Meeting of the Board of Trustees of the AAMC & AAMC FoundationSunday May 15, 2011

Cooper-Hewitt Museum

MEETING MINUTES:

* denotes ex-officio members including staff, committee chairs and emeriti trustees

In attendance: Paola Antonelli Sally Block*Graham BoettcherCynthia Burlingham Christa Clarke*Judith DolkartElizabeth Easton*Carol Eliel Helen EvansRita FreedVivien GreeneGloria Groom Hannah Howe* Simon Kelly*Paul Nagle* GUEST SPEAKEREmily Neff*Marina PaciniJordana PomeroyCarolyn Putney John Ravenal William RudolphAnnemarie Sawkins*Mark ScalaJon SeydlGeorge Shackelford *Gary Tinterow*Kristina Van Dyke

Absent: Brooke Anderson, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, Stephan Wolohojian, Siri Enberg, Laurie Winters, Mary Morton

I. Welcome – John Ravenal a. Conference Overview – run-through of schedule, sponsors, events

II. Advocacy Discussion a. Paul Nagle:

i. Institute supports public policy that supports arts in public life and community

ii. Goal is generate data that can inform and change public policy to make the arts counted and less isolated

iii. Established series of fireside chats with leaders and artists to promote conversation in community

iv. Employment statistics don’t include all the part time workers in the arts sectors. Need to produce numbers that account for the thousands of workers that earn income from the arts.

v. Valuing intangible assets vi. Survey – funded by Rockefeller Foundation that poses question

in interesting way – hitting on new way of evaluating the importance of arts

vii. Must find partners in other sectors, network internationally, learn to create metrics that policy makers will respond to.

viii. Arts community adopts ideas quickly – attractive quality to other sectors

ix. Identify common goals with different sectors and industries1. No legacy without stewardship 2. Diversity is key to strength

b. Sally Block: need to draft guidelines about what issues the AAMC will engage with, policy should be in place for when AAMC will react

c. Call for volunteers to spearhead Advocacy Task force: i. William Rudolph, Graham Boettcher, Vivien Greene, Carol Eliel,

Jordana Pomeroyd. Discussion of possible partners and other organizations. The position

of the AAMC should always keep the curatorial perspective at front and center.

III. Nominating and Governance Report a. Jon Seydl – Governance

i. 1st time with president elect in 6 month pre-term, expanding BOT by 4 members, 22 total

ii. Slate for Board/Officer appointments (See Attachment A)iii. Movement to appoint Emily Neff, Vice President for

Communicationsiv. Appointment of Cynthia Burlingham as Vice President for

Programsv. Approval of new Board slate: Mary Morton, Carolyn Putney,

Laurie Winters, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan vi. Confirmed another term: Judith Dolkart, Deborah Cullen,

Jordana Pomeroyvii. Emily Neff rotating off Prize Ctee chair

viii. Christa Clarke rotating off as Membership Ctee chairix. Lynda R. Hartigan rotating off as Conference Ctee co-chairx. Siri Engberg rotating off as Website Ctee co-chair

xi. Brooke Anderson rotating off as Professional Development Ctee co-chair

IV. Committee Reports (See Attachment B)a. Prize Update – Emily Neff

i. Hard work of prize committee to navigate restructured prizes ii. Ctee member, Georgiana Uhlyarik, worked particularly hard to

bring in Canadian nominations and membership b. Finance Update – Sally Block (See Attachment C)

