mary Anna Murphy, St. Petersburg, Florida

Michael Nagy, Atlanta, Georgia

Raka Nandi, Memphis, Tennessee

Kathy Neff, Greensboro, North Carolina

Amy Nelson, Lexington, Kentucky

Laura Nemmers, Gainesville, Florida

Ginny Newell, Columbia, South Carolina

Kimberly Novak, Alpharetta, Georgia

Heather Nowak, Fultondale, Alabama

Tara O’Boyle, South Salem, NY

Jessica O’Connor, Birmingham, Alabama

Jessica Ordonez, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Lisa Ortega-Pol, San Juan Puerto Rico

Heather Otis, Marco Island, Florida

Lauren Pacheo, Greensboro, North Carolina

Yunice Patrick, Mableton, Georgia

Hannah Pennell, Pensacola, Florida

Susan Perry, Atlanta, Georgia

Robin Person, Natchez, Mississippi

Deborah Randolph, Raleigh, North Carolina

Mary Ann Redding, Boone, North Carolina

A.J. Rhodes, Arden, North Carolina

Tisha Rhodes, Montgomery, Alabama

Carolyn Rice, Clarkesville, Georgia

Jennifer Richardson, Cartersville, Georgia

Stephani Roohani, Evans, Georgia

Ashley Rust, Beech Island, South Carolina

Rachel Rydquist, St Petersburg, Florida

Mike Santrock, Hapeville, Georgia

Samantha Sauer, Jacksonville, Florida

Tory Schendel-Vyvoda, Evansville, Indiana

Tony Schnadelbach, Jackson, Mississippi

Michael Scott, Jekyll Island, Georgia

Marsha Semmel, Arlington, Virginia

Catherine Shteynberg, Knoxville, Tennessee

CSI PerfectFit ™ and Transporter* systems are changing the way collections are organized, stored and moved.

Alan Shuptrine, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee

Christy Sinksen, Athens, Georgia

John Slemp, Tucker, Georgia

Annabelle Smith, Little Rock, Arkansas

Laura Smith, Huntsville, Alabama

Linda Smith, Columbia, South Carolina

Sarah Soleim, Wake Forest, North Carolina

Richard Spilman, Helena, Arkansas

Karen Sutton, Charlotte, North Carolina

Dorothy Svgdik, Cordova, Tennessee

Alice Taylor-Colbert, Greenwood, South Carolina

Kimberly Terbush, Greensboro, North Carolina

Sarah Tignor, Spartanburg, South Carolina

Courtney Toelle, St Petersburg, Florida

David Towry, Huntsville, Alabama

Deborah Van Horn, Lake Buena Vista, Florida

Maria Vann, Raleigh, North Carolina

Holly Wait, Columbus, Georgia

Heather Waldroup, Boone, North Carolina

Celia Walker, Nashville, Tennessee

John Wetenhall, Washington, District of Columbia

Liberty Wharton, Daytona Beach, Florida

Harvee White, Canton, Georgia

Jason Wiese, New Orleans, Louisiana

Crystal Wimer, Morgantown, West Virginia

Jennifer Wisniewski, Maumelle, Arkansas

John Woods, South Windsor, Connecticut

BENEFACTOR ($75)

Felicia Abrams, Williamsburg, Virginia

George Bassi, Laurel Mississippi

Margaret Benjamin, Greensboro, North Carolina

Jamie Credle, Savannah, Georgia

Patrick Daily, Hickory, North Carolina

Jennifer Foster, Lexington, Kentucky

La Ruchala Murphy, Columbia, South Carolina

LeRoy Pettyjohn, Memphis, Tennessee

James Quint, Hammondsport, New York

Robin Reed, Fort Monroe, Virginia

Michelle Schulte, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Sgt. Gary Spencer, Raleigh, North Carolina

Auntaneshia Staveloz, Silver Spring, Maryland

John White Jr., Marietta, Georgia

Joshua Whitfield, Warner Robins, Georgia

RETIRED ($25)

Felton Eaddy, Fork, South Carolina

Lee Gabrielle, W Palm Beach, Florida

Sue Hiott, Central, South Carolina

Joyce Ice, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Martha Jackson, Raleigh, North Carolina

Mary Kay Klein, St. Petersburg, Florida

Vicky Kruckeberg, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Annelies Mondi, Athens, Georgia

Jeanne Niccolls, Round Hill, Virginia

Douglas Noble, Gainesville, Florida

Carl Nold, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

William Paul, Jr., Athens Georgia

Georgia Pribanic, Jacksonville, Florida

Amy Pruitt, China Grove, North Carolina

James Shepp, Winter Park, Florida

Ida Tomlin, Meridian, Mississippi

TCI is always an advocate for the needs and requirements of museum collections care. Our goal is to form relationships with our clients and their collections in order to provide safe and affordable services. Combining professional knowledge of museum standards and best practices in fine art packing, shipping, and installation, the TCI team is your single point of contact for “shipping made simple.”

INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS

(Category 1: $50 )

21c Museum Hotel Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky

Altama Museum, Vidalia, Georgia

Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, Florida

Arkansas National Guard Museum, North Little Rock, Arkansas

Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia, Dalton, Georgia

Berkeley County Museum, Moncks Corner, South Carolina

C. Williams Rush Museum of African-American Arts & Culture, Kingstree, South Carolina

Caldwell Heritage Museum, Lenoir, North Carolina

Calico Rock Community Foundation, Calico Rock, Arkansas

Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, North Carolina

Carnegie Center for Art and History, New Albany, Indiana

Carter-Coile Country Doctors Museum, Winterville, Georgia

Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina

Clemson University’s Bob Campbell Geology Museum, Clemson, South Carolina

Creative Liberties Artist Studios & Galleries, Sarasota, Florida

Daura Gallery - University of Lynchburg, Lynchburg, Virginia

Doris Ulmann Galleries and Berea College Art Collection, Berea, Kentucky

Drayton Hall, Charleston, South Carolina

Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin, Florida

Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia

Finger Lakes Boating Museum, Hammondsport, New York

Florida CraftArt, St. Petersburg, Florida

Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Friends of Cassidy Park Museums, Bogalusa, Louisiana

Funk Heritage Center of Reinhardt University, Waleska, Georgia

Gaston County Museum of Art & History, Dallas, North Carolina

Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina

Historic Augusta, Inc., Augusta, Georgia

Historic Cane Hill, Inc., Cane Hill, Arkansas

Historic Dumfries Virginia & The Weems-Botts Museum, Dumfries, Virginia

HistoryMiami, Miami, Florida

International Arts Center, Troy, Alabama

International Towing & Recovery Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee

KMAC Museum, Louisville, Kentucky

Kentucky Native American Heritage Museum, Inc, Corbin, Kentucky

Lam Museum of Anthropology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Liberty County Historical Society, Hinesville, Georgia

Louisiana State University Textile & Costume Museum, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida

Maier Museum of Art, Randolph College, Lynchburg, Virginia

Mandarin Museum & Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida

Marine Corps Museum Parris Island, Parris Island, South Carolina

Stop by and say howdy to Pamela if you are attending the SEMC Conference. If not, you can give her a hollar at (817) 541-9478 or pmoore@displaysfas.com.

