Gerard Aching is Professor of Africana and Romance Studies, a Faculty Fellow at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, and Co-Principal Investigator of the Rural Humanities Initiative at Cornell University.

Maya Allison is founding Executive Director of The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, the first academic gallery in the GCC. She was curator at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, and before that, at The RISD Museum as Curatorial Assistant.

Jobie Hill is a licensed Preservation Architect and Slave House Expert engaged in interdisciplinary research examining the dwellings of American slavery, the influence these dwellings had on the lives of their inhabitants, and is committed to the preservation and education of the history of enslaved people.

The National Taiwan Museum in Taipei, established in 1908, is the oldest museum in Taiwan, with collections and programming related to the history of Taiwan, as well as anthropology, the earth sciences, zoology and botany. The Museum has developed an innovative program that trains international undergraduate and graduate students to give guided walking tours of the Museum’s collections and its historic buildings. Fang’s presentation gives an overview of this program, the National Taiwan Museum, and the state of the field of museum education in Taiwan today.

Museums are currently facing challenges on multiple fronts, from an ongoing global pandemic, calls to address systematic racism, long-standing labor inequity and looming financial shortfalls. For leadership, it can be a time to hold on to the past or an opportunity for radical change. Scott Stulen will share how the Philbrook Museum of Art is responding to this moment by connecting to the needs of the community, building a more sustainable organization and redefining how we measure success.

Karyn Olivier creates sculptures, installations, and public art. Her work often intersects and collapses multiple histories and memories with present-day narratives. She will discuss several projects which engage existing monuments and her fabrication of contemporary monuments and memorials.

With 3,000 members throughout the region, the New England Museum Association has been a hub for keeping museums and museum people connected during the coronavirus crisis. Here’s your chance to speak with NEMA Executive Director Dan Yaeger about the latest from the front lines of museum leadership, how people are coping, and the short/long-term prospects for museum careers.

Having been closed for 18 months of renovation, Providence Public Library was scheduled to begin its grand reopening on March 30th, with events and activities designed to bring crowds into the Library’s beautiful new public spaces throughout the weeks and months ahead. Instead, the Library didn’t open, and all public gathering for the foreseeable future has ceased.