ATTACHMENT A

NEW AAMC TRUSTEE SLATE 2011

CYNTHIA BURLINGHAM THE HAMMER MUSEUM

Cynthia Burlingham is Deputy Director of Collections and Director of the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum. She is responsible for all Grunwald Center collection and exhibition activities, as well as the Armand Hammer Collection, and the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA. Since coming to UCLA in 1985, she has curated numerous exhibitions, including Outside the Box: Edition Jacob Samuel, 1988-2010 (2010); Rembrandt Prints (2010); And Then Again… Printed Sets and Series, 1500-2007 (2008), Masters of American Comics (2005), The Eunice and Hal David Collection of 19th- and 20th-Century Works on Paper (2003), The World from Here: Treasures of the Great Libraries of Los Angeles (2001), and The French Renaissance in Prints (1994). Her forthcoming projects include an exhibition on Gustave Moreau's Salome, organized in collaboration with the Moreau Museum in Paris. Recent publications include a book on the history of the Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA published in 2007, and she co-edited the catalogue for the exhibition Heat Waves in a Swamp: the Paintings of Charles Burchfield in 2009. Ms. Burlingham holds an M.A. in art history from Oberlin College and has lectured and written extensively on the history of the print from the 16 th through the 20th

centuries.

* Ms. Burlingham is listed on this slate as candidate for Vice-President, Programs

LYNDA HARTIGANTHE PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan is The James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes Chief Curator of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. There she serves on the museum’s executive

leadership team, leads an energetic and innovative curatorial and exhibition program developed by PEM’s 11 curators with expertise in diverse areas of international art and culture, and oversees the museum’s publications, collection services, and conservation programs. Prior to joining PEM in 2003, she was Chief Curator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. Hartigan’s MA in Art History is from George Washington University. Her research specialties in modern art, Joseph Cornell, American folk and outsider art, and African-American art have yielded numerous widely recognized exhibitions and publications. Most recently, Hartigan curated the traveling retrospective, "Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination," co-organized by the Peabody Essex Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and wrote the companion book (Yale University Press, 2007). She serves on the selection committee of the Claremont/Getty Leadership Institute and is a member of the Institute’s 2000 class. Her professional affiliations and volunteer activities have included AAM, AHAA, ArtTable, CAA, and the advisory boards of the Folk Art Society of America and Spaces Inc. (LA), as well as diverse community service regionally and nationally as a juror, lecturer, exhibition and dissertation advisor, and mentor to emerging and peer colleagues.

EMILY B. NEFFTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON

Dr. Emily Ballew Neff is curator of American painting and sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She received a bachelor’s degree in art history from Yale University, a master’s degree in art history from Rice University, and a doctorate in art history from the University of Texas at Austin. She has curated a number of exhibitions, including The Modern West: American Landscapes, 1890-1950, which traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; John Singleton Copley in England, which she co-organized with the National Gallery of Art; Houston’s Sargents; American Painters in the Age of Impressionism; American Watercolors, and the inaugural installation of the museum’s American art collection, including twenty additional private collection loans, in its first dedicated spaces for American art in the museum’s Beck Building. Fellowships include the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art (CASVA, 2008), Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center, Santa Fe (2004-2005); the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown (2004); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she was a Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow (1993-1994); and Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, where she served as a Jameson Fellow (1989-1990). Grants received for projects under her responsibility include the National Endowment for the Arts (1994-1995, and 2004); the National Endowment for the Humanities (2003, 2004, 2008); and The Henry Luce Foundation (1999). In 2006, Yale University Press published Dr. Neff’s The Modern West: American Landscapes, 1890-1950, and in 2000 Princeton University Press published her Frederic Remington: The Hogg Brothers Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She also authored John Singleton Copley in England; American Painting in the Age of Impressionism; and co-authored American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. In addition to

her work at the MFAH, she has lectured around the country, served as distinguished lecturer in the art history department of Rice University, and published on a wide variety of subjects including the photographs of Lee Friedlander and the Modernist road trip.

* Ms. Neff is listed on this slate as candidate for Vice-President, Communications

MARY MORTONTHE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

Mary Morton is curator of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. She received her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in history, and her PhD from Brown University, concentrating on 19 th and early 20th

century European painting. Dr. Morton began her curatorial career in the European art department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and spent five years as associate curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. She has worked on numerous exhibitions and publications in her area of expertise, organizing an international loan exhibition in 2006 on the landscape paintings of the Realist master Gustave Courbet, an exhibition in 2007 devoted to exotic animal portraits by the 18th century painter Jean-Baptiste Oudry, and a monographic project devoted to the French master Jean-Léon Gérôme. She is currently focused on a Gauguin exhibition organized by Tate Modern, and on plans for a reinstallation of the 19th century French collection at the National Gallery.