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Maritime Museum Louisiana, Madisonville, Louisiana

Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum, Inc., Meridian, Mississippi

Museum of Design Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia

Museum of Durham History, Durham, North Carolina

Northeast Document Conservation Center, Andover, Massachusetts

Oglethorpe University Museum of Art (OUMA), Atlanta, Georgia

Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi, Mississippi

Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, Brookneal, Virginia

Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Posada Art Foundation, San Francisco, California

Roots 101

SC Confederate Relic Room & Museum, Columbia, South Carolina

Spotsylvania County Museum, Fredericksburg, Virginia

SQT Museum, Carrollton, Georgia

Swannanoa Valley Museum, Black Mountain, North Carolina

Tennessee River Museum, Savannah, Tennessee

The Museum, Greenwood, South Carolina

The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida

The Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture, Knoxville, Tennessee

The Guntersville Museum, Guntersville, Alabama

The Parthenon, Nashville, Tennessee

The Ralph Foster Museum, Point Lookout, Missouri

Union County Heritage Museum, New Albany, Mississippi

Virginia Museum of Transportation, Roanoke, Virginia

Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia

Waterworks Visual Arts Center, Salisbury, North Carolina

Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, Kentucky

(Category 2: $150 )

A.E. Backus Museum & Gallery, Fort Pierce, Florida

Adsmore Museum, Princeton, Kentucky

Aiken County Historical Museum, Aiken, South Carolina

Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Tuscumbia, Alabama

NATIONAL EXPERTS IN FINE ART SERVICES SINCE 1995

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Anderson County Museum, Anderson, South Carolina

Andrew Low House Museum, Savannah, Georgia

Appalachian State University Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Boone, North Carolina

Arkansas Air and Military Museum, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Arlington Historic House, Birmingham, Alabama

Art Museum of the University of Memphis (AMUM), Memphis, Tennessee

Attleboro Area Industrial Museum, Attleboro, Massachusetts

Bartow History Museum, Cartersville, Georgia

Beaches Museum, Jacksonville Beach, Florida

Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, Georgia

Calhoun County Museum, St. Matthews, South Carolina

Carnegie Visual Arts Center, Decatur, Alabama

Charlotte Museum of History, Charlotte, North Carolina

Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home, Rome, Georgia

Clemson Area African American Museum, Clemson, South Carolina

Computer Museum of America, Roswell, Georgia

Dade Heritage Trust, Miami, Florida

East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville, Tennessee

Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, Fort Smith, Arkansas

Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia

Hilliard Art Museum University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana

Historic Clayborn Temple, Memphis, Tennessee

Historic Natchez Foundation, Natchez, Mississippi

Historic Paris Bourbon County Hopewell Museum, Paris, Kentucky

Historic Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Historical Foundation of Hillsborough and Orange County/Orange County Historical Museum, Hillsborough, North Carolina

Historical Society of Western Virginia, Roanoke, Virginia

Horry County Museum, Conway, South Carolina

International Museum of the Horse, Lexington, Kentucky

Iredell Museums, Statesville, North Carolina

Kentucky Department of Parks, Frankfort, Kentucky

Loudoun Museum, Leesburg, Virginia

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Louisville Water Tower / Louisville Water, Louisville, Kentucky

Marietta Museum of History, Marietta, Georgia

Matheson History Museum, Gainesville, Florida

Memorial Hall Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana

Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, Florida

Morris Center for Lowcountry Heritage, Ridgeland, South Carolina

Mosaic Templars Cultural, Little Rock, Arkansas

Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind, Louisville, Kentucky

Museum of the Mississippi Delta, Greenwood, Mississippi

Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester, Virginia

Myriad Training and Consulting, Gainesville, Florida

Northeast Georgia History Center, Gainesville, Georgia

Opelousas Museum and Interpretive Center, Opelousas, Louisiana

Pinellas County Historical Society/Heritage Village, Largo, Florida

President James K. Polk State Historic Site/NC Dept of Natural & Cultural Resources, Pineville, North Carolina

River Discovery Center, Paducah, Kentucky

Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking, Atlanta, Georgia

Salem Museum & Historical Society, Salem, Virginia

Savannah River Site Museum, Aiken, South Carolina

SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film, Atlanta, Georgia

South Carolina Military Museum, Columbia, South Carolina

South Union Shaker Village, Auburn, Kentucky

Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, Alabama

Spalding County Our Legacy Museum, Griffin, Georgia

Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, Indiana

Tampa Baseball Museum at the Al Lopez House, Tampa, Florida

The Mitford Museum, Hudson, North Carolina

Thomas County Historical Society, Thomasville, Georgia

Thronateeska Heritage Foundation, Inc., Albany, Georgia

Tryon Palace, New Bern, North Carolina

University of Richmond Museums, Richmond, Virginia

(Category 3: $250 )

Albany Museum of Art, Albany, Georgia

Augusta University, Augusta, Georgia

Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

City of Raleigh - Historic Resources & Museum Program, Raleigh, North Carolina

DeKalb History Center, Decatur, Georgia

Department of Historic Museums, Georgia College, Milledgeville, Georgia

Earl Scruggs Center, Shelby, North Carolina

Edisto Island Open Land Trust, Edisto Island, South Carolina

Gadsden Arts Center & Museum, Quincy, Florida

Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh, North Carolina

Henry B. Plant Museum, Tampa, Florida

Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina

Historic Oakland Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia

International African American Museum, Charleston, South Carolina

Knox Heritage & Historic Westwood, Knoxville, Tennessee

Liberty Hall Historic Site, Frankfort, Kentucky

Magnolia Mound Plantation, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, Georgia

