President's Message | June 2025

From the desk of Katy Knight | UMA Board President [2025-2026]

This week the Territorial Statehouse State Park Museum hosted UMA for a Sites & Insights. In addition to exploring Utah's oldest existing governmental building we had a great discussion about how they run youth programming including overnight camps for youth groups. We even got the chance to make and eat some ash bread! 

We are just days away from the third annual Utah Museum Month that will begin on July 1. We hope your museum is participating and we encourage you to take time personally during the month to explore a museum that you are not familiar with - in a state with nearly 300 museums there are many to choose from!

July 1 will also kick off a year of events honoring the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The public is invited to join Governor Cox and Lt Governor Henderson at the Utah State Capitol at 10 am to mark the occasion. Is your museum doing programming during America's Semiquincentennial? We would love to hear about it! Respond to this email to tell us about your plans.

There are just a few more days to submit award nominations. Help us celebrate excellence in Utah museums and submit a nomination today!

Early bird registration for this year's conference is open through July 15. We are excited to announce, Elizabeth Merritt, American Alliance of Museums' Vice President for Strategic Foresight and Founding Director of the Center for the Future of Museums will be joining us in Kanab as our keynote speaker.