CAROLYN PUTNEYTOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART

Carolyn Putney is Director of Collections, Chief curator and Curator of Asian Art at the Toledo Museum of Art. She is responsible for a large work group including curatorial, exhibitions, research and publications, registrars, archives, library and the visual resources collection. In addition, she is the head of a new cross-functional team charged with the objective of expanding access to the collections. Since coming to the TMA in 1978, she has moved as head of the visual resources collection to the curatorial area and has curated numerous exhibitions, including Japanese Treasures: The Art of Netsuke Carving (2000), Princely Pursuits: The Miniature Painting of India (2003), Strong Women, Beautiful Men: Japanese Portrait Prints from the TMA(2005), The Lure of Pompeii (2007), Mummies to Monet: The Libbeys Collect (2008), Life in Miniature: Ceramic Netsuke from the Silverman Collection (2011), Inspired Giving: The Apollo Society’s 25th Anniversary, 2011(all curators involved). Her forthcoming projects include an exhibition on the Toledo Museum’s renowned collection of Japanese modern prints. Her publications include a book on Japanese netsuke published in 2000, and a catalogue of TMA’s Indian miniatures in 2003. Ms. Putney holds an M.A. in art history from Florida State University and has taught art history courses for the University of Toledo since 1979.

LAURIE WINTERSMILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM

Laurie Winters is the Director of Exhibitions and Publications and the Senior Curator of European Art at the Milwaukee Art Museum, a joint position which she has held since 2009. Winters joined the staff of the Milwaukee Art Museum in 1997 as an associate curator of earlier European art and rose to the position of full curator in 1999. Prior to joining the museum, she was an assistant professor of art history at Rhode Island College in Providence.

Winters has curated numerous exhibitions, including A Renaissance Treasury (1998); Leonardo da Vinci and the Splendor of Poland: A History of Collecting and Patronage (2002), which was named one of the top five exhibitions of the year by Apollo magazine; and Rembrandt and His Time: Masterworks from the Albertina (2005). Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity (2006) received exceptional critical press and traveled to the Albertina in Vienna, the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, and the Musée du Louvre; the catalogue for the exhibition was named Book of the Year in Europe (2007) at the Vienna Art Fair. This fall, Winters will open Impressionism on Paper: Drawings from Manet to Van Gogh, an exhibition organized in collaboration with the Albertina.

Winters has also been the recipient of a number of prestigious awards and fellowships. In 2003, she was bestowed the Cavalier’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the Polish government for the Leonardo exhibition. In 2008, she was one of ten fellows selected nationally to participate in the inaugural year of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, and in the summer of 2009, she participated in the Getty’s Museum Leadership Program. She has a B.A. in Art History and French from the University of Toledo and an M.A. (ABD) in Art History from the University of Michigan. She is also currently completing an MBA at Alverno College.

ATTACHMENT B

AAMC Committee Reports 2011

Report of the Conference Committee  About the Conference Committee The prime vehicle allowing the AAMC to communicate with its membership is its annual convention held every spring. The Conference Committee is charged with presenting to the Board of Trustees the recommendation of topics and speakers that will make the conference an inspiration for all who attend.