Middleton Place Foundation, Charleston, South Carolina

Museum Center at 5ive Points, Cleveland, Tennessee

North Carolina American Indian Heritage Commission, Raleigh, North Carolina

Old State House Museum, Little Rock, Arkansas

Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia

Sumter County Museum, Sumter, South Carolina

Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site (National Park Service), Tuskegee Institute, Alabama

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, Virginia

Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, Mississippi

Weatherspoon Art Museum UNCG, Greensboro, North Carolina

West Baton Rouge Museum, Port Allen, Louisiana

Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina

Windgate Museum of Art at Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas

Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, Alabama

(Category 4: $350 )

Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium, Birmingham, Alabama www.haizlipstudio.com

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Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, Louisiana

Anniston Museum of Natural History, Anniston, Alabama

Augusta Museum of History, Augusta, Georgia

Baton Rouge Gallery - Center for Contemporary Art, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Biblical History Center, LaGrange, Georgia

Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Blowing Rock, North Carolina

Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta, Georgia

Children’s Hands on Museum, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Cook Museum of Natural Science, Decatur, Alabama

David J. Sencer CDC Museum, Atlanta, Georgia

FSU Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, Florida

Folk Pottery Museums of NE GA, Sautee Nacoochee Cultural Center, Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia

FSU Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, Florida

Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, South Carolina

Hermann-Grima & Gallier Historic Houses, New Orleans, Louisiana

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Hidden River Cave & the American Cave Museum, Horse Cave, Kentucky

High Point Museum, High Point, North Carolina

Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

History Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

International Civil Rights Center & Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina

Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, Mississippi

Leepa-Rattner Museum, Tarpon Springs, Florida

Longwood Center for the Visual Arts, Farmville, Virginia

Louisiana State University Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum, Jackson, Mississippi

Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum, Jekyll Island, Georgia

Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce , Puerto Rico

Museum of Art – DeLand, DeLand, Florida

Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, North Miami, Florida

Ralph Earl Portraits, sold $42,000

Southern chest, sold $99,000

George Washington Signed Book, sold $138,000

7 ct. Dia. Ring , sold $168,000

Chinese Jade, sold $40,960

Beauford Delaney Sold $348,000

William Edmondson Sold $540,000

Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, New Orleans, Louisiana

Newcomb Art Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana

Office of Historic Alexandria, Alexandria, Virginia

Orange County Regional History Center, Orlando, Florida

Rogers Historical Museum, Rogers, Arkansas

Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, Springdale, Arkansas

Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, Fort Myers, Florida

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Torggler Fine Arts Center, Newport News, Virginia

Tubman Museum, Macon, Georgia

Upcountry History Museum- Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina

Virginia Beach History Museums, Virginia Beach, Virginia

West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, Charleston, West Virginia

(Category 5: $450 )

Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts/ AEIVA, Birmingham, Alabama

Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama

Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, North Carolina

Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, North Carolina

Belle Meade Historic Site & Winery, Nashville, Tennessee

Billy Graham Library, Charlotte, North Carolina

Birthplace of Country Music Museum, Bristol, Tennessee

Cape Fear Museum, Wilmington, North Carolina

Catawba Science Center, Hickory, North Carolina

Coastal Georgia Historical Society, St. Simons Island, Georgia

Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

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Customs House Museum and Cultural Center, Clarksville, Tennessee

Discovery Park of America, Inc., Union City, Tennessee

Florence County Museum, Florence, South Carolina

Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Historic Arkansas Museum, Little Rock, Arkansas

Historic Columbia, Columbia, South Carolina

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Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee

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We help our clients solve complex issues involving art, antiquities, museum governance, historic landscapes, and indigenous heritage.

4 Facts Everyone Should Know

Americans gave $24.67 billion to arts institutions in 2022

Giving to the arts is one of the few areas that saw a real dollar last year: a growth of 2.9%

In the last 3 years (2020 2022), giving to the arts has grown by 21%, from $19.47 million in pandemic year 2020 to $24.67 million in 2022

At Alexander Haas, we start with today’s real world facts to help create a brighter future.

404.525.7575

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Customized strategies for: Comprehensive, Capital, Endowment, Acquisition Campaigns, Campaign Strategy Studies, Advancement Assessments, Annual Fund, Major Gifts, Training for Curators, Volunteers and Development Staff

Data Source: Giving USA 2023, published by the Giving USA Foundation

Image credit: Alexander Haas is proud to provide counsel to The Columbus Museum (GA) for the Reimagining The Columbus Museum campaign. The expanded Museum, featuring a new Children ’s Gallery and Garden, opens its doors in 2024.

Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum, Jupiter, Florida

Kentucky Derby Museum, Louisville, Kentucky

Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee

Louisiana Art & Science Museum, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, Knoxville TN

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee

Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience, Meridian, Mississippi

Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi

Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi

Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, Jackson, MS

Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama

MOCA Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama

Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia

Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park, Florida

MoSH (Museum of Science and History) - Pink Palace, Memphis, Tennessee

Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, Virginia

Museum of Arts & Sciences, Daytona Beach, Florida

Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Cherokee, North Carolina

National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, Virginia

National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Pooler, Georgia

National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Louisville, Kentucky

National Sporting Library & Museum, Middleburg, Virginia

North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina

Oak Alley Foundation, Vacherie, Louisiana

Orlando Museum of Art, Inc, Orlando, Florida

Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida

Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida

South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, South Carolina

Tampa Bay History Center, Tampa, Florida

Tampa Museum of Art, Inc., Tampa, Florida

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Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia

Tellus Science Museum, Cartersville, Georgia

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The Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee

The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky

The Florida Holocaust Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida

The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia

The Wolfsonian – FIU, Miami Beach, Florida

University of Alabama Museums, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, Florida

William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, Atlanta, Georgia

(Category 6: $550 )

Andrew Jackson Foundation, Nashville, Tennessee

Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock, Arkansas

Arkansas State Parks, Little Rock, Arkansas

Art Bridges, Bentonville, Arkansas

Artis – Naples, The Baker Museum, Naples, Florida

Atlanta History Center, Atlanta Georgia

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama

Booth Western Art Museum, Carterville, Georgia

Cheekwood, Nashville, Tennessee

Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Nashville, Tennessee

Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida

Frist Art Museum, Nashville, Tennessee

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia

Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, Louisiana

Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort, Kentucky

Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana

Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina

National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, Georgia

National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee

New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana

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Remembering and Celebrating GRAIG SHAAK

Long-time SEMC member and transformational SEMC leader, Graig Shaak passed away in June 2023. Graig spent a long and successful career as Associate Director at the Florida Museum of Natural History (FMNH). As a testament to his professional accomplishments and important role among the FMNH staff, The Graig D. Shaak Endowment was established in 2007 in his honor to support professional development and staff enrichment activities for museum personnel. Graig was a past President of SEMC (2003–2005), a driving force behind the creation of the SEMC endowment and will be remembered by so many for his passion for museums, camaraderie, and lively, fun spirit!

