Visitor studies association will investigate how to build community through virtual conferencing to improve accessibility and inclusion at museum conferences, while also reducing the field's carbon…

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded the Visitor Studies Association Inc. a $449,957 Project Grant under the National Leadership Grants for Museums (CFDA 45.312) program. The funding will support a two-year project to investigate how to build community through virtual conferencing to improve accessibility and inclusion at museum conferences, while also reducing the field's carbon footprint. The project will create an oversight committee, convene key stakeholders in virtual meetings, synthesize best practices, and generate new approaches for effective virtual conferencing. The focus will be on creating virtual spaces that enable early-career attendees to easily connect with more experienced participants, navigate towards more central community roles, and develop a sense of belonging. Prototypes of promising approaches will be tested, and the project will result in a final report and a practitioner's guide to the most effective virtual conference designs for wide dissemination to museum professionals.

Visitor studies association will investigate how to build community through virtual conferencing to improve accessibility and inclusion at museum conferences, while also reducing the field's carbon footprint. The project will create an oversight committee and bring together key stakeholders in a set of virtual meetings to synthesize best practices and generate new approaches for virtual conferencing. The focus will be on creating virtual spaces for social networking where early-career attendees can easily meet more experienced participants, navigate towards more central community roles, and develop a sense of belonging. Prototypes of promising approaches will be tested. The project will result in a final report and a practitioner's guide to the most effective designs that will be widely disseminated to museum professionals.