MCN 2021 VIRTUAL: Full Schedule

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: Getty Foundation

Make an appointment with a program officer to discuss possibilities for funding your digital project. Representatives from several foundations are available to consult during the conference.

Getty Foundation

Schedule a conversation with Associate Director Anne Helmreich via Calendly.

Brief description of the foundation and the digital projects they fund:

The Getty Foundation fulfills the philanthropic mission of the Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the greater understanding and preservation of the visual arts in Los Angeles and throughout the world. Since 2013, the Getty Foundation’s Digital Art History initiative has supported both introductory and advanced training in the technical and conceptual aspects of digital practice for art historians, academics, and museum professionals. In addition, we have provided direct support for a small number of DAH projects since 2018, with a focus on spatial analysis (historical GIS, digital mapping, and 3D modeling of built cultural heritage) and image analysis (machine vision, pattern recognition, and visual search). Prior to launching the DAH initiative, the Foundation organized the Online Scholarly Cataloguing Initiative (OSCI), which from 2009 to 2015 supported nine museums piloting the transition of the scholarly museum collection catalogue to online platforms. The Foundation is not currently accepting new proposals in the Digital Art History initiative, as we are in the early stages of a strategic analysis of the initiative’s goals. We invite conversations with colleagues that can help us assess the state of the field, particularly in light of the digital turn experienced across the museum sector as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, so that we can understand better the current needs and future directions. We plan to relaunch the DAH initiative in spring 2022.

Thursday October 7, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: Knight Foundation

Authenticity and Inclusion: We fund to accelerate trends and activity naturally occurring in each community and support artists and organizations that reflect the diversity of the communities where we work.
Development of Talent and Organizations: We seek to increase the capacity of artists and the sustainability of arts organizations.
Transformation: We invest in the use of technology to create new ways to explore and make art, to express culture, and to reach, expand and engage diverse audiences.

Thursday October 7, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? No

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: Kress Foundation

Thursday October 7, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: Thoma Foundation

The Digital Changemaker Grant empowers small- and medium-size arts and cultural organizations to advance their digital strategies by funding innovative projects that reimagine the role and use of technology to engage audiences, promote digital innovation, and create community.
The Thoma Foundation’s quarterly Grants for Nonprofits are available for diverse digital projects, including online convening, virtual exhibitions, and more.
Accredited museums are invited to borrow (for free!) from Thoma’s extensive collection of Digital & Media Art.

Thursday October 7, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? No

10:00am EDT

Timing, Budget, and Solution Considerations When Updating Your Website

It can be challenging to identify the right time for a new website, and the options can feel overwhelming.

Join Adage as we work to understand the various scalable options for your website. It is important to choose the right solution for your organization today--and for years to come. The session will cover budget stewardship and ensuring your technology and user experience remain optimized.

Learning Objectives:
- Identify when it is time to build a new website
- Understand the various options
- Create a path forward with a rightsized solution
- Budget time, money, and resources for the initial project and ongoing support

Brought to you by Adage who will have office hours following the session.

Speakers

Sarah Bordson

Vice President of Strategic Growth, Adage Technologies

Roy Chomko

President, Adage

Tuesday October 12, 2021 10:00am - 11:00am EDT
Channel 1

Sponsor Hours

Chatham House Rules No
Platform Zoom Meeting
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? No

3:00pm EDT

AMA: Cultural Futures submissions

Case Studies for Cultural Futures is an initiative to collect insights from cultural organizations’ experiments with new technology—from launching custom websites and apps to building AR and VR experiences to implementing new project-management tools. We hope this resource will foster an open exchange of knowledge that can help the entire field learn from each other’s challenges and successes, and grow into the future.

Chat with Shauna and Anna about the resource, get support submitting your project to the Cultural Futures resource—or who you might nominate to submit to the resource—and answer any other questions you may have.