I only had the opportunity to “meet” Graig over email, but we had several spirited interchanges over the past few years about how to preserve SEMC history and celebrate and engage all those who spent long, successful careers dedicated to the betterment of the museum field and growth of our beloved professional organization. In my final interchange with him where we were considering a Zoom meet-up for SEMC “long-timers” his response was,

“I would be interested in a Zoom meeting. A requirement of all participants would be a glass of good wine beside the computer.”

Graig and Robin Person.

This is a project that I am dedicated to making a reality — I only wish I had more time with Graig to capture his memories.

For those who may not have known him personally, we asked several of his SEMC friends to share a few memories about Graig’s leadership and important legacy with the Southeastern Museums Conference. As the celebration of his life clearly states, “Graig Shaak was above all things, a GOOD MAN.”

Zinnia Willits

SEMC

SEMC

Executive Director

President

2018–2020

In 2009, SEMC had a serious problem resulting from a breach of trust with a former employee. We had laid off all staff, closed our physical office, and the organization was being run by the Council. We had $40K of debt. To make things worse, the national economy was in a shambles and our member museums were struggling. It seemed like every other week a story hit the papers about malfeasance in the museum world. Former SEMC

President (2003–2005) Graig Shaak agreed to serve as interim Executive Director and offered the Florida Museum of Natural History as SEMC’s temporary home. For critical months, Graig provided his own reputation for trust and integrity that SEMC needed to weather the storm. People knew that if Graig Shaak trusted the Council, then it was going to be ok. Graig was the angel who lent us his own credibility and his institutional credibility for a critical period. We needed that help pretty badly and Graig held us up until we could walk on our own again. Graig could be tough when he needed to be and SEMC emerged from the crisis with better financial and endowment policies and hired Susan Perry soon afterwards. I’ll never forget that. Graig was always a champion for the Alderson Fund (endowment), the guy that passed the hat and the first to give — and always with a wry grin. We will all miss that smile.

Mike Hudson Executive Director, American Printing House for the Blind, Louisville Kentucky SEMC President 2012–2014

Graig and Kristen Miller Zohn.

There are so many Graig stories. As everyone knows, Graig was fond of “adult beverages” and usually after a mid-year Council meeting, he would suggest meeting in the hotel bar before going out to dinner. Once when in Norfolk, Virginia, we had just gotten our drinks and were seated in armchairs facing the door to wait for the rest of the gang when Charlton Heston walked in and went over to the bar which was about 10 feet away. I stared at him and then looked at Graig and whispered, “That’s Charlton Heston!” He frowned and said, “Who?” So, I whispered again, trying hard to enunciate without Mr. Heston overhearing. Graig said again, “Who?” When I whispered emphatically, “Moses!” He whipped his head around just as Mr. Heston walked by us with his Scotch and smiled at two dumbfounded people. The bartender confirmed he was indeed Charleton Heston and was in town appearing in a play with his wife.

At the SEMC annual meeting that same year, Robert Goulet was in town. Graig and I happened to be sitting side-by-side in the same Norfolk hotel bar when Mr. Goulet walked in and stopped. There was a bright light over the door and so he was in the spotlight. He literally stood there and posed. Graig and I looked at each other and burst into laughter.

In 1983 or 1984, Graig and I were roaming the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans, and he wanted to go into a club. I passed, so he went in by himself, and I joined up with some other colleagues. He later told me that while he was sitting at the bar, all of a sudden, the lights went up and Clint Eastwood was filmed walking into the bar. (He was in town shooting “Tightrope,” and we’d seen him several times.) While the crew was getting set up for another shot, Mr. Eastwood came over to the bar and sat down beside Graig who offered to buy him a beer. Graig said they chatted until Mr. Eastwood finished his beer and then went back to filming. “Very nice guy,” he said.

Graig was probably most famous in Council meetings for going around with his hat out and taking up Council donations for the endowment fund as he gave his report. He even took IOUs written on paper napkins or whatever writing materials were available. No matter where he was, he would take IOUs from people. Thanks to Graig, SEMC has a very healthy endowment fund.

Martha Battle Jackson Chief Curator (retired), North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites, Raleigh, North Carolina

Jekyll Island Management Institute Founder/Administrator

SEMC Council

Graig had the charisma and ability to gather different museum voices and personalities for the betterment of SEMC. He was strong enough to lead the organization through some tough times but, more importantly, did it with enthusiasm, humor, and a twinkle in his eye. Graig believed in the networking power of SEMC—he loved connecting people and museums and bringing people together. Wherever Graig was, there was the party! With that enthusiasm, also came his passion to build and grow the SEMC endowment fund. Every good cause needs a champion, and Graig was our champion for the endowment for many years. He established the path for other SEMC presidents to follow, and SEMC is the better for his leadership.

George Bassi Executive Director, Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, Mississippi

SEMC President 2011–2012

Graig loved museums and especially loved the Southeastern Museums Conference. He worked at the Florida Museum of Natural History for 35 years as a geology curator and long-time associate director and served on the SEMC Council for 23 years in virtually every leadership role possible, including Council member, Treasurer, Vice President, President, and Past President. Upon his retirement in 2007, he received SEMC’s James R. Short Award and the Florida Association of Museum’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Graig is the reason I became engaged with SEMC, and he inspired countless other colleagues to do so as well. After retiring, he continued to be involved with SEMC and jumped in to serve as interim Executive Director in 2009 during a period of uncertainty and transition following an embezzlement

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scandal. During that time, the Florida Museum agreed to serve as SEMC headquarters and Director Doug Jones granted Graig office space and the help of his executive assistant, Sharon Thomas. Graig and Sharon worked tirelessly with the SEMC Council to pull off the conference and keep things running, literally saving the organization from financial ruin. Graig also started the SEMC endowment and passed the hat (literally) at every Council meeting, encouraging all to invest in the organization’s sustainability. His dedication to the success of SEMC and museums everywhere deserves tribute and reminds us of the value SEMC brings to what we as museum professionals aspire to every day.

