Have you joined our new Facebook Group Page for members only? Members are sharing articles, asking operational questions, advertising upcoming events, and sharing COVID protocols at their museums. Come join us and add to the conversation!

Don't forget to pay your VAM membership dues. To see if you have an open invoice, login to your VAM account. If we can be of any assistance, contact VAM's Membership and Development Manager, Rebecca Guest. Thank you!

VAM's governing council and staff members will travel to Farmville, VA next week for our annual retreat. Thank you to the Robert Russa Moton Museum and Longwood University for hosting us! Staff members will respond to your messages upon our return to the office.

Join us in Richmond in 2022! For our annual conference, we are planning to be back in person, at the Omni Richmond. Save the date now for March 5th to 8th, 2022.

Conference planning is underway. There's still time to join the Program or Local Arrangements committee. For additional details, contact VAM’s Director of Communications and Programs, Christina Newton.

VAM is excited to announce an initiative that will engage the Virginia museum community to help address challenges facing the field. The process will launch this month with a series of virtual facilitated focus groups that will offer members an opportunity to share various perspectives to help determine pressing needs in the field and what support VAM may provide to meet those needs.

RSVP to join us during one of the upcoming dates in July and August that best meets your position or interest. These conversations will be held during our regular 3:00pm ET peer group chat times. 

July 15 - Museum Education

July 22 - Collections and Exhibition

July 29 - University and College Museums & Galleries

August 5 - Museum Leadership

August 12 - Historic Sites & House Museums

July 13 - Tuesday Talk: Embrace Your Geekness Day!

Visit our website for upcoming events, now including those presented by some of our partners! Or, if you've missed a webinar or chat and want to get more information or the recording? Visit our calendar and search past events or contact Christina.

The Alexandria Black History Museum, which is part of the Office of Historic Alexandria, recently received a $243,356 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Museum Grants for African American History and Culture. The grant will fund a multi-year project to digitize documents, photographs, objects and other materials in the museum’s collection from Alexandrian activists Ferdinand T. Day and Annie B. Rose, Washingtonian opera singer Ben Holt, and public relations icon Moss H. Kendrix. The Moss H. Kendrick collection was a 2020 Virginia's Top 10 Endangered Artifact honoree.

A groundbreaking ceremony was recently held on the grounds of the Virginia Museum of Natural History to celebrate the future site of the Jim Tobin Monarch Waystation, which will provide all of the resources necessary for monarch butterflies to successfully sustain their migration.

The National Park Service (NPS) has reopened the onetime home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee after a major renovation and the addition of new exhibits on the lives of people enslaved there. It's the largest curatorial, or museum project in the history of the parks service.

A special ceremony held in Australia celebrated 17 sacred objects from the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection at the University of Virginia being repatriated to the Arrernte, Warlpiri and Warumungu communities in Central Australia.

A historic wall dating back around 200 years has collapsed at Lee Fendall-House Museum and Garden in Old Town Alexandria, leading museum staff to seek a plan and funds to rebuild.

The Sensory Explorers’ Trail at Sky Meadows State Park has earned the Bronze Medal in the 2021 Governor’s Environmental Excellence Awards for the category of implementation of the Virginia Outdoors Plan.

The Virginia Museum of Transportation is a winner in The Roanoker magazine's 35th Annual 2021 Best of Reader Poll - achieving Gold - Best Museum.

The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) announced that the Virginia Museum of History & Culture (VMHC) has been selected as a 2021 National Award of Excellence recipient. This national award was bestowed in recognition of VMHC’s leadership of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s 2020 commemoration for the centennial of women’s suffrage.

Congrats to Stephen Wilson, the new Executive Director of St. John's Church Foundation. Wilson has been with the Foundation for the past two years as its first Director of Development.

Cheers to Dr. Sarah Kennel, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts new Aaron Siskind Curator of Photography and Director of the Raysor Center. She will join the VMFA in September. Kennel was previously at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, where she served as the Donald and Marilyn Keough Family Curator of Photography.

Congrats to Emma Ito, the new Director of Education at Virginia Humanities. Ito was previously an Education and Program Specialist at the Library of Virginia.

Congratulations to Alexis Harvey for joining the Education & Outreach team at the Library of Virginia.