Moderators

Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli

Digital Strategist, MCN

Shauna Skalitzky

Freelance Editor and Content Manager

Currently helping NEW INC and MCN with their Cultural Futures resource. If you've worked on a project that experiments with new technologies or uses various technologies in a new way, regardless of if it succeeded or failed, I would love to hear about it! DM me on Slack or email me... Read More →

Wednesday October 13, 2021 3:00pm - 3:45pm EDT
Channel 1

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Platform Zoom Meeting
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? No

1:15pm EDT

All It Takes is Staff Time: A Lightning Round of Low-to-No Budget Projects

Massive budgets, well-funded partners, robust digital departments; these are some of the factors that typically make incredible digital projects successful, but also make them out of reach for most museums to replicate or attempt. In this 45 minute session of lightning talks, a dozen people from a variety of institutions will share scrappy, low to no-budget, department of one projects with the MCN community.

Speakers

Casey Wooster (she/her)

Collections Assistant, University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries

I am an artist, Floridian, and museum professional interested in how museums can serve as platforms (both online and off-line) for rich discussion and experiences with their communities. Currently, I serve as the collections assistant at Governor's House Library in St. Augustine... Read More →

Jessica BrodeFrank

Digital Collections Access Manager, Adler Planetarium/ University of London

Jessica BrodeFrank is the Digital Collections Access Manager at the Adler Planetarium; and also studies with the University of London as a doctoral candidate in the Digital Humanities Program. Research at the University of London focuses on crowdsourcing as a means of digital engagement... Read More →

Colin Brooks

Head of Digital Development, Whitney Museum of American Art

Colin Brooks is the Senior Web Developer at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and is responsible for managing the ongoing development of whitney.org and other digital products, including the Museum's online collection, digital signage, and on-site Mobile Guide. With a background... Read More →

nikhil trivedi

Director of Engineering, Art Institute of Chicago

I'm the Director of Engineering at a museum in Chicago as well as a facilitator, educator, and community builder. My experience planning and executing complex web projects has also brought me to work with institutions to create concrete plans around the healing and accountability... Read More →

Kelsy Edgerton

Reservations Assistant, Legislative Assembly of Alberta

Kelsy Edgerton is a visitor experience enthusiast. From how to measure it and then how to translate that information into meaningful and impactful changes in everything from websites to exhibits, admissions, and physical layout of spaces, Kelsy has a proven history of finding innovative... Read More →

Kate Meyers Emery

Manager of Digital Engagement, George Eastman Museum

An anthropologist dedicated to public engagement, education, and outreach both online and in-person to share cultural heritage and history. A researcher and educator with over ten years of experience leveraging digital platforms to engage and educate the public. An enthusiastic leader... Read More →

Seema Rao

deputy director, Akron Art Museum

With twenty years of museum experience, mostly at the border of education and technology, Seema Rao is aching for museums that are just as good for collections as people. She works in museums in her days and thinks about museums in the evenings.

Amy Hondsmerk

PhD Candidate, Museum Studies, Nottingham Trent University

Libby Jones

Education Manager, Battleship New Jersey

Thursday October 14, 2021 1:15pm - 2:00pm EDT
Channel 1

Interpretation & Storytelling & Education

Chatham House Rules No
Platform Zoom Meeting
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? Yes

3:00pm EDT

AMA: Cultural Futures submissions

Moderators

Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli

Digital Strategist, MCN

Shauna Skalitzky

Freelance Editor and Content Manager

Wednesday October 20, 2021 3:00pm - 3:45pm EDT
Channel 1

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Platform Zoom Meeting
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? No

2:15pm EDT

A Novel Approach: Literary Tools in Experience Design

For museum people, “storytelling” has been a buzzword for years. But beyond “everything is a story,” what can we learn from literature about how we tell stories in spaces?

In this session, we’ll share an approach to developing digital (and analog) experiences using techniques from literature to invite visitors to inhabit a story. Participants will put these tools into practice in a creative play and visioning session where we’ll all take on the role of creative storytellers.

Speakers

Katie Savage

Associate Creative Director, Bluecadet

Katie is a creative director who creates personal and global narratives that captivate audiences and raise awareness. She uses illustration and graphic design to explore issues such as post-colonialism, memory, traditions, and the impact of language.

Ksenia Dynkin

Bluecadet, Sr. Narrative Strategist

Ksenia is a strategist whose approach is informed by her passion for storytelling and public engagement with art, science, and history. Ksenia draws on a wide range of influences, from Russian folktales to Sunday morning cartoons.

