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2010 Annual Conference

Finding Hard Cash in Hard Times:
Winning Strategies for Academic Museums

May 22, 2010

Hammer Museum, UCLA
Los Angeles, CA

The current economic downturn affects all academic museums to varying degrees. Why do some take massive hits to operating budgets while others continue to stay on mission and, dare we say, move forward during challenging times? With shrunken endowments affecting us all, decreased operating support from our parent organizations, a dearth of corporate support, large reductions in foundation and government grants, and diminished annual donations from individuals, where do we find the resources to keep on track with our missions and goals?

Focusing upon our core missions, strengthening our internal and external ties, expanding our partnerships and sharing costs are but a few of the concepts that will be discussed at the 2010 ACUMG Annual Conference in Los Angeles at UCLA's Hammer Museum. Topics will include:

- Mining restricted campus endowments that support collaborative projects and/or the arts;
- Expanding internship programs with central funding;
- Building multi-museum exhibition collaborations to decimate costs;
- Curating brilliant exhibitions on the cheap;
- Emboldening our missions and selling them to tough funding audiences;
- Partnering with funded student clubs for projects of mutual interest
are but a few of the topics we will explore.

Model programs, examples of partnership contracts, and networking opportunities will be shared and promoted. The goal of the conference is to learn best practice models and to provide tangible results for participants through significant partnership networking.

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The Association of College and University Museums and Galleries (ACUMG) is a network of museums and galleries affiliated with academic institutions. ACUMG is an Affiliate Professional Organization of AAM. www.ACUMG.org