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| Tory Laitila, Kristin Keller, Malia Van Heukelem,and Sharon Tasaka arrive for the 2010 Western Museums conference. |
Portland, OR - The “City of Roses” proved the ideal setting for what became the pivotal and most important meeting in the history of the Western Museums Association. Started in 1935 and formally established in the 1940s, WMA became the largest regional museum association in North America. However, the recession over the last couple of years took a heavy toll on the association’s finances. Things came to a head at the 2009 Annual Meeting in San Diego, when the WMA Board of Directors made the painful decision to lay off the remaining two staff members and convert to an all volunteer organization. The fall of 2009 was a difficult chapter, as board members openly questioned the viability of continuing WMA and whether or not we would be able to celebrate the 75th Anniversary in Portland. Thanks in large part to the commitment and hard work of the WMA Executive Committee, the 2010 Annual Meeting that just concluded was a resounding success! Not only did WMA manage to survive a very difficult year, but it did so as part of a strategic shift that ultimately all regional museum associations face. Portland became a rallying cry for WMA, and the theme of “75 Years: Reflecting on the Past, Envisioning the Future” became the mantra. Thus, through the adversity of decimated travel budgets, museum mergers, closures, and layoffs, the 2010 Annual Meeting exceeded all expectations and provided WMA with a secure financial footing going in to next year’s meeting in Honolulu. So please mark your calendars for September 23 - 26, 2011 at the Hawai‘i Convention Center. Under an unprecedented partnership with co-hosts HMA and PIMA (Pacific Islands Museums Association), WMA will go beyond its regional boundaries to embrace arts, cultural, and historical organizations throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Globalization is real within the international museum communities. Standards and best practices, along with issues and challenges, show remarkable commonalities across national borders, yet we can all learn from innovative local solutions. O‘ahu will live up to its nickname as the “Gathering Place”and provide the venue for what we envision as the future of WMA in the 21st century.