Thursday October 21, 2021 2:15pm - 3:00pm EDT
Channel 3

Experience Design & Immersive Tech

Chatham House Rules No
Platform Zoom Meeting
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? Yes

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: Canada Documentary Heritage Communities Program

Make an appointment with a program officer to discuss possibilities for funding your digital project. Representatives from several foundations are available to consult during the conference.

Canada Documentary Heritage Communities Program

Schedule a conversation with Ihtesham Rashid, Manager, by emailing ihtesham.rashid@bac-lac.gc.ca. A meeting invitation will be sent shortly thereafter.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) provides $1.5 million in contributions each year through the DHCP (“the Program”). This is a conditional payment issued to a recipient organization for a specific purpose, as outlined in a funding contribution agreement. LAC and the recipient organization sign a contribution agreement, which specifies the terms and conditions to receive payment. Every recipient organization is required to submit an interim report and a final report to LAC. LAC receives applications once every year through a call for proposals and funds the best project proposals after rigorous reviews of eligibility, feasibility and merit.

Objectives: The DHCP aims to ensure that Canada's continuing memory is documented and accessible to current and future generations.
The DHCP provides financial assistance to the Canadian documentary heritage community for activities that:

increase access to, and awareness of, Canada's local documentary heritage organizations and their holdings; and
increase the capacity of local documentary heritage organizations to better sustain and preserve Canada's documentary heritage

Who can apply: Local documentary heritage organizations eligible to apply to the DHCP are non-profit organizations that hold collections of mainly local or regional significance:

Archives
Genealogical organizations/societies
Historical societies
Indigenous organizations/government institutions
Libraries
Organizations with an archival component

What can be funded: The DHCP can provide funding for specific projects that relate to either or both of the program's objectives.

Objective 1: Increase access to, and awareness of, Canada's local documentary heritage organizations and their holdings.
Objective 2: Increase the capacity of local documentary heritage organizations to better sustain and preserve Canada's documentary heritage.

More information: Documentary Heritage Communities Program

Thursday October 21, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: Getty Foundation

Make an appointment with a program officer to discuss possibilities for funding your digital project. Representatives from several foundations are available to consult during the conference.

Getty Foundation

Schedule a conversation with Associate Director Anne Helmreich via Calendly.

Schedule a conversation with Senior Program Officer Heather MacDonald via Calendly.

Brief description of the foundation and the digital projects they fund:

The Getty Foundation fulfills the philanthropic mission of the Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the greater understanding and preservation of the visual arts in Los Angeles and throughout the world. Since 2013, the Getty Foundation’s Digital Art History initiative has supported both introductory and advanced training in the technical and conceptual aspects of digital practice for art historians, academics, and museum professionals. In addition, we have provided direct support for a small number of DAH projects since 2018, with a focus on spatial analysis (historical GIS, digital mapping, and 3D modeling of built cultural heritage) and image analysis (machine vision, pattern recognition, and visual search). Prior to launching the DAH initiative, the Foundation organized the Online Scholarly Cataloguing Initiative (OSCI), which from 2009 to 2015 supported nine museums piloting the transition of the scholarly museum collection catalogue to online platforms. The Foundation is not currently accepting new proposals in the Digital Art History initiative, as we are in the early stages of a strategic analysis of the initiative’s goals. We invite conversations with colleagues that can help us assess the state of the field, particularly in light of the digital turn experienced across the museum sector as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, so that we can understand better the current needs and future directions. We plan to relaunch the DAH initiative in spring 2022.

Thursday October 21, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: Institute of Museum and Library Services

Make an appointment with a program officer to discuss possibilities for funding your digital project. Representatives from several foundations are available to consult during the conference.

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Schedule a conversation with Helen J. Wechsler, Supervisory Grants Management Specialist.

The mission of IMLS is to advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development.

Several museum grant programs are available to support digital projects:

Museums for America and Inspire! Grants for Small Museums: These two grant programs support the development of digital tools and resources that help museums meet their individual strategic goals in relation to education programing, community engagement, and collections stewardship.
Museums Empowered: This grant program supports projects that use professional development and training to generate systemic change within individual museums of all types and sizes. One of the four project categories for this program is Digital Technology
National Leadership Grants for Museums: This grant program offers museums, universities, and nonprofits that serve the museum profession, an opportunity to take the lead on a high priority issue facing the museum field in the digital arena. Projects should address a need in the field and result in tools, resources, or findings that can be broadly used or adapted by others.