Committee Members

2010 – 2011 Conference Committee (* denotes new member)Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, Chief Curator, Peabody Essex Museum, co-chairMarina Pacini, Chief Curator, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, co-chair Elizabeth Easton, Director, Center for Curatorial Leadership  Rita Freed, John F. Cogan, Jr. and Mary L. Cornille Chair of the Department of Art of the Ancient World,  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston*Linda Komaroff, Curator and Department Head, Islamic Art Los Angeles County Museum of Art  Jack Hinton, Assistant Curator of European Decorative Arts & Sculpture, Philadelphia Museum of Art* David S. Rubin, The Brown Foundation Curator of Contemporary Art, San Antonio Museum of Art*Jonathan Stuhlman, Curator of American Art, Mint Museum of Art  Jennifer Tonkovich, Curator, Drawings and Prints, Morgan Library & Museum* Matthew Welch, Curator of Japanese and Korean Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts  Margaret Young-Sanchez, Chief Curator; Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator of pre-Columbian Art Denver Art MuseumSylvia Yount, Cochrane Curator of American Art and Department Head, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts*

Ex-officio Members - Sally Block, Director, AAMCHelen C. Evans, VP, Programs, AAMC and Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator for Byzantine Art, The Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of ArtJohn Ravenal, President, AAMC and The Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts  The 2010-2011 Conference Committee was charged with developing a special program to commemorate AAMC’s tenth anniversary. The session topics were developed through several different channels. At the Committee Meeting at the 2010 conference in Chicago, suggested topics were solicited from the membership. These were then presented to the Program Committee and served as the spring board for discussions. The committee worked to develop a schedule that would interest the widest range of members, taking into account the varying sizes of institutions and areas of specialization of the membership. The goal was also to consider topics that reflected areas of present day concern and potential future growth for the field, while building on previous sessions.

A list of topics was forwarded to the full board for their input, and the final session topics that were deemed most relevant were selected. These include collaborative curating which is being addressed through sessions with conservator/curator teams in the conservation labs at Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as in the panel discussion “Collaborative Curating.” The other sessions--“Innovative Conservation,” “Cultural Property: Where Are We Now,” “Developing Donor Cultivation

Confidence,” and “Publishing in the Digital Age” – were designed to cover issues that relate to all the membership both today and in the future.

The committee meeting in Chicago during the 2010 conference provided immediate feedback from the membership. The process will be followed again in 2011 with the goal of continuing to respond to the needs of the members.

Report of the Membership Committee, 2010-2011Submitted by Christa Clarke

The Membership Committee is concerned with assuring that the body of AAMC members is inclusive, fair and representative of the broad and diverse specialties of curators from museums of all sizes from across the nation. It is the goal of the Committee to attain the widest possible representation of fields and the largest possible number of members. Christa Clarke, Senior Curator, Arts of Africa and the Americas, Newark Museum, ChairIan Berry, Susan Rabinowitz Malloy '45 Curator, Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore CollegeDouglas Bradley, Curator, Arts of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania, Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre DameSara Cochran, Curator of Modern and Contemporary, Phoenix Art MuseumCatherine Evans, Chief Curator, Columbus Museum of ArtMike Hearn, Douglas Dillon Curator, Metropolitan Museum of ArtRebecca Morse, Associate Curator, Museum of Contemporary ArtMark Scala, Chief Curator, Frist Center for the Visual ArtsKaren Sherry, Curator of American Art, Brooklyn MuseumAnn Yonemura, Senior Associate Curator of Japanese Art, Freer & Sackler, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery   Summary of Activities Adjunct MembershipA new Adjunct Membership category was created in response to interest in the AAMC on the part of independent and out-of-work curators. The Membership Committee developed criteria for eligibility and an application process for adjunct members, submitted to and approved by the AAMC Board last year. Annual dues are $150 and applications are reviewed on a twice-yearly cycle by a subcommittee, composed of Ian Berry, Doug Bradley, Christa Clarke, Sara Cochran, and Mark Scala, in addition to Sally Block and Hannah Howe. The Adjunct Membership category was launched in the fall, and we had two rounds of applications to vet this year. In November, the sub-committee reviewed 18 applications, with 14 acceptances and 4 rejections. In April, we reviewed 5 applications, with 2 acceptances, 2 rejections, and 1 applicant pending.  Total