Darcie MacMahon

Associate Director, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida

SEMC President 2016–2018

I met Graig in the early 2000s, when I was SEMC’s Evaluation Chair, and he was President. I respected his calm and capable leadership during Council meetings and his passion for the endowment, and I enjoyed the hell out of partying with him at the evening events.

In 2005, he recruited me to serve as Vice President beginning the next year. Little did we know that my subsequent term as President would be such a wild ride—due to financial malfeasance by a staff person, we were forced to un-fund both of our staff positions. We desperately needed a volunteer to step in as an interim director, and because Graig had just retired as Associate Director of the Florida Museum of Natural History, I thought he might be willing and able to come to our aid. I called and jokingly asked him, “You got me into this mess, could you please help me get out of it?” He enthusiastically took on the role and did an amazing job of holding us together and keeping us in good humor as we got back on track. Later, we instituted the Past Presidents Circle, a program that asks our leaders to make an annual donation to the endowment. SEMC could not be as strong an organization as it is today without Graig’s extraordinary service. He was a truly joyous and generous person, and I miss him dearly.

Kristen Miller Zohn Curator of Collections and Exhibitions

Lauren Rogers Museum of Art Laurel, Mississippi

SEMC President 2008–2010

Graig and Robin Person.

INCLUSIVITY A Personal Journey

Mandie Creed , Founder and CEO A4A Designs, LLC

I have worked with museum technology for over 15 years and have always enjoyed visiting museums. When my son, Dylan, was born, I could not wait to share with him these places that inspire creativity, create curiosity about the world around us, and teach pivotal stories.

Unexpectedly, Dylan was born with challenges. He was diagnosed with epilepsy at birth and then with autism and ADHD in 2019. Visits to museums with him were not easy — sensory overload, too much content, loud and unexpected noises, no quiet spaces to help him calm down. The list goes on. Museums were not built for Dylan or for me anymore.

I eventually settled on taking him early in the morning because sensory-friendly days did not exist at that time. Out of my years of experience with museum technology, it was the first time I experienced museums as a caregiver for someone with a disability. Inclusion and accessibility were always discussed during meetings, but never seemed to be implemented successfully. Dylan’s autism diagnosis was a light bulb for me, and I set out to create something that would help him and others like him enjoy museums.

Access For All (A4A) was born out of a desire to help Dylan cope with his feelings and anxiety of the unknown. The A4A app helps people with autism, people who are blind or have low vision, and people who are deaf or hard of hearing navigate their surroundings. For people with autism, the A4A app uses tools that are commonly used in ABA therapy to help them interact with the world around them. We use social story videos and a color-coding system that warns visitors about excessive audio or lighting within an exhibit to demystify the unknown.

Dylan was my first test subject at the Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center (a 2.5-mile drive from the SEMC Official Host Hotel, The Galt House Hotel), and the change in his behavior was remarkable! Prior to using the A4A app, he would run through the museum without looking at or interacting with any of the exhibits. With the app, he walked through the same museum, but was stopped at each exhibit by the app, which would vibrate at a new exhibit; he would then watch a short video of how he could interact with his surroundings. Now he was engaging with the exhibits, using touchscreen interactives, trying the mechanical levers, and even

Dylan Creed at the Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center.

sitting and watching part of a show. It was phenomenal and heart-warming to watch. A cell phone, a device that many parents hate to love, pulled Dylan into the present via the app and allowed him to interact without anxiety.

Access For All is not just for people with autism. The A4A app provides audio descriptions of exhibit areas and media content for people who are blind, have low vision, or for people who prefer listening to content instead of reading. The app also supports people who are deaf or hard of hearing by providing captioning and

reinforced audio on their device (and through their hearing aids).

Seeing a museum come to life is an experience we have all seen up close. But seeing it through my son’s eyes showed me just how important inclusion is to all of us, even me. There is a whole segment of our population who is missing the joys of visiting museums because of lack of accommodation. So, let’s make inclusion a priority, and create experiences where everyone is welcome!

The Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center.

SET IN STONE Auburn Researchers Explore Art, History, and Story at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art

Charlotte Tuggle , Director of News and Media, College of Liberal Art, Auburn University

Charlotte Hendrix , Director of Communications and External Relations, The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University

“Monuments and Myths: The America of Sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French” kicked off a national tour at The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University in summer 2023, bringing the work of America’s premier Gilded Age sculptors to The Plains. Faculty and students from the College of Liberal Arts and College of Education created research-based projects to educate and engage visitors during the exhibition run at Auburn.

“Object Lab” is the museum’s ongoing hybrid gallery classroom linking Auburn’s collections and exhibitions to teaching and research across campus to develop multidisciplinary inquiry. This summer’s “Object Lab: What is a Monument?” connected faculty and students across campus to transform the space into a practicum exhibition.

Randi Evans, Manager of Public Practice and Community Partnerships for the museum, said the exhibition’s debut at Auburn presented an opportunity to draw on extensive research expertise to supplement its educational value.

Anomaly, 2023. Jordan Harmon. Students created maquettes and proposed new monuments. Harmon’s concept memorialized the life of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an anti-Nazi dissident.

Photo: Mason Williams.

During the spring semester, Auburn students across four disciplines collaborated with The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University to explore themes related to the summer exhibition, Monuments and Myths: The America of Sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French.

“This exhibition highlights the work of Saint-Gaudens and French, preeminent sculptors of the Gilded Age, and brings to the forefront questions of craftsmanship, historic memory and the role of art in public and civic life and the histories and stories we tell ourselves,” Evans said. “The exhibition attempts to both celebrate the artistry of Saint-Gaudens and French’s work while also highlighting issues of race, gender and labor, public grief and mourning, and the dominance and inheritance of Eurocentric values and aesthetics. To tackle these issues, we wanted to use a multidisciplinary approach.”