Thursday October 21, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: Knight Foundation

Authenticity and Inclusion: We fund to accelerate trends and activity naturally occurring in each community and support artists and organizations that reflect the diversity of the communities where we work.
Development of Talent and Organizations: We seek to increase the capacity of artists and the sustainability of arts organizations.
Transformation: We invest in the use of technology to create new ways to explore and make art, to express culture, and to reach, expand and engage diverse audiences.

Thursday October 21, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? No

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: Kress Foundation

Thursday October 21, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: National Endowment for the Humanities

Make an appointment with a program officer to discuss possibilities for funding your digital project. Representatives from several foundations are available to consult during the conference.

National Endowment for the Humanities

Schedule a conversation with Sheila A Brennan, Senior Program Officer, Office of Digital Humanities, via Calendly.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) supports research, education, preservation, public programs in the humanities. Each division at the NEH offers programs that can support digital projects and engaging in digital methods across the humanities for different audiences. The following divisions offer grant programs of particular interest to MCN attendees:

Office of Digital Humanities (ODH) offers grant programs that fund project teams experimenting with digital technologies to develop new methodologies and approaches to the humanities research, teaching and learning, public engagement, and scholarly communications and publishing.
Division of Preservations and Access’s programs focus on ensuring the long-term and wide availability of cultural heritage resources, often through digital means, including enhancing access to these materials through interfaces such as maps or other types of visualizations.
Division of Public Programs supports humanities projects designed to reach large and diverse public audiences using many different formats, such as museum exhibition websites or on-site interactives, podcasts, digital games, mobile websites, and Virtual Reality experiences.
Office of Challenge Grants: run programs that strengthen institutional and organizational capacity for work in the humanities, including digital infrastructure.

Resources for applicants:

Thursday October 21, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other

4:00pm EDT

Funders’ Office Hours: Thoma Foundation

The Digital Changemaker Grant empowers small- and medium-size arts and cultural organizations to advance their digital strategies by funding innovative projects that reimagine the role and use of technology to engage audiences, promote digital innovation, and create community.
The Thoma Foundation’s quarterly Grants for Nonprofits are available for diverse digital projects, including online convening, virtual exhibitions, and more.
Accredited museums are invited to borrow (for free!) from Thoma’s extensive collection of Digital & Media Art.

Thursday October 21, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Networking/Social

Chatham House Rules No
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? No

4:00pm EDT

Cultural Futures Introduction and Listening Session

Join Salome and Eric to hear about MCN's collaborative project with NEW INC: Case Studies for Cultural Futures, check out some case studies included in the resource, talk about how you can contribute, and share your feedback to guide next steps.

You can also nominate a project you'd like to see documented in the resource with this form.

Speakers

Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli

Digital Strategist, MCN

Eric Longo

MCN

Thursday October 28, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT
Channel 1

Plenary/Keynote

Chatham House Rules No
Platform Zoom Meeting
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? Yes

2:15pm EST

Lost Jobs, Found Voices: A Documentary Theatre Exploration of Professional Loss

What does a digital record of the professional loss we experienced in 2020 look like? We propose a project using creative storytelling to document stories of professional loss experienced. Cultural workers experienced displacement—whether through layoffs, untenable working conditions, or family caregiving. We propose a project that we will debut during MCN 2021— a documentary audio play based on interviews conducted with museum workers who experienced pandemic-related career transitions.

Speakers

Rachel Ropeik (she/her)

Museum Educator/Museum Adventurer, independent

Rachel Ropeik is a museum educator and museum adventurer who brings thoughtful, playful, and progressive approaches to engaging people with art.

Alli Hartley-Kong

Playwright, Independent

Alli Hartley-Kong is a playwright, poet and museum educator. Her arts journalism work has appeared in Hyperallergic and Smithsonian, and her short plays have been produced nationally and internationally. This project is part of her overall explorations of the connections between theatrical... Read More →

Mimosa Shah

Graduate Student, MS in LIS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, School of Information Sciences

Mimosa Shah is a graduate student currently working towards her master's degree in library and information sciences through the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's distance learning program LEEP. A former public library worker and perennial museum nerd, she enjoys connecting... Read More →

Tuesday November 9, 2021 2:15pm - 3:00pm EST
Channel 4

Big Ideas

Chatham House Rules Yes
Platform Zoom Meeting
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? No

2:15pm EST

Pandemic-Era Video Showcase and Critique

The pandemic forced video creators to navigate the challenges of producing video in less-than-ideal circumstances, no doubt sparking innovations and ideas that will have a lasting impact on museum video production. By screening a selection of audience-submitted video projects, this showcase will highlight these new ideas, delivering expert feedback to participating producers and serving as inspiration for content creators of all kinds.