adjunct members for the first year: 16. Based on the two cycles of applications, we have revised the description of adjunct membership to emphasize that a candidate may not be employed by or affiliated with a commercial entity. We also stress the importance of letters of reference, which are optional. Emeritus Membership Karen Sherry and Doug Bradley took on the task of drafting language for a new emeritus category of membership for retired curators. After research into similar membership categories in other arts-related professional organizations, they developed a description of eligibility and criteria of membership, adopting AAMD as a model. RecruitmentIn our December conference call, the Membership Committee discussed a strategy for recruiting new members. A list of approximately 320 member institutions was divided and assigned to each committee member. “Talking points” for our outreach efforts were drafted and circulated. Our approach acknowledged the 10th anniversary of the AAMC, highlighted the benefits of membership, and referenced the program for the 2011 Annual Meeting. Our goal was to expand our membership base and work toward 100% curatorial participation for institutions that are currently part of the AAMC. Recruitment has been successful, with a steady stream of new memberships and membership renewals since we began in January 2011. From the beginning of May 2010 till now, we have had 134 new members. Half of these have joined in the last four months, when recruitment began in earnest. As of May 2011, we have a total of 1,114 members of the AAMC, an increase of over 10% during the past year.  Membership SurveyThe Membership Committee also collaborated with the Website Committee in compiling a survey, coordinated by Sally Block. The data compiled in this survey is not only important information about our profession but also useful for advocacy efforts. The survey has a two-pronged approach: the first will be to gather more demographic information about curators. Following this, members will be asked some larger, open-ended questions. Priorities for 2011-12: -       continue to review adjunct membership applications on a twice-yearly basis, refining criteria for eligibility in the process-       continue recruitment efforts-       analyze and assess recruitment efforts, and identify areas where AAMC can better serve its members

-       use results of membership survey to guide future recruitment efforts to achieve broadest representation in AAMC

Report of the Nominating & Governance Committee

2010-11 was the inaugural year of the Governance and Nominations Committee. This committee grew out of the former Governance Committee to take on the responsibility of nominating candidates for officers as well as the Board of Trustees. Since the Governance Committee had been responsible for the considerable overhaul of the AAMC by-laws in 2009-10, approved at last year’s annual meeting, the committee’s responsibilities were relatively light this year.

The committee largely focused on the first presidential election conducted under the new rules. We reviewed an unprecedented four nominations, winnowed the candidates down to two (the committee has the option of presenting up to two candidates, and given the extremely strong slate, we opted to hold a competitive election). Carol Eliel won this election to succeed John Ravanel, and took on the new post of President-Elect.

In May the committee moved to nominations for open positions on the Board and Executive Committee. We nominated Emily Neff to succeed Carol Eliel as Vice President, Communications (as incoming President, that post is vacating), and Cynthia Burlingham as Vice President, Programs, to succeed Helen Evans (whose 2-year term has concluded).

We also nominated Deborah Cullen, Judith Dolkart, and Jordana Pomeroy to second terms as at-large members of the Board of Trustees. We also proposed expanding the board with five additional candidates, to 22 voting members, nominating Lynda Hartigan, Mary Morton, Emily Neff, Carolyn Putney, and Laurie Winters.

Priorities for the Year Recruitment of new members for the committee (Summer 2011) Evaluating the changes in governance (Fall 2011) Evaluation of the committee itself (Fall 2011) Proposing next year’s Board of Trustees nominations (Spring 2012)

Jon L. SeydlGary TinterowCo-Chairs, Governance and Nominating Committee

AAMC Prize Committee ReportSubmitted May 15, 2011

Emily Ballew Neff, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Chair

Susan Goodman, The Jewish MuseumRandall Griffey, Mead Art MuseumWilliam Rudolph, Worcester Art MuseumMarisa Sanchez, Seattle Art MuseumTimothy Standring, Denver Art MuseumCindi Strauss, Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonGeorgiana Uhlyarik, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Sally Block, Executive Director, AAMC

Summary of ActivitiesThe major activity of the Prize Committee in 2010-2011 was the implementation of the Prize Committee restructuring proposal approved by the AAMC Board of Trustees in May 2010. The restructuring of the Outstanding Exhibition/Installation award consisted of dividing the award into five areas: Outstanding Monographic or Retrospective Exhibition; Outstanding Thematic Exhibition; Outstanding Exhibition in a University Museum; Outstanding Permanent Collection New Installation (or Re-installation); and Outstanding Small Exhibition (based on square footage: no more than 2,000 square feet).

