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Foundation and Future — Keynote address

Prof. Jack Lohman CBE, President of the Board of the CMA
Delivered on December 4, 2020

Click here for a video of this presentation.

Allow me to acknowledge that I am speaking to you from the traditional territory of the Lekwungen speaking people, the Songhees and Esquimalt nations.

At our last CMA conference — held virtually in April, when we still hoped to be meeting in person — I highlighted the goals that I believe must drive the museum community forward: greater solidarity, greater connectedness, and greater social responsibility.

The way forward

Today, I’ll build on the direction that I believe we in the museum sector must take to meet the great challenges before us. We can see this determination to grow and evolve in all of our 2020 award winners — whom we announced in July and will celebrate more soon — and I’ll mention just a few of them today.

First, as museums continue to tell important stories of the objects and belongings in their collections, we must include and emphasize the meaning of those collections for communities. Interpreting and presenting tangible, and intangible heritage, in partnership with communities to speak about how stories can be best shared, is our raison d’être. Consider Body Language: Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest, by the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, which won a CMA2020 Award for Exhibitions in the cultural heritage sector. From the beginning, this vibrant exhibition included Indigenous curators and artists who are at the forefront of the revival of Indigenous tattooing in BC. These communities are telling their own stories. Inclusion is the direct route to better understanding our museum’s collections and belongings, and sharing that enlightenment with the public can build bridges between communities.

At the same time, we remain focused upon the rich insights to be discovered in the pursuit of research. We can research widely enough to respond to shifting social interests and ideologies, and publish and share this research widely enough so it’s available to all. The winners of the 2020 award for research in the cultural heritage sector went to Bob Janes and Richard Sandell for their work on Museum Activism, which shows that vocal support for socially relevant research is becoming more widespread worldwide.

Our own research voice is global, too, and it speaks beyond our borders. Museums must remember the importance of being heard, on the international stage and being a more prominent voice in cultural diplomacy. Nathalie Bondil was this year’s recipient of the ICOM Canada International Achievement Award for her work within and beyond Canada, and generating support for collaborative initiatives from organizations like the OECD. Only our imaginations limit the scope of initiatives that can bring Canadian ideas and research to the world, even as those initiatives ensure that at home we maintain a broad view of the greater landscape in which we operate. We can see ourselves in how we see the wider world.

We must build upon and pass this professional knowledge and practice — or upskilling — to the next generation of museum leadership. To maintain the trust that individuals place in our institutions, and by virtue of that our profession, leadership is key, as is developing our leaders of tomorrow. Dean Brinton, Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum of History and the Canadian War Museum, was this year’s recipient of the Barbara A. Tyler Award in Museum Leadership, and for the award he has chosen Jason Hynes of The Rooms in Newfoundland as his protégé. It’s incumbent upon all of us to share our leadership skills with young museum professionals whenever and wherever possible.

Another, humbling aspect of our sector is the tremendous contribution and role of volunteers, without whom we could not function. We’re grateful to organizations such as the Volunteers of l’Association Canadienne d’histoire ferroviaire, Exporail, the Canadian Railway Museum, who won the Museum Volunteer Award, which the CMA offers in partnership with the Canadian Federation of Friends of Museums. Exporail has so many volunteers that it was a challenge to squeeze them all into a photograph for our awards supplement. It’s one more example of how Canadians value museums, and how they’re willing to invest in them with their own time. We must recognize and encourage such generous efforts — both as valuable labour and expertise, and as channels of communication to the broader community.

Changes to awards for 2021

These examples I’ve cited today help us to understand how museums, and the world they help to illuminate, are changing. Our annual awards help to support and encourage our museum workforce, and even as these awards reflect our best work, they too must keep pace with change to remain relevant and accessible. Honouring past accomplishments helps propel us to the future. We can clearly see this determination to grow and evolve in our 2020 award winners. That being said, we’ve made some changes to our program for 2021 and onward — changes that reflect the exciting realities of museum work today:

  • The Social Impact Award recognizes the contribution of a museum in advocating for the advancement of an important social cause, such as reconciliation, sustainable development, climate action, better standards of living together, inclusiveness, wellness, etc.
  • Stewardship of Collections, previously named the Conservation award, is for excellence in stewardship of collections, for example, in their physical care, in the preservation of intangible culture heritage, including relevant digital practices and documentation.
  • Audience Outreach: previously the Education award, this award has been broadened to include all programming that advances knowledge and understanding by reaching new audiences or enhancing existing ones.

I wish to thank the Membership and Awards Committee, and in particular committee chair and CMA Fellow Benoît Légaré, for the hard work and sage advice that went into the updates to our awards program.

The call for nominations for 2021 went out several weeks ago and closed on November 15 (except with one exception – you have until December 20 to make a submission for the ICOM Canada award). I’m excited to see who – and what – has been nominated for the 2021 awards.

Our 2020 award winners meanwhile were announced this past summer. I urge you to stay tuned for a commemorative insert in the winter issue of Muse magazine, and an online edition with special, dynamic features.

Launching CMA 2021 National Conference

Next year’s awards will be celebrated as part of the CMA’s 2021 National Conference. I’m pleased to report that planning is under way and the call for proposals for the conference is open today!

We’ve told you how we’re modernizing our conferences to ensure they remain relevant. The pandemic has also taught us the importance of designing programs that are flexible and responsive.

So, while we had hoped to see you all in Newfoundland in the spring, we’re planning for a virtual conference that will kick off May 3 and run online over 2-3 weeks, with an in-person element, if possible.

The theme for CMA2021 is Moving forward, which speaks to the greater solidarity, connectedness and social responsibility that will help to build a bright future for our museum sector.

We’ll bring Canada’s diverse museum community together for the best in professional development, networking and collaboration. We’ll focus on the most timely, critical and relevant issues, and address the practical and technical issues we face in our work.

Now is my plea — to ask you to help the CMA build your conference. Go to the CMA’s website and submit a proposal using the online form by January 31 .

The CMA will share further updates on plans for the conference as they become available. In the meantime, get your proposals in. And I look forward to joining you for CMA2021!