Speakers

Jonathan Munar

Director of Digital, Art21

Jonathan Munar is the Director of Digital at Art21, heading the organization’s digital presence across Web, social media, and related platforms. Previously, Jonathan was a member of the Website department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has served on the board of the American... Read More →

Ryan Waggoner

Director of Creative Services, Spencer Museum of Art

Ryan Waggoner is the Director of Creative Services at the Spencer Museum of Art. As an arts professional with a passion for visual storytelling and making art accessible to all, he has dedicated his career to creating dynamic and engaging content that inspires people to explore the... Read More →

Sarah Wambold

Executive Producer, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sarah Wambold is an executive producer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her diverse portfolio of projects includes websites, documentary-style videos, digital publications, user-experience research, an augmented reality application, and an award-winning podcast. She has worked for... Read More →

Sarah Cowan

Senior Video Producer, Museum of Modern Art

Sarah Cowan is a content producer specializing in video production. She is (very newly!) the Senior Video Producer at The Museum of Modern Art leading the video team there. Previous she was a Producer/Editor in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Digital Department's Content team where... Read More →

Tuesday November 9, 2021 2:15pm - 3:00pm EST
Channel 3

Big Ideas

Chatham House Rules No
Platform Zoom Meeting
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? Yes

11:00am EST

Digital Transitions Presents: Film Scanning in the Modern Era

Digitizing film and transmissive materials can be a complex process, but Digital Transitions' modern tools and processing methods make preservation grade imaging accessible to institutions of all sizes. Learn the basics of handling, capture, and image processing with DT Heritage solutions in this session with product manager Arnab Chatterjee.

Speakers

Arnab Chatterjee

Digital Transitions

Wednesday November 10, 2021 11:00am - 12:00pm EST

Sponsor Hours

Chatham House Rules No
Platform Zoom Meeting
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? No

1:00pm EST

Open Space Discussions sponsored by L2 Interactive

Interested in continuing an earlier conference discussion? Is there a topic you wish was covered during MCN 2021, but it wasn't? Are you looking for other attendees who might have the same questions as you? Welcome to Open Space Discussions (OSD).

During this session, we will gather topics and designate a breakout room and a time for your discussion. Session attendees can participate in any of the dozens of topical sessions generated and may move from topic to topic as often as desired. Come and discover the most fruitful conference experience since the coffee break.

Brought to you by L2 Interactive.

Speakers

Don Youngberg

Principal, Don Youngberg Consulting

MCN Board Member and Community Enthusiast

Wednesday November 10, 2021 1:00pm - 2:30pm EST
Channel 1

Big Ideas

Chatham House Rules No
Platform Zoom Meeting
Session Format Freestyle/other
Session Recorded? No

Timezone
Filter By Date MCN 2021 VIRTUAL Oct 5 -Nov 10, 2021
October 2021
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

31

November 2021
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30
Filter By Venue Virtual
Sort schedule by Venue

Channel 1
Channel 2
Channel 3
Channel 4
Filter By Type
Asia/Pacific
Big Ideas
Business & Sustainability & Capacity Building
Ethical Responsibility
Europe
Experience Design & Immersive Tech
Interpretation & Storytelling & Education
Latin America
Leadership & Strategy
Middle East/Africa
Networking/Social
Plenary/Keynote
Professional Development
SIG Roundtable
Sponsor Hours
Why Museums?
Workshop
Chatham House Rules
No
Yes
Platform
advanced sign up required
Google Meet
Spatial Chat
Zoom Meeting
Zoom Webinar
Session Format
Campfire
Freestyle/other
How-to
Ignite
Panel
Plenary/Keynote
Professional Development
Social
Speed Networking
Workshop
Session Recorded?
No
Yes
Popular

October 2021
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

November 2021
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30