Michigan Museums Association upcoming events

2026 MMA Conference - Oakland County (October 19, 2026)

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

2026 MMA Conference Registration is open!

Click here for detailed conference information

Step away from the day-to-day and reconnect with the passion that brought you to museum work. Discover practical strategies, innovative programs, and fresh perspectives from museum professionals across Michigan and beyond. From evening events to hallway conversations, the conference is designed to help you expand your professional circle and strengthen Michigan’s museum community!

Conference registration includes all regular conference activities including but not limited to:

All concurrent sessions and speakers
Two evening receptions
The MMA business meeting luncheon
The Museum Cafe and Michigan Museum Trivia
Vendors and more!

Whether you want to learn more about Oakland County, our local hosts or delve deeper into museum practice, we have you covered.

Register multiple people from the same member museum here.

To receive discounted member rates please make sure you are logged in.

Purchase guest tickets for family to attend evening events here.

Workshops are available at various times on Monday, October 19 and Wednesday, October 21.

Monday, October 19

9-12 Field Day 3 Experience at the Troy Historic Village $35
9-12 Destination Cranbrook: Breaking Down the Walls $50
1-4 Intro to Disaster Response and Hands-On Water Salvage Workshop $55
1-4 Exhibit Design Boot Camp $25
1-4 Accessibility Boot Camp $50

Wednesday, October 21

1-4 Metadata Refinement for Museum Professionals $50

1-4 Fire Salvage and Behavior for Cultural Institutions $25

2021 MMA Annual Conference attendees at Mackinac State Historic Parks.

Field Day Experience at the Troy Historic Village - 2026 MMA Conference Workshop (October 19, 2026)

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Field Day Experience at the Troy Historic Village

Monday, October 19

9am-12pm

Shadow a typical Field Day at the Troy Historic Village with a local Troy School and Village Education Staff. Attendees will meet up before the field trip for an introduction to the Village and how we run our field trip programs. Attendees will then divide up among three classes to experience the field trip firsthand. Follow-up questions and discussion will be available as time allows.

Presenters:

Alex Konieczny, Troy Historic Village
Jen Peters, Troy Historic Village

Registration

Member and Conference Attendee registrants $35

Non-Member registrants $45

Registration is open through September 28.

If the minimum number of registrants needed to run this workshop is not met by certain pre-determined deadlines, this workshop may be cancelled. Anyone registered for the workshop in the event of a cancellation will be notified and refunded.

Conference Registration is NOT required for this workshop

Guest Ticket - 2026 MMA Conference - Oakland County (October 19, 2026)

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

2026 MMA Conference Guest Registration is open!

Family, friends and colleagues are welcome to
participate in major conference events as guests.

Monday, October 19

6-8 pm Evening Reception at The Detroit Zoo $75.00

Tuesday, October 20

12-1:30 pm MMA Annual Business Meeting Luncheon $50.00
5-7 pm Evening Reception at Cranbrook $75.00

These tickets are only for specific conference events.
Click here for detailed conference information and full registration.

Guest tickets are available through September 22.

Destination Cranbrook: Breaking Down the Walls - 2026 MMA Conference Workshop (October 19, 2026)

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Destination Cranbrook: Breaking Down the Walls

Monday, October 19

9am-12pm

Join the staff of the Cranbrook Educational Community for a series of conversations and presentations focusing on their public entities. These discussions will offer a behind-the-scenes look at running over 300 acres of property, managing historic buildings, and creating welcoming educational and entertaining experiences for the public at our cultural institutions. There will be an emphasis on practical tips, actions, and best practices for an audience of much smaller institutions managing some or all of these similar issues.

Meet in the auditorium at Cranbrook Institute of Science. Expect to join in on three panels with four 10-minute presentations by each presenter, followed by group Q & A session after each set of presentations.

9:15am - Maintaining the Grounds and Historic Buildings: Hear about maintaining our historic campus including the recent renovation of our Japanese Gardens, managing actively used spaces with historic designation and long-term capital planning.

10:15am - Collections & Stewardship: Hear about how we work with living artists, support Detroit’s art communities, manage contemporary collections, and expand the archives.

11:15am - Creating Engaging Programs & Exhibitions: Hear about how we have changed programming models to engage broader public audiences, investing in advancements in technology in our historic planetarium and designed tours that have something for everyone.

The cost of your registration includes a boxed lunch.

Presenters:

Lyla Catellier, Cranbrook Art Museum, along with a variety of Cranbrook Educational Community staff members

Registration

Member and Conference Attendee registrants $50

Non-Member registrants $60

Registration is open through September 28.

