Museum Workers
Advocacy Day 2026:
Broadening Our Horizons
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“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed unless it is faced”
- James Baldwin, 1962.
This year’s Museum Workers Advocacy Day will take place digitally on April 9th and 10th, 2026.
As workers in museums, archives, libraries, galleries, zoos, and other cultural institutions, we are confronting growing challenges that threaten the stability and future of the spaces we serve. From funding cuts and political pressure to censorship and efforts to defund or dismantle institutions, these threats endanger jobs, programs, and the preservation of knowledge.
This year’s theme highlights that broadening our horizons is about more than expanding perspectives; it reminds us that advocacy isn’t something we can do alone—our strength comes from standing together. NEMPN is currently seeking panelists to join us in making Museum Workers Advocacy Day 2026 an impactful event. In recognition of their time and valuable contributions, panelists will be offered a modest stipend or free NEMPN merchandise as a thank you for their participation. We are also looking for partners to help promote the event and sponsors to support it financially.
Thursday, April 9, 2026
10 am - 11:50 am ET
Hosted by Margaret Sheble, NEMPN Vice President
Participate in an informal meet-and-greet to connect with fellow museum professionals and board members of NEMPN. This is a great opportunity to build relationships and share ideas in a relaxed setting. We look forward to seeing you there!
Claim Your Space: NEMPN Coffee & Conversation Networking Event
11 am - 12 pm ET
Speaker: Elin Filbey
This session explores self-advocacy as a practical, evolving skill for neurodivergent museum professionals at every stage of their career. Structured in three parts, the presentation will address advocating for yourself as a job seeker, integrating self-advocacy into onboarding and early employment, and navigating advocacy once established in a role. Participants will gain concrete language, strategies, and frameworks for articulating needs, setting boundaries, and requesting reasonable accommodations in ways that support both sustainability and success. The session centers lived experience and actionable tools, with the goal of helping neurodivergent professionals not just enter museum roles, but thrive within them.
From Hiring to Thriving: Self-Advocacy for Neurodivergent Museum Professionals
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm ET
Speakers: Jess Meis and Sierra Van Ryck deGroot
Join Jessica Meis and Sierra Van Ryck deGroot as they demonstrate how you can use informational interviews to build authentic professional relationships in the museum and cultural sector. Informational interviews can be a great tool to explore career paths, grow your network, and seek out mentors. This session will walk you through all aspects of informational interviews, from best practices for getting a "yes," to how to keep the conversation going after the official meeting. Participants will gain practical strategies and confidence to make informational interviews work for your networking.
Networking without the Cringe: How to Slay Your Informational Interviews
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm ET
Speaker: Sasha Ongtengco
Join Arts Alliance Illinois in exploring the policy priorities and resources aimed at strengthening artists and creative workers across their state. Together we’ll explore what’s needed to advance equity and opportunity for talent in the creative sector.
Building Creative Worker Power | Policy Priorities, Career Resources, and Worker Protections
4 pm - 5 pm ET
Speakers: Elizabeth Shaw and Toby Irving
The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee supports non-union workers across industries, including museums and the arts, who want to organize towards an election or better workplace conditions. A successful campaign requires reaching everyone in the workplace, across shifts, roles, and identities. This presentation from EWOC (Toby Irving, staff training organizer, and Elizabeth Shaw, volunteer and former worker-leader at Glenstone Museum**) will cover how to identify leaders and build a representative organizing committee.
Unite and Win: Analyzing the Workplace to Start Your Union
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm ET
Speaker: Haydn Corrodus
This workshop is a sector-specific adaptation of a four-part personal branding webinar series I delivered for senior UK leaders as part of the 2025 Clore Leadership Programme, refined for emerging museum and arts professionals. The session reframes personal branding as intentional reputation-building, rather than self-promotion. Through guided reflection and facilitated discussion, participants build clarity around who they are, what they stand for, and how they want to show up professionally. Participants will leave with: a clear personal brand statement; an understanding of who they are speaking to and why; clarity on the most appropriate platform to focus on; three defined content pillars; and clear next steps for the next 30–90 days.
Personal Branding Workshop for Emerging Museum Professionals
Friday, April 10, 2026
11 am - 12 pm ET
Speaker: Asami Robledo-Allen Yamamoto
This session uses the metaphor of active dying to examine how multilingual people of color experience burnout in museum spaces. Through personal narratives and systemic analysis, we will explore how racial battle fatigue and linguistic labor create conditions that erode well-being and force talented professionals out of the field. Participants will engage in dialogue about the hidden costs of diversity work and translation, and how these practices often mask deeper inequities. Together, we will identify strategies to transform museums into spaces that sustain life rather than perpetuate harm.
The Stages of Dying: Multilingual Burnout and Survival in Museums
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm ET
Speaker: Alli Schell
What would change if we made museum workers more visible? Museums are powered by people, yet too often, audiences only see the objects, programs or exhibitions, not the staff who make those experiences possible. When whole departments are being cut, visibility becomes a form of advocacy. This session explores how museums can use marketing, communications, and development platforms to center their staff authentically. From real staff bio pages and social media spotlights to including front-line voices in newsletters and appeals, showcasing the humans behind the mission helps audiences understand what’s truly at stake when museum roles disappear. We’ll share real examples of museums doing this well and brainstorm creative, accessible ways to highlight your teams, even with limited resources.
Museums Run on People: Why Staff Visibility is Advocacy
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm ET
Speaker: Peter Williamson
Advocacy doesn’t happen in isolation. It grows through connection, shared imagination, and the ability to see challenges from new angles. In this interactive session, participants will explore how play and storytelling can strengthen community, build trust, and broaden horizons in the midst of serious work. Using a fast-paced, improvisational game inspired by Wing It, players will receive whimsical resources and collaborate to escape quirky museum-themed scenarios. We’ll start with a live demo round, then move into breakout rooms for small-group play. We’ll close with reflection and practical takeaways on how people can implement more playfulness into their work or space.
Playful Storytelling for Solidarity
4 pm - 5 pm ET
Speaker: Sara Phalen
This session centers the role of museum professionals in responding to immigration-related threats and intimidation, emphasizing solidarity with immigrant communities and the challenges faced by staff in maintaining trust and care. The session will address how museum workers and museums can adopt care-centered strategies, including public statements, partnerships with immigrant support networks, adaptive programming, and internal policies grounded in solidarity, while engaging the general public around historic context to the current crisis and ways to document what communities are facing.
Museum Workers & Community Care: Solidarity, Safety, and Institutional Responses to Immigration Enforcement
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm ET
Hosted by Margaret Sheble, NEMPN Vice President
Participate in an informal meet-and-greet to connect with fellow museum professionals and board members of NEMPN. This is a great opportunity to build relationships and share ideas in a relaxed setting. We look forward to seeing you there!