OMA 2018 Student Scholarship Blog Series: Issue 2

The Ohio Museums Association is committed to connecting and empowering museum professionals at all stages of their career — including our student and emerging museum professionals!

For our 2018 OMA Annual Conference, OMA was very proud to offer students seeking careers in the museum field, scholarships to attend OMA 2018 in Dayton.

Miss our first post? Learn more about the Scholarship series and read our previous entry here.

This week's post comes from Kayla Draper. Ms. Draper is currently attending the University of Kentucky and will receive her MA in Arts Administration in 2019. She has worked for the Tiffin Art Guild and Gallery in Tiffin, Ohio as an administration intern, and at the Canton Museum of Art as the marketing intern. Most recently, Kayla has completed a social media and special events fellowship with the Ohio Arts Council. 

OMA 2018 - New Experiences 

Exploring new technology, new concepts and new experiences at the 2018 Ohio Museums Association Annual Conference reminded me that arts and cultural institutions remain grounded in communities around the state.

As museum professionals gathered together for the 2018 Ohio Museums Association Annual Conference in Dayton, Ohio we were reminded of our important role in the communities we serve by keynote speaker, Barbra Stonerock, Vice President of Community Engagement at the Dayton Foundation.

I was able to explore these concepts through an array of sessions and round-table discussions.

In today’s changing world, it can be hard to keep up with new technology, especially in the museum environment. But, I learned that you don’t need the most expensive piece of technology to have the most effective education program or most engaging exhibitions. You simply need to be innovative with what you have. The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums team showcased how they used an iPad and simple video editing software to create the new online, Membership 411 program to engage a larger audience. The Wood County Historical Center Museum presented ideas on how to attract new visitors through repositioning a collection of items you already have.

The COSI team explored how to engage with teens and have them explore their future careers through community partnerships and the Dayton Art Institute education team showed us to engage with children of all ages in the gallery through visual, verbal, kinesthetic, solitary, social, mathematical, and aural play.

The Museum Sorytelling Project through the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Money Museum offered a way to expand educational reach in the community and provide new a way for students to tell their own stories.

I think I speak for everyone who attended OMA 2018 when I say, we had new experiences. From chatting over current issues in museology and exhibition design at round-table sessions to new friends made over lunch, we each had the opportunity to experience something new and take it home with us.

So, ask big questions and generate new, extraordinary ideas.