Conference Registration is NOT required for this workshop

Accessibility Boot Camp - 2026 MMA Conference Workshop (October 19, 2026)

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Accessibility Boot Camp

Monday, October 19

1pm-4pm

This engaging workshop will provide an overview of accessibility audiences, program offerings, and training tips. Through information and hands-on activities shared by the presenters, you will leave with ideas, tools, and shareable examples for enhancing accessibility at your institution for people who are blind/low vision, d/Deaf/hard of hearing, on the autism spectrum, and living with dementia. Whether you are experienced with accessibility-focused work or looking to get started, this session will deepen your knowledge and build your skills.

Presenters:

Caroline Braden, The Henry Ford
Nicole Smith, Detroit Institute of Arts
Kayla Dietz, Alzheimer's Association
Denice Blair, MSU Museum

Registration

Member and Conference Attendee registrants $50

Non-Member registrants $60

Registration is open through September 28.

Conference Registration is NOT required for this workshop

Exhibit Design Boot Camp - 2026 MMA Conference Workshop (October 19, 2026)

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Exhibit Design Boot Camp

Monday, October 19

1pm-4pm

Exhibit Designer at Mackinac State Historic Parks Keeney Swearer will guide participants through the Exhibit Design process. All elements of the exhibit design process will be covered including:

-Concept design & basic flow floor plans.

-Exhibit design including interactive and artifact integration.

-Graphic design and integration into 3D exhibit design.

-Designing and specifying museum grade object cases, graphic panels, and other exhibit elements.

Participants will leave the workshop with a basic understanding of the Exhibit Design process and the tools required to begin designing exhibits at their their institutions

Presenter:

Keeney Swearer, Mackinac State Historic Parks

Registration

Member and Conference Attendee registrants $25

Non-Member registrants $35

Registration is open through September 28.

Conference Registration is NOT required for this workshop

Intro to Disaster Response and Hands-On Water Salvage - 2026 MMA Conference Workshop (October 19, 2026)

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Intro to Disaster Response and Hands-On Water Salvage

Monday, October 19

1pm-4pm

Whether it's a burst pipe, a slow leak, a flood, or the result of firefighting efforts, water is a major threat to Michigan's museums and their collections. In this workshop led by Mallory Bower and Louise Stewart Beck, participants will learn the basic concepts related to disaster response. The workshop will include an overview of categories of disasters, planning for a disaster, and what supplies to have to best equip you for disaster response. The second half of the workshop will consist of hands-on practice salvaging collections during a water event. All participants will receive personal disaster response supplies.

Presenters:

Mallory Bower, Cultural Heritage Consultant
Louise Stewart Beck, The Henry Ford

Registration

Member and Conference Attendee registrants $55

Non-Member registrants $65

Registration is open through September 28.

Conference Registration is NOT required for this workshop

Metadata Refinement for Museum Professionals - 2026 MMA Conference Workshop (October 21, 2026)

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Metadata Refinement for Museum Professionals

Wednesday, October 21

1pm-4pm

This workshop takes participants through metadata refinement concepts delivered through a series of hands-on exercises using common office apps like Google Sheets and Excel. We will work with samples of actual collection data and work together to learn best practices for refining descriptive, technical, and administrative metadata to improve discoverability, consistency and scholarship of their collection. We will also cover ways to leverage AI while also protecting data from unintended uses.

Presenters:

Matthew Patulski, Poplar Media, LLC.

Registration

Member and Conference Attendee registrants $50

Non-Member registrants $60

Registration is open through September 28.

Conference Registration is NOT required for this workshop

Fire Salvage and Behavior for Cultural Institutions - 2026 MMA Conference Workshop (October 21, 2026)

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Fire Salvage and Behavior for Cultural Institutions

Wednesday, October 21

1pm-4pm

This workshop will cover how fire behaves within collection and exhibition spaces. We will cover how fire damage can be mitigated by room design, suppression systems, and fire extinguishers. Health and safety will be a focus to address the hazardous carcinogens that can cover a fire-affected artifact. After the lecture portion of the workshop, we will have hands-on training for the handling, packing and basic cleaning of fire affected objects.

Presenters:

Jared Yax, Cultural Heritage Emergency Response Consultant
Brian Jaeschke, Mackinac State Historical Parks

Registration

Member and Conference Attendee registrants $25

Non-Member registrants $35

Registration is open through September 28.

Conference Registration is NOT required for this workshop