Sep 10-12, 2018   |   Salt Lake City, UT   |   Museums: A Catalyst for Belonging

As professionals we feel comfortable in museums, but what about the communities that we are preserving and representing?  Do new staff, board members, volunteers,  and recent arrivals to the neighborhood feel like welcome voices in our institutions? Simply put, do people that come into our spaces feel like they belong there? Museums should be venues for conversation and understanding, creating safe spaces for dialogue through narrative, collecting, programming, and discovery.   Beginning to address belonging and diversity issues can be daunting and are often fraught with missteps. How can we learn from the experiences of colleagues both within and outside the museum field to remain committed  and successful in creating a culture of belonging in Utah Museums?