In fall 2010, a FAQ sheet explaining the reasons for the change and the description of the new process was added to the AAMC website for members to consult. Prize Committee members canvassed AAMC members in their field and/or in their geographic region in two email blasts prior and during the Call for Nominations sent to AAMC members. Prize Committee members, with the help of Sally Block and Hannah Howe, followed up with the elimination of unqualified nominations, and began to form an initial slate. In most categories, the number of nominations far exceeded the five stipulated for the final slate and thus necessitated a Prize Committee preliminary vote to reduce the number to five. In the category of university museum exhibition, however, much more research and reaching out was required to secure nominations. Qualified AAMC nominations from the membership were added to the preliminary slate, and Prize Committee members reviewed the full slate, researched the exhibitions based on materials sent (and in most instances needed to do additional research), and sent their vote to directly to the AAMC office. Hannah Howe and Sally Block tabulated the votes and a final slate was submitted to the AAMC membership for the popular vote.

The jury system for determining the awards for Outstanding Exhibition Catalogue; Outstanding Permanent Collection Catalogue; and Outstanding Article, Essay or Extended Catalogue Entry; remained in place. Jury members were recruited and the process of determining winners was conducted through reports/reviews and discussions monitored by Sally Block.

Areas of Improvement (for Awards that are determined by the Prize Committee and AAMC Membership)In general, the Prize Committee slate was well-rounded and diverse in terms of field specialty and geography. For the first time, for example, nominations from Canadian

institutions appeared on the initial and in the final slate. Several issues that need attention or improvement are:

Solicit nominations from Mexico and cultivate the momentum gained for securing nominations for Canadian exhibitions.

Colleague response to email blasts in some cases was low. Nominators did not send adequate materials (especially visuals and in

particular installation shots) and committee members and, presumably, AAMC members needed to conduct independent research in order to make an informed decision. The discrepancy between those exhibitions seen in person and those judged through on-line images and written descriptions should be narrowed.

Nominations from the membership should not appear on the AAMC website until a final slate is determined. The main reason for this is that if a nominated project is already listed on the AAMC website, someone else might not nominate it because he/she sees that the nomination has already been made. The Prize Committee depends in part on the number of nominations submitted by the membership to determine the slate (any nomination made by more than two individuals is automatically added to the slate).

There are currently 1100 AAMC members and roughly 130 of them voted. Why the low voter turnout?

Parity is the most frequently mentioned concern among members of the Prize Committee and jury members. Understandably, well-funded projects from larger institutions (and especially those in New York, where the majority of curators make frequent visits) have an edge. Some of this could be explained by such statistics as: 45% of AAMC members work in cities larger than 2,000,000 (thus larger cities have an advantage); the largest percentage (27%) of AAMC members work in the area of Modern and Contemporary Art (thus the higher number of nominations and winners in this area). The primary role of the Prize Committee is to attend to matters of diversity in geography and discipline, and level the playing field by identifying worthy projects from smaller institutions and from institutions of more limited budgets without ignoring great projects that do not fit that description. This mandate needs to be stressed to the future Chair and Prize Committee members in order for the slate to be well-rounded and well-presented.

Areas of Improvement (for Awards that are determined by the Jury System)

This aspect of the Prize Committee generally works well and runs smoothly in largest part because of the organization and leadership of Sally Block and Hannah

Howe. Jury Chairs, too, take strong leadership positions and the response to the jury system has been positive. Some areas that need attention or improvement are:

Exhibition catalogues and permanent collection catalogues continue to be sent to the wrong jury member or are not sent at all.