The work of Saint-Gaudens and French reflected America’s national identity between the Civil War and Great Depression, including Saint-Gaudens’s “Diana” at Madison Square Garden and French’s “Seated Abraham Lincoln” at the Lincoln Memorial. Beyond the monuments’ expert craftsmanship, stories of how the country negotiated its history and meaning are built into the artwork.

Associate Professor of History Elijah Gaddis studies the South’s spatial, material and cultural histories. His expertise includes the interplay of physical objects and complicated histories. At “Monuments and Myths,” he led his class in creating short, critical essays about monuments in Alabama.

“A lot of times, when we focus on monuments and especially all these bad monuments, there’s so much on origins,” Gaddis said. “If you’re opposed to monuments, say a Lost Cause monument, you’re often thinking about the moment that was put up and all the white supremacist ideology that gets tied to it, but then we don’t think about the accretion of meaning that goes on for generations and generations. These are living things we are interacting with and still have that meaning being put onto them.”

Monuments represent a narrative by creating dedicated space and conveying the importance of a figure, site,

museum planning. exhibit design.

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or ideology, often privileging one narrative over several complex experiences. Associate Professor of English Rose McLarney encouraged students to explore those themes through poetry, which blended their personal experience and collective causes around monuments.

“Even students who were writing about personal narratives were often talking about how the monuments made them feel,” McLarney said. “That was revealing to me, that maybe even before we were having a lot of public discourse about what these monuments in public spaces are doing to people, that we were aware of it at some level.” Beyond the sculptures on view, students also wrote about monuments in their communities.

Associate Professor of Art Kristen Tordella-Williams brought a sculpture class to the exhibition, where they discussed the controversy around monuments, the role art plays in national identity, and who is memorialized in a monument and why.

To fill in the gaps of history through the lens of monuments, Tordella-Williams’ students researched, proposed, and created maquettes celebrating marginalized communities and spaces.

“I wanted my students to be aware of how monuments can influence public narrative and community and to be conscious of that when they were proposing, creating one,” Tordella-Williams said. “It is partly to imagine what goes into producing a large-scale, monumentalsized sculpture. It is really good professional practice for them. It is also to get them confident and say, ‘your ideas are totally valid and really interesting.’”

Assistant Professor of Social Science Education Jesús Tirado tasked his class with creating an educational guide for upper-level elementary, middle, and high school students who visit the exhibit. The exercises in the guide encourage students to reflect and engage with the monuments by French and Saint-Gaudens and imagine monuments for the future.

Tirado said the guide is designed to engage students at the intersection of art, history, and meaning. “The monuments you find are also going to be the names you

Associate professor Kristen Tordella-Williams and her students met with Randi Evans, Manager of Public Practice and Community Partnerships to discuss objects from Auburn’s art collection as a part of their practicum for “Monuments and Myths.” Photo: Mason Williams.

find in our textbook,” Tirado said. “We spent a lot of time talking about going beyond what’s in the textbook, diving into primary sources, how do you structure that, how you get students to think about things, how do you then get them to inquire about the world around them.”

Following its stay at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, “Monuments and Myths” continues to tour around the country at venues including the Frist Art Museum in Nashville and the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

The accompanying education guide and scholarly projects by Auburn faculty and students enhance the visitor experience through research-based reflection on the importance of art, history, and story. Exhibitions change each semester, creating new avenues for research and active learning. The university art collection has more than 3,000 objects online at jcsm.

auburn.edu. Auburn faculty interested in partnering with the museum may contact Chris Molinski, director of education, engagement and learning, to discuss Object Lab.

Monuments and Myths: The America of Sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts, Chesterwood, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Saint-Gaudens Memorial in partnership with SaintGaudens National Historic Park. Major support for the accompanying publication has been provided by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Support for the exhibition and the publication has been provided by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Podcast link: https://jcsm.auburn.edu/the-jule -museum-podcast-episode-17-monuments/

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The SEMC Leadership Institute Returns in April 2024

When the Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) launched its inaugural Leadership Institute in November 2020 I felt exceedingly proud. Proud of the brave, motivated, and forward-thinking cohort who took a chance on this pilot program and trusted SEMC with important leadership training; proud to have an impressive, genuine, kind, and professional team of instructors (you really couldn’t ask for better,) proud to partner with the Association of African American Museums (AAAM) to pilot this new program focused on leadership training for staff of small and mid-sized institutions; and overwhelmingly proud of the many individuals who worked tirelessly to make the program happen. Even with a virtual pivot due to COVID-19, the Institute was a great success due to years of purposeful, planning, talented and dynamic faculty, generous and encouraging supporters and partners, and a dynamic cohort.

Institute faculty and SEMC staff and Council were encouraged to build on this positive momentum and in 2022 launched the Institute in person in partnership with the Association of African American Museums and continued support from the National Museum of African American History and Culture-Office of Strategic Partnerships. The program held at the Duke Mansion in Charlotte, North Carolina, offered sixteen mid-career museum professionals access to

Cohort 2022.

a curriculum and faculty committed to empathetic, community-focused leadership for today’s changing world.

Once again, I find myself feeling proud and excited to announce that SEMC will offer the Leadership Institute again next year. The 2024 Leadership Institute: Leading for Today’s Challenges will be held at The Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky from April 7-12, 2024. We are pleased to renew the partnership with AAAM and bring back Robert Bull, Dr. Laura Morgan Roberts, and Marsha Semmel as the esteemed faculty.

About the Leadership Institute

This professional program focuses on developing inclusive future museum leaders who:

• Can identify and build on their existing personal strengths.

• Assess how to maximize these strengths internally in an organization and externally as part of a community.

• Identify methods to capitalize on their strengths and their environment to move an institution forward.

The Leadership Institute aims to cultivate a diverse cohort of museum professionals seeking a program to develop skills that will assist and empower them to be

inclusive, forward-thinking leaders of departments, organizations and boards and encourage purposeful connection and partnerships with the communities their organizations serve.

Institute sessions offer peer-to-peer learning and reflection as well as high-quality instruction and guidance from accomplished faculty in six areas:

• Reflecting Your Best Self

• Building Inclusive Cultures

• Strategic Communication and Thinking

• Leadership Challenges

• Adaptive Leadership

• Creating Your Best Self as an Organization (Boards, Governance, Fundraising)

A cohort of no more than twenty ensures a reflective, supportive Leadership experience with opportunities

to look both inward and outward, develop a strong network and inclusive leadership skills, and identify each individual’s best self in the process. Tuition for the 2024 Institute is $1,500 for SEMC and AAAM members and $1,600 for non-members. The application portal for the 2024 Leadership Institute is now open at: https://www.semcdirect.net/Leadership-Institute

Consider the opportunity, the possibility, the growth! If you have questions, please reach out. I would be happy to talk through the Leadership Institute experience and/ or connect you with our growing cohort of Institute alums.

