AAMC CONFERENCE COMMITTEE MEETING minutes
May 15, 2012
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
ATTENDED:
Christina Chang, Weisman Art Museum
Helen Evans, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jennifer Farrell, UVA Art Museum
Dan Finamore, Peabody Essex Museum
Rita Freed, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
David Rubin, San Antonio Museum of Art
Sylvia Yount, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
A small but enthusiastic array of junior and senior, new and old AAMC members gathered to discuss the
2012 conference in-progress and to propose plans for 2013. All were positive about the Boston sessions
and offered the following ideas for New York:
ISSUE-BASED SESSIONS:
 The Academy and the Museum: The Scholar-Curator beyond the University
 Changing role/definition of curators
 Artist-curator/curator-artist panel
 Dealer/gallery organized exhibitions
 Collectors and private museums
 Trustee panel
 Curator/designer relationship
 Audience/visitor services (SY sugg: Lexa Walsh, Social Practice Artist in Residence, Portland Art
Museum)
HANDS-ON SESSIONS:
 Grant-writing
 Technology and counter-technology/experimental methods (Chang sugg: Nina Simon—author of
Participatory Museum/blogger on museums; Kathleen McLean, Independent Exhibitions and
Oakland Museum)
 AAMC Code of Ethics update
 Provenance issues (Evans suggested Met’s lawyer to chair)
 Frick’s Center for Collecting/Inge Reist—on documenting our history (Evans sugg.)
SPECIAL SESSION:
new ADAA Foundation Curatorial Awards—R&D updates
KEYNOTE:
Retiring curator—reflections on career (Eric Zaffron suggested)