Texas Association of Museums president Mike Sproat at the 2017 TAM conference in Abilene
A month from now, from April 18-21, museum professionals will invade Houston for the Texas Association of Museums’ annual meeting. Tracing its roots back to conferences of museum professionals in the 1930s and ’60s, the association was officially created in 1974 during a conference at the Witte Museum in San Antonio. It grew from there, and now includes members from both well-known and smaller Texas museums and institutions, including The Grace Museum in Abilene, the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University in Houston, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, and the San Benito Cultural Heritage Museum in San Benito, among many others.
While many events at this year’s conference will take place at the Hyatt Regency Houston (1200 Louisiana St.), there will be a number of other events throughout the week that explore the city’s numerous unconventional museums. Off-site educational tours and workshops will take participants to, among others, Bayou Bend Collection & Gardens, The Health Museum, and the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum. The rest of the conference includes panel discussions and roundtables about conservation techniques, collection management, and other museum-specific topics.
On top of everything else, there’s a healthy list of exhibitors, including the Mid-America Arts Alliance, various archival supply companies, and Glasstire. For more information, and to register for the conference, please go here.