Zinnia Willits SEMC Executive Director Leadership Institute Administrator zwillits@semcdirect.net

Class of 2020.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Quotes from Leadership Institute Graduates

My organization will benefit from the communication skills I learned as well as the tactics for addressing change and handling conflict. I also look forward to helping evolve our board into a more engaged and helpful part of our organization.

My idea of what makes a good leader has changed. I think of a good leader less as a cold, suit stereotype and more as a personable, relatable, and kind person. I would like to both be that person for myself, for others, and to bring that perspective to the work I do.

I feel more empowered to be my authentic self at work. I think the power of “yet” reframed some of my ideas about what is possible for someone in a leadership position and encouraged me to make leadership positions my own rather than try to fit a prescribed mold.

The South’s Most Elusive Artist Walter Inglis Anderson

elusive: something unreachable, that evades grasp, a concept that is hard to define or even identify.

The Walter Anderson Museum of Art (WAMA) is preparing to launch The South’s Most Elusive Artist: Walter Inglis Anderson, a traveling exhibition featuring 40 original works by the American artist, naturalist, and adventurer, Walter Inglis Anderson (1903–1965).

In this exhibition, visitors will experience jewel-toned watercolors, deftly sketched landscapes, abstractions and explorations of form, and examples of ceramics adorned with coastal birds and animals. The exhibition introduces the life of Walter Anderson through his artwork, imbued with the artist’s philosophies and his experiences exploring the Southern landscape over five decades.

In celebration of the Museum’s 30th Anniversary, a larger version of The South’s Most Elusive Artist was exhibited at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in 2021. This exhibition demonstrated the artist’s awareness of form, use of color, and manipulation of space and shapes. Visitors of all artistic skills were enabled to understand and appreciate Walter Anderson’s use of artistic elements. This exhibition inspired the development of a smaller adaptation ideal for traveling and reaching wider audiences.

The South’s Most Elusive Artist is the product of several years of research, interviews with Anderson family members, and conversations with the public about the story of Walter Anderson. Thousands of people from

“I live and have my being in a world of space and forms which have color and shape. Consciousness of this means being alive.”

— Walter Inglis Anderson

Meghan Lyman , Curatorial Assistant, Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, Mississippi

Walter Inglis Anderson, Pelicans on North Key, c. 1955 (detail). Watercolor on Paper. Gift of the Friends of Walter Anderson. WAMA Permanent Collection.

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Walter Inglis Anderson, Palmettos and Pines, c. 1955, Watercolor on Paper. Gift of the Friends of Walter Anderson. WAMA Permanent Collection

across the globe make a kind of “pilgrimage” to the Walter Anderson Museum of Art on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi to absorb the vision of Anderson and his interpretation of the region’s natural beauty. Guests are drawn by the universality of the artist’s imagery and the deftness of his artistic skill, communicating the rich environment of the Coast as it was viewed and lived by the artist. This traveling exhibition brings the story of Walter Anderson closer for those that may not be able to trek so far from home.

Mattie Codling, Deputy Director, and Chief Curator speaks on behalf of the exhibition and the inspiration behind its development:

We compiled this exhibition with the hope of sharing Anderson’s vision of the world with the greater Southeastern region. Although he is known locally to great acclaim, Anderson’s art continues to be an elusive presence outside the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. We felt that the philosophies of the artist and his desired connection to nature was one that needed to be shared beyond our walls. He writes, “In order to realize the beauty of humanity, we must first realize the beauty of nature.” With this ideal in mind, we hope that visitors to the exhibition are refreshed in their appreciation of their natural environment and what it communicates about our own humanity.

“Walter Anderson was a wholly unique and prodigious creator who does not fit neatly into any one category of art,” said Julian Rankin, Executive Director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. “He was as talented in watercolor as he was in printmaking, as deft an illustrator as he was a muralist.”

“The realization of form and space is through feeling. When I feel the beauty of a flower on the trunk of a tree, I am at one inducted into a world of three dimensions and have a sense of form which is opposite of artificial forms and conventions.”

— Walter Inglis Anderson

The South’s Most Elusive Artist: Walter Inglis Anderson is projected to travel over two years with the opportunity for an extension due to demand. The 40 works of

original art are drawn from the Walter Anderson Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection and that of the estate of Walter Anderson. The Michelson Museum of Art (Marshall, TX) will be the first to host the South’s Most Elusive Artist and it will be available for viewing in September and October 2023.

For more information and booking details contact Meghan Lyman at meghan@walterandersonmuseum. org or visit www.walterandersonmuseum.org/ smeatravelingexhibition

About the Walter Anderson Museum

WAMA opened in 1991 in historic Ocean Springs, MS, and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. WAMA’s mission is to empower lifelong curiosity and connection to the natural world through the art of Walter Anderson and kindred artists. WAMA is dedicated to the celebration of the works of Walter Inglis Anderson (1903–1965), American master; and to his brothers, Peter Anderson (1901–1984), master potter and founder of Shearwater Pottery; and James McConnell Anderson (1907–1998), noted painter and ceramist. Learn more at www.walterandersonmuseum.org.

About Walter Inglis Anderson

Walter Inglis Anderson (1903–1965) is lovingly referred to as the “South’s most elusive artist” and is one of the most compelling and singular American creators of the 20th century. During his lifetime, Anderson was private, sometimes secretive, seeking the solitude found in the barrier island wilderness just beyond the Mississippi Sound. Significantly, Walter Anderson left an almost complete record of himself as an artist, encapsulated within his coastal cottage in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Artworks from his earliest childhood years through the last days of his life have been recorded in minute detail. With the study of each quick drawing or developed painting, viewers discover a piece of the artist, a man who struggled against the tides of human frailty and ultimately found transcendence in nature.

Register Now for SEMC 2023!

November 13-15, 2023, Louisville, Kentucky

Mark your calendars for the 2023 SEMC Annual Meeting which will be held at the newly renovated Galt House Hotel, Louisville’s only waterfront hotel and the largest meeting and convention hotel in the Southeast with 130,000 square feet of meeting and event space to meet SEMC’s needs.