Farewell to Jackie Ly, Museum Engagement Manager at Morven Park. Jackie is the new Family Formation Minister at her church in Arlington.

Farewell to Karleen Kovalcik, Executive Director at the Louisa County Historical Society. Karleen has accepted a position at the University of Virginia.

We are saddened to learn of the sudden passing of one of VAM's members and a former Council member, Troy Marshall. Troy was dedicated to his family and his museum, the Virginia Museum of the Civil War. Our thoughts go out to his family, and his many colleagues at VMI and throughout the Commonwealth. He will be sorely missed by all.

As a member of VAM, you have access to discounted contract pricing wherever business takes you through Office Depot. Your discount never expires and can be used for personal, school or business purchases such as ink, toner, paper, and cleaning and classroom supplies!

Find all the essential items you need to keep running as efficiently as possible. With free next-business-day shipping, we make sure you have what you need, when you need it.

Shop Now!

To see other promotions from VAM Business members, visit our Member Discounts page!

This international grant program was designed to have a transformational impact on digital methods and digital research in cultural institutions. Recipients are eligible to receive grants of up to $150,000. The program is a joint initiative between The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the United Kingdom’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Applications must be submitted by bilateral teams with at least one cultural institution from each country and are due July 8, 2021. To learn more and apply, click here.

The Community Foundation of the New River Valley 2021 Responsive Grant Program will provide up to $4,000 in operating support to eligible nonprofit organizations. Organizations must serve one or more of the following communities: the counties of Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski, and Wythe, and the City of Radford. The deadline to complete the application is 5 PM on July 23rd. To learn more and apply, click here.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is announcing two programs to distribute American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds. These programs are open to nonprofit arts and culture organizations and local arts agencies. There are two funding opportunities available—one for arts and culture organizations, and one for local arts agencies to subgrant. Arts and culture organizations can request up to $150,000. Applications are due August 12, 2021. Local arts agencies can request up to $500,000 for their subgranting programs. The application deadline for local arts agencies for subgranting is July 22, 2021. To learn more and apply, click here.

Loudoun County government has encouraged nonprofits serving Loudoun to apply for financial assistance available through the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funding. This funding will support organizations that are working to mitigate the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadline to apply is 4 PM ET, Wednesday, July 28. To learn more and apply, click here.

Virginia Humanities will be distributing more than $900,000 in funds from NEH to museums, historic sites, and cultural institutions across Virginia affected by the COVID-19 health crisis. Humanities-focused nonprofit organizations based in Virginia that are facing financial difficulties will be able to apply to Virginia Humanities for grants beginning in July. The grants can be used to cover general operating costs including salaries, rent, and utilities, as well as costs associated with providing public programs. Awards will be announced in September. Application instructions will be available at VirginiaHumanities.org when available.

Inspire! Grants for Small Museums is a special initiative of the Museums for America program. Inspire! has three project categories: Lifelong Learning, Institutional Capacity, and Collections Stewardship and Access. Award amounts will be $5,000–$50,000. Applications are due November 15, 2021. To learn more and apply, click here.

It's summer camp season! To help you prepare, the CDC has released new guidance to give you the most up-to-date recommendations on how to operate camps, which provide valuable opportunities for youth in all of our communities.

Click here to learn more about how to safely operate summer camps.

Museums are at the heart of our cultural lives: they are where we go to learn and gather collectively. But the pandemic has restricted access to these spaces, and national conversations around equity are asking museums to reckon with where their collections came from, who they represent, and who has access to them.

Watch this presentation from Chicago Humanities for a conversation about how museums will shift and change as we move into a new stage of the pandemic and come back together in public spaces.

Our friends at the Virginia Commission for the Arts recently held a webinar to review the latest guidance on capacity, safety, health and sanitization, as well as planned and best practices for patron and event management. The resources are available for free online.

Watch on YouTube, here.

Download the FAQs & Resources, here.

Download the Slideshow, here.

VAM is continually monitoring COVID-19 related information and resources of benefit to the museum and nonprofit sector. Please visit our website various resources pages for the following assistance, plus more.

Search VAM's Career Center for information on the only certificate in museum management offered by a museum association, plus resume review help, job listings, and more.

Search the Job Board for these current listings and more: