Annual Conference

The West Virginia Association of Museums’ annual meeting and conference will be held April 3-5, 2025, at the Doubletree by Hilton in Huntington, West Virginia. The theme of WVAM’s 2025 conference is “Museums as a Critical Community Asset.”

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

WVAM is now accepting proposals for papers, presentations, workshops, and poster sessions addressing our theme of “Museums as a Critical Community Asset.” Potential topics include (but are not limited to):

-How museums represent the local, state, and regional history of West Virginia
-What museums provide to their communities (i.e. community spaces, preserving identity and culture, educational opportunities, heritage tourism)
-How museums can connect to their communities (i.e. gaining volunteers, fundraising, outreach)
-How museums and cultural institutions can promote a vibrant local, state, and regional history

As always, WVAM is also accepting proposals for sessions that focus on interpretation, communication, diversity and inclusion, marketing/PR, fundraising, educational resources, constructing exhibits, and other public history topics. Please email us at museumsofwv@gmail.com if you have questions.

In addition, WVAM is now accepting proposals for poster presentations from students, AmeriCorps members, or institutions wanting to share research or projects. These posters can address our conference theme, but do not have to. Poster presentations can present any research or projects related to public history, museums, and similar institutions.

The deadline for submission of proposals is February 15, 2025.

Submit a session proposal here or mail in the proposal form

Submit a poster proposal here or mail in the proposal form.

SPONSORSHIPS

Sponsoring the annual conference funds the programming and logistics of the conference and allows WVAM to keep registration costs low for participants. Sponsorship levels begin at $100 and benefits include advertisement, free conference registrations, and vendor tables.

Become a 2025 Sponsor here
or
Mail in the sponsorship form

SCHOLARSHIPS

WVAM will offer a limited number of scholarships covering the cost of conference registration.

In exchange for a scholarship, each participant will be asked to volunteer at least 5 hours at the conference. Potential tasks include room monitor or recording sessions, helping with the registration table, assisting with the auction, setup/clean up, etc. In addition, each scholarship recipient will be required to prepare a short write-up (100-150 words) about their conference experience for our summer newsletter.

Applications are due February 28, 2025. Any questions, please email museumsofwv@gmail.com
Recipients will be notified by the scholarship selection committee by March 15.

You or the organization you represent must be a member of WVAM to apply
If the scholarship recipient does not complete the volunteer & writing requirements, they may be required to pay back the cost of registration to WVAM

APPLY HERE