About the Galt House Hotel

In the early 1800s, the original Galt House was a residence owned by Dr. W.C. Galt on Louisville’s waterfront. In 1835, a 60-room hotel was opened as the Galt House Hotel across the street from the residence. Over half a century later, in 1972, Galt House Hotel was reestablished as part of Louisville’s Riverfront Urban Renewal Project and continued to expand with the creation of the East Tower in 1984. The hotel was renovated between 2019 and 2022 and is located in the heart of downtown, just minutes from many Louisville attractions, including the KFC Yum! Center, Fourth Street Live!, Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, Actors Theatre, the Muhammad Ali Center, and Whiskey and Museum Rows — some of which are connected to the Galt House Hotel by pedway. In addition to professional sessions and workshops, luncheons and the 2023 Expo Hall, your stay at the Galt House will be accompanied by views of the Ohio River, and four bars and restaurants including Walker’s Exchange, a Kentucky Brasserie; Swizzle Dinner & Drinks, a social experience with swirling rooms, perched 25 floors above Louisville; and two original founding members of the

Urban Bourbon Trail, Jockey Silks Bourbon Bar and Down One Bourbon Bar.

Explore Louisville’s History

Named for King Louis XVI of France in appreciation for his assistance during the Revolutionary War, Louisville was founded by George Rogers Clark in 1778. While its initial growth was slow, the advent of the steamboat in the early 1800s sparked booming industrial development, and by 1830 Louisville had secured its place as the largest city in Kentucky. During the Civil War, Louisville was an important Union base of operations and a major military supply center. Owing to its strategic location at the Falls of the Ohio River, Louisville was a major commercial center. River transportation was supplemented by the construction of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, which was chartered in 1850 and operated more than 1,800 miles of line in the state by 1920. Joseph E. Seagram and Sons opened the world’s largest distillery in Louisville following the repeal of prohibition. Thanks to companies such as Dupont, the city became the world’s largest producer of synthetic rubber during World War II.

Louisville was also a city of firsts. In the reform-minded progressive era of the 1880s, the city was the first in the nation to introduce the secret ballot, significantly reducing vote fraud. It was the first city in Kentucky to adopt zoning and planning measures to control and shape urban growth. Home to the first bridge designed

Louisville, Kentucky.

exclusively for motor vehicles to cross the Ohio River, Louisville was also the birthplace of Mary Millicent Miller, the first woman in the United States to receive a steamboat master’s license. The city has been home to men and women who changed the face of American history including President Zachary Taylor and two U.S. Supreme Court Justices. John James Audubon was a local shopkeeper in the early years of his career, drawing birds in his spare time. Second Lt. F. Scott Fitzgerald, stationed at Camp Zachary Taylor during World War I, was a frequent presence at the bar in the famous Seelbach Hotel, immortalized in the novel The Great Gatsby and Muhammad Ali, perhaps the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, was born in Louisville and won six Golden Glove tournaments in Kentucky.

Louisville would not be the creative, innovative, passionate city that it is without its Black community. For so many things that make Louisville unique- from Bourbon to horse racing, to food traditions, and even the Greatest himself, Muhammad Ali- countless people of color have contributed their gifts to build the city’s vibrant culture. Louisville welcomes you to discover Bourbon City’s Black Heritage

Getting to Louisville

Within a day’s drive of over half the U.S. population and served by all major airline carriers, Louisville is an affordable destination and only a quick trip away!

Flying: Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF)

Just 10 minutes from downtown, Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport is a low-fare airport that draws travelers from across the beautiful state of Kentucky and Southern Indiana region. The airport offers nonstop service to more than 30 destinations, including 19 of the region’s top 20 domestic markets. With just one stop, travelers from across the region can reach more than 460 destinations in the U.S. and worldwide. The airport accommodated more than 4.2 million passengers in 2019.

Arrive early — stay late — experience a unique part of the SEMC region in 2023. Learn more and register HERE!

The Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, Louisville, Kentucky.

MUSEUM LOGISTICS

CLIMATE STORAGE

DOMESTIC & INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION CUSTOMS BROKERAGE

ANNOUNCING OUR NEW CHARLOTTE HQ. 26,000 SQUARE FEET WITH CLIMATE STORAGE, VIEWING ROOM AND FULLY DEMISED CRATE PRODUCTION FACILITY

MOVING ART FORWARD SINCE 1989

INQUIRIES: INFO @ ATELIER 4 .COM

NEW YORK MIAMI LOS ANGELES CHARLOTTE

I MPORTANT DATES

The deadline for the Fall edition of Inside SEMC is November 17, 2023. To submit information for the newsletter, please contact Zinnia Willits (zwillits@semcdirect.net) or Carla Phillips (cphillips@semcdirect.net).

SEMC

Inside SEMC Fall 2023 submissions deadline

State

Louisiana Association of Museums

Florida Association of Museums

South Carolina Federation of Museums

Regional

Mountain Plains Museum Association

Western Museums Association

Mid-Atlantic Museum Association

New England Museum Association

Southeastern Museums Conference

National

American Association for State and Local History

International Conference on Museums and Galleries

International Conference of Indigenous Archives,  Libraries, and Museums

International Conference on Applied Museum Studies

and Museum Management

National Association for Interpretation

November 17

September 10-12, New Orleans, LA

September 17-20, Tampa, FL

September 20-22, Lexington, SC

September 27-30, Corpus Christi, TX

October 5-8, Pasadena, CA

October 10-12, Wilmington, DE

November 8-10, Portland, ME

November 13-15, 2023, Louisville, KY

September 6-9, Boise, ID

October 7-8, New York, New York

October 24-26, Oklahoma City, OK

November 1-2, San Fracisco, CA

November 7-11, Little Rock, AR

job forum get social

SEMC Job Forum offers employers and job seekers the ability to search and post jobs on SEMC’s website. SEMC Job Postings are now self-serve and free for members. For non-members, there is a flat fee of $20 each job description, regardless of the word count. SEMC Member Institutions may now post jobs for free on the SEMC jobs page at www.semcdirect.net/listing. Please Note: ALL SEMC job board postings must include the following in accordance with administrative best practices: job title; location; description of the position and organization; and numerical salary or salary range.

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