Museum Worker’s
Advocacy Day
NEMPN’s annual FREE virtual advocacy event
The National Emerging Museum Professionals Network (NEMPN) hosts Museum Workers Advocacy Day annually, providing a platform for museum professionals from all sectors and levels of experience to come together and advocate for equitable industry changes. This event provides a crucial platform for museum workers to address challenges impacting their profession, participate in advocacy initiatives, and advocate for reforms that foster equity and fairness within the industry. This year’s Museum Workers Advocacy Day will take place virtually on March 14th-15th, 2025.
This year, the theme is "Claiming Your Space," a call to action that emphasizes the urgent need to create and protect inclusive spaces. The theme invites participants to engage in critical conversations about their rights, the value of their work, and the importance of creating spaces where marginalized voices—especially those of LGBTQ+ individuals, BIPOC communities, and people seeking mental health resources—are heard and respected. It challenges museum professionals to confront systemic barriers while advocating for reforms that promote equity, accessibility, and well-being that fosters a more inclusive and resilient museum community.
2025 Calendar of Events
Friday, March 14
10 am ET - Coffee & Conversation Networking Event
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!
Register here: https://lu.ma/chdh2h8v
11 am ET - Novel Approaches to Meeting the Information Needs of the LGBTQ+ Community -
Queer Liberation Library (QLL) is fighting to build a vibrant, flourishing queer future by connecting LGBTQ+ people with literature, information, and resources that celebrate the unique and empowering diversity of our community. A digital, non-profit, library accessible to anyone with a US address and an internet connection, QLL has been providing queer books for free to 99,000 members (& growing!) since opening on October 23rd, 2023.
Register here: https://lu.ma/st40413s
12-12:50 pm ET - Lunch Break
1 pm ET - Care in Action: Using Data as an Advocacy Tool
The 2023 Museums Moving Forward (MMF) Report on Workplace Equity and Organizational Culture in U.S. Art Museums found that it takes an average of twelve years to receive a promotion in an art museum. This finding prompted MMF to convene cultural workers across the country and delve deeper into the issue of career advancement, particularly for early career professionals. At MMF, we believe that data allows cultural workers to contextualize their personal experiences within broader structural contexts. If you’ve ever felt as if you just aren’t trying hard enough to achieve a long-term museum career, this session is for you!
Register here: https://lu.ma/xwickec7
2 pm ET - Advocating for Salary
Salary transparency and negotiation are essential for ensuring fair compensation in the museum field. This session will cover key topics such as where salary fits into job offers, effective negotiation strategies, resources for researching salary data, understanding your employment type and eligibility, as well as the all-important skill of reading a museum's 990. Attendees will leave with practical tools to advocate for their salaries and thereby contribute to broader change in the field.
Register here: https://lu.ma/7bhsxfrp
3 pm ET - Crafting Visibility: A Disability Focused Zine Making Workshop
Join us for a zine making workshop led by museum educator and creative, Adelyn Castro Stratulat, focusing on disability representation. We'll create our own zines while discussing how art fosters visibility, and inclusion. Come together with other museum folks to share stories and explore the power of community through creative expression.
Register here: https://lu.ma/vylciex0
Saturday, March 15
10am ET - Coffee & Conversation Networking Event (Weekend Edition)
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!
Register here: https://lu.ma/c175d8eo
11 am ET - Centering Belonging: LGBTQ+ Inclusivity from Within
Want to create an inclusive space for LGBTQ+ staff and interns at your institution, but don’t know where to start? Join us for a presentation by museum educators Julia Butterfield and Roberto Chavez. Learn how museums can better support, include, and advocate for LGBTQ+ staff and interns. Participants will hear case studies and strategies for developing more inclusive practices and fostering safe, welcoming workplace environments in cultural institutions. This presentation is recommended for emerging museum professionals and recent graduates, managers and supervisors, and museum leadership.
Register here: https://lu.ma/psx4h65z
12 pm ET - Connection, Community, and Partnership
Staff and committee members of various membership associations share their experiences of how they came to participate in this work, what each association offers to support members, and how the forming of community can help you claim your space in the museum sector. Bring your questions!
Register here: https://lu.ma/4mtfaikl
1-1:50 pm ET - Lunch Break
2 pm ET - Navigating Online Hate & Abuse: A Guide for Arts Marketers
In today’s digital landscape, arts organizations and marketers use online platforms to amplify their work, connect with audiences, and drive engagement. However, these platforms also expose cultural institutions, artists, and marketing teams to online hate, abuse, and harassment. This 45-minute webinar provides practical strategies to anticipate, mitigate, and respond to online abuse while fostering a positive and resilient digital presence for your organization and Staff.
Register here: https://lu.ma/0je0r744
3 pm ET - BIPOC Space for Museum Professionals
The BIPOC Space will be held for museum workers who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color), working to create a safe and inclusive space with fellow BIPOC museum colleagues. We hope to create this space for us to network, support, and uplift one another. Our mission is to provide support, resources, and a space to share our work and personal journeys as we navigate forward.
Register here: https://lu.ma/8ts86gpu
3 pm ET - Museum Power Hour
Do you have a problem that you're looking for support on how to handle? How can we come together try to solve individual or field-wide issues? This intimate gathering will follow our beloved Bubbles For Your Troubles format where we welcome folks to pour their hearts out about things that are truly grinding their gears in the museum field, personally, and beyond (no recordings or sharing out allowed!). Following the session NEMPN's Community Committee will put together an advice/resource list based off the conversation.
Register here: https://lu.ma/heyqfaco
More details coming soon!
Get Involved
If you have any questions, want to reach out, or volunteer, please contact NEMPN Director of Advocacy, Margaret Sheble at advocacy@nationalempnetwork.org.