PROGRAM, LOCATION, OUTLINE SCHEDULE AND PAST SYMPOSIA:

An overview of the program is provided below.

This symposium is for architects, museum leaders, planners, project managers, technical experts, and all those who plan or implement new construction, renovation, or expansion projects for museums. Whether your institution is a small historic site under renovation, a mid-sized art museum planning an expansion, or a large children's museum building a new facility, this symposium will provide you the opportunity to:

• Better understand the process of planning, implementing, and surviving new construction, renovation, or expansion projects
• Examine case studies, current trends, topical issues, and specific projects related to building projects across a broad range of museum sizes and scales, budgets, scope of building projects, diversity of disciplines, and collecting vs. non-collections-holding institutions
• Actively discuss museum building projects with other museum professionals, architects, planners, project managers, and technical experts to better inform the process of building
• Access resources for architectural firms, consultants, museum projects, and museum leaders through the Building Museums Resource Guide

The symposium is organized under three inter-related themes: Vision, Implementation, and Sustainability (or Life after Opening) . The content of each day will reflect these themes across a broad range of museum sizes and scales, budgets, scope of building projects, disciplines, and collecting vs. non-collecting institutions. 

Thursday, February 26: “Vision”
Location: National Building Museum

Workshops: Nuts and Bolts of Museum Construction: Tools for Planning Successful Building Projects • Facility Projects: Planning, Funding and Financing Strategies • Finding the Right Balance: Conceptual Planning for a New Museum Keynote Talk: • Nancy Kolb, Please Touch Museum

Ask the Experts: The Financial “Marketing” of Your Museum Project • Planning Collections Space • What the owner needs to know during construction? • Keys To A Successful Museum Store Design

Tours: Lincoln Cottage • National Building Museum

Breakout Sessions: Step by Step A Journey to Successful Museum Design • Hancock Shaker Village: A Sustainable Master Plan • You’ve Made the Decision to Build a New Museum, Now What? • Green Before You Build: Steps to Take Now While you Plan for the Future Plenary Session: • Inspired Fundraising: Transforming the Art Museum of Western Virginia (Taubman Museum of Art)

Evening: The first BUILDY AWARD presentation and reception

Friday, February 27: “Implementation”
Location: NEWSEUM

Plenary Sessions: Discover the New Campaign: Case Study of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco • Bond Financing for Large museums: California Academy of Sciences and St Louis Art Museum • What Works and What Doesn’t: Lessons from Reopening the National Museum of American History

Breakout Sessions: Burchfield Penny Museum: Community Partnership and Green Design • Conflict or Harmony: Caring for your Customers during Construction: RISD and Addison Gallery of Art • Architecture and Landscape Design: Queens Botanical Garden Visitor Center and New York Hall of Science • Alaska Museum of the North: Making the Museum an Attraction Realization of an Education Studio at the National Gallery of Art • Managing Finances of Mid-Sized Museum Projects • Creative Strategies for Successful Project Mangaement: Colonial Williamsburg museums • Visitor Center Projects : Lincoln Cottage, Capital Visitor Center, and Strawbery Banke Museum

Tours: The Sound of the the Newseum • Ford’s Theater Renovation • New Smithsonian Collections and Support Center [Pennsy Drive]

Evening: Reception at newly renovated National Museum of American History

Saturday, February 28: “Sustainability: Life After Opening”
Location: American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center

Plenary Session: • Life After Opening: Secrets of Success

Breakout Sessions: Red Flags: What Can Go Wrong? • The First Year: Mars Education Center, Ft. Ticonderoga • Achieving Impact and Stability: Two Small Museum Case Studies

More Roundtables and Ask the Experts: Keys To A Successful Museum Store Design • Marketing for Sustained Success • Capital Campaign Planning • The Financial “Marketing” of Your Museum Project