Many of the submissions continue to be “apples and oranges.” Jurors have commented on the difficulty of weighing the strengths and weaknesses of projects with different mandates: for example popular publications, scholarly publications, and gallery guides that are judged in the same pool of nominations. One jury member suggested that the “rules for nominating could be tightened up, limiting nominations to scholarly articles and essays only and not accepting nominations for more ephemeral kinds of text [in the category of Outstanding Article, Essay or Extended Catalogue Entry].”

The future Chair of the Prize Committee may wish to consider designating a Co-Chair responsible for assisting the awards determined by juries so that the Chair may focus on the newer process of focusing on the slate for awards determined by popular vote.

Parity continues to be an issue (see above). Well-funded institutions with larger budgets and staff for publications will likely be better than those of a smaller institution with a smaller staff and limited budget. If, however, this category is divided by budget or endowment (i.e. placing a monetary figure on a museum’s overall budget or endowment), we run into the problem of rich museum/poor museum or first place and also-rans. This is an issue that has not gone away since the inception of the AAMC awards program.

PrioritiesThe current Chair will rotate off the Prize Committee and a new Chair will need to be recruited. Four members will need to be recruited for the Prize Committee to replace those who are rotating off (Susan Goodman, Timothy Standring, Marisa Sanchez, and Cindi Strauss).

Professional Development Committee ReportSubmitted by Brooke Anderson and Simon Kelly

Report on Mentoring Subcommittee: Our committee is developing an online networking and mentoring resource for undergraduate and graduate students who are considering a career in museums.

We plan to reach out to professors and seek their assistance with marketing the online discussions. Each committee member will volunteer to monitor the resource for a month.

After one year, we will evaluate, and determine if we should continue.

Report on Programming subcommittee: Over the course of the year, the subcommittee for Programming has explored the possibility of organizing a webinar. This will be the first time that AAMC has developed a webinar. The group has focused on the broad theme of technology as a webinar topic and more specifically the impact of handheld technology on curatorial practice. The committee is researching possible presenters and plans to hold this webinar in the first week of November.

AAMC Website CommitteeReport of Activities, 2010–2011 Submitted by Annemarie Sawkins, Website co-chair The website committee had as its principal goal this last year formulating a set of survey questions for AAMC members. Late summer, I asked committee members to submit a list of 10-12 questions that they would like answered by the larger membership. The resulting 24 questions were then grouped into three categories. Once organized thematically, the complete list of questions were submitted to Sally Block, AAMC Executive Director and Christa Clarke, Chair of the Membership Committee. The experiences and results of the recent survey designed by the Curators Committee of AAM provided a template in part for the website committee and AAMC.  Armed with this information, the decision was made to streamline the process and to create, in essence, two surveys: an initial set of questions that would provide demographic information on the AAMC membership, and then a more in-depth survey that would deal with more specific curatorial issues. The membership stats collected from the first survey proved not only interesting to individual curators but very practical for grants application and appeals generated by AAMC for foundation support.

The survey has netted some interesting data about our group. This is summarized in large part on pages 8 and 9 of this year’s annual report but it is worthy to mention a few of the more striking details. Our membership is over 93% Caucasian and 75% female. Over 60% of us work for a private, non-profit museum. 43% of members have been working in the field for 15 years or more than and 45% of the group is age 46 or older. And finally, a quarter of us teach outside of our institutions.

In the coming year, the website committee will be working on phase two of our survey project. We will also continue working to improve and increase member use of our website. Ideas include encouraging members to use on-line forums for posting exhibitions available for tour, to share recent acquisitions or post standard information used in the field, such as templates for loan forms and facility reports, rights and reproductions agreements or external curator contracts along with more about the collections in our care.

ATTACHMENT C

PART II