[BCMA] The future of the Canadian Museums Association

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

March 17, 2021

Le français suit.

Re: The future of the Canadian Museums Association

To the Executive Director and Board of the Canadian Museums Association:

We write to express our growing concern for the future of the Canadian Museums Association (CMA). We write in light of immediate concerns regarding the recent number of resignations from the Board of Directors.

We seek to understand what has caused these resignations, and how the CMA intends to address its crisis of leadership.

We write at a time of complexity and crisis. Across the country we are working to address issues that our communities care about: recentering Indigenous Peoples and cultural resurgence, diversity and inclusion, the climate crisis and social inequality.

As museum professionals at major institutions across the country speak to their experience of the ongoing harm and toxic effect of colonial systems, racist legacies, and gender inequality, our national professional association needs to demonstrate support for those hurt by unequal power structures and poor leadership. 

To do our work well, museum professionals across the country need a national organization which supports all of us, which brings us together and which helps us speak with a strong, clear voice.

The CMA is a membership-driven organization – it is up to us, as members – to ensure it has the leadership the museum sector needs.

We wish to support a constructive path forward for the future of our membership association.

Accordingly, we, the undersigned, intend to invite voting members of the CMA to sign a petition calling for a Special General Meeting to discuss the future of the Canadian Museums Association <https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GF8RCG5>.

We look forward to hearing from you.

 
Le 17 mars 2021

Objet: Le futur de l’Association des Musées Canadiens

À l’attention du directeur exécutif et du conseil de l’Association des Musées Canadiens

Nous vous écrivons pour exprimer notre préoccupation croissante pour l'avenir de l'Association des Musées Canadiens (AMC). Nous écrivons compte tenu des préoccupations pressantes concernant le récent nombre de démissions au sein du conseil d'administration.

Nous cherchons à comprendre ce qui a causé ces démissions et comment l'AMC entend faire face à sa crise de leadership.

Nous écrivons à une époque de complexité et de crise. À travers le pays, nous travaillons à résoudre les problèmes qui préoccupent nos communautés : le recentrage et regain culturel des peuples autochtones, la diversité et l'inclusion, la crise climatique, et les inégalités sociales.

De la même manière que les professionnels des musées des principales institutions du pays parlent de leur expérience vis-à-vis des préjudices et des effets toxiques continuels des systèmes coloniaux, des héritages racistes et de l'inégalité entre les sexes, notre association professionnelle nationale doit démontrer son soutien à ceux qui sont affectés par des structures de pouvoir inégales et un leadership médiocre.

Pour bien faire notre travail, les professionnels des musées de toutes parts du pays ont besoin d'une organisation nationale qui nous soutient tous, qui nous rassemble et qui nous aide à parler d'une voix forte et claire.

L'AMC est une organisation dirigée par ses membres - c'est à nous, en tant que membres - de s'assurer qu'elle a le leadership dont le secteur des musées a besoin.

Nous souhaitons soutenir une voie constructive pour l'avenir de notre association.

Par conséquent, nous, soussignés, avons l'intention d'inviter les membres votants de l'AMC à signer une pétition demandant une assemblée générale spéciale pour discuter de l'avenir de l'Association des musées canadiens. <https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GF8RCG5>
Nous attendons de vos nouvelles. 

 

Signatories (as of March 17, 2021)

 

●      Tracy Calogheros, FCMA; Executive Director, The Exploration Place, BC

●      Anne Chafe, CEO The Rooms; Treasurer, ICOM Canada, NL

●      Catherine C. Cole, FCMA; Principal Consultant, Catherine C. Cole & Associates/Director of Planning, Inuit Heritage Trust, AB

●      Dolf DeJong, CEO, Toronto Zoo, ON

●      Victoria Dickenson, FCMA; Professor of Practice, McGill Library and Collections, QC

●      Anne Ewen, Chief Curator of Art and Heritage, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, AB

●      Wendy Fitch, Executive Director, Saskatchewan Museums Association, SK

●   Jennifer Forsyth, Advancement Lead, Alberta Museums Association, AB

●      Naomi Grattan, President & CEO, Fort Calgary Preservation Society, AB

●      Stephanie Halapija, Executive Director, Gulf of Georgia Cannery Society, BC

●      Alexandra Hatcher, Museums and Heritage Consultant, Co-Founder, Hatlie Group, AB

●      Ryan Hunt, Executive Director, BC Museums Association, BC

●      Robin Inglis, FCMA; historian, former Executive Director, CMA, BC

●      Robert R. Janes, FCMA, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Museum Management and Curatorship, Visiting Fellow at the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester (UK), and Founder, Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice, AB

●      David Jensen, David D. Jensen & Associates, BC

●      Marie Lalonde, Executive Director, Ontario Museums Association/Directrice générale, Association des musées de l’Ontario, ON

●      Donna Livingstone, CEO, Peter and Catharine Whyte Foundation and Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, AB

●      Lisa Making, Executive Director, Royal Tyrrell Museum, AB

●      Johanna Mizgala, Curator of the House of Commons, ON

●      Nancy Noble, FCMA; Director & CEO, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, NS

●      Gerry Osmond, Director of Arts and Heritage for Newfoundland and Labrador, former Director, CMA, NL

●      Meaghan Patterson, Executive Director, Alberta Museum Association, AB

●     Paul Robertson, President, Ontario Museums Association/Président, Association des musées de l’Ontario, ON

●      Martin Segger, FCMA; Research Associate, Centre for Global Studies, Professor Emeritus & Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Art History & Visual Studies, University of Victoria, BC

●      Tyler J. Stewart, Independent Curator and Museum Consultant, AB

●      Elka Weinstein, Vice President, ICOM Canada, ON 

●      Crystal Willie, Museums and Heritage Consultant, Co-Founder, Hatlie Group, AB 

●      Karen vandenBrink, Manager, Museum and Archival Collections, City of Waterloo
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