The Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG) Annual Conference was held at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM on June 24–27, 2025. I attended as a member of the Conference Committee and led both a session and an affinity dinner focused on the curation of archaeology, anthropology, and natural history collections. “Big Collections, Small Staff” was a facilitated roundtable in which participants shared effective strategies for managing large collections with limited resources.
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Big Collections, Small Staff
Conference Theme
The theme of the 2025 AAMG Annual Conference was “Belonging: Storytelling Across Campus and Community.”
Belonging informs the work we do with our collections, exhibitions, programs, communications, and fundraising as well as our internal organizational infrastructure and culture. It is also a critical aspect of our respective institutions’ relationships with students, campus and local communities. When examining how we create belonging in its multiple forms, how does that inform the stories we tell?
The question of storytelling taps into these pressing issues in our field and impacts how we position our institutions as wells as how our campuses and the public view us. Storytelling as a strategy makes our teaching, research, and outreach legible to our parent institutions, governing bodies, and external communities.
Roundtable Description
This facilitated roundtable provided a platform for sharing strategies and insights on managing large collections with limited staffing. What do you prioritize, and how do you allocate precious resources of time and money? How do you strike a balance between collections care, fostering curricular connections, and meeting other demands like maintaining NAGPRA compliance? Through knowledge-sharing and collaborative problem-solving, attendees exchanged practical approaches for optimizing resources and overcoming the challenges of effectively managing large collections with a small staff.
Learning Outcomes:
- Gain insights into innovative strategies for prioritizing tasks and optimizing resources when managing large collections with limited staffing.
- Explore practical approaches to fostering curricular connections and engaging diverse communities while navigating resource constraints.