| Mark your calendars now! After the busy holiday season, we will soon have the 2018 Tennessee Association of Museums Annual Conference on the horizon on March 21–23, 2018! The conference theme is "Strength in Unity" – keep your eye on the website for further information about sessions and schedule soon. Museums are repositories of art, history, science, and culture and are crucial to community unity in Tennessee whether the communities are large or small. When we come together to share common concerns, success stories, and noble failures, we strengthen our individual institutions, refresh our personal passion for our missions, and become powerful advocates for the importance of museums in our world.
The conference will be held at Pickwick Landing State park near Shiloh, the site of one of the most intense (and storied) battles of the Civil War that helps illustrate what can happen when division gets extreme. It is now more important than ever for museums in Tennessee to search for common ground amongst a diversity of institutions/organizations and beliefs. CONFERENCE HOTEL The hotel for the 2018 TAM Conference is the Inn at Pickwick Landing State Park. TAM members will receive a group rate of $90 per night for the conference. Please call the Inn directly at 800-250-8615 or 731-689-3135, using the Group Code 6683 for your booking to receive the group rate. Check out this link for more information about the hotel. 2018 TAM SCHOLARSHIPS The Tennessee Association of Museums is pleased to announce our joint scholarship program with Humanities Tennessee for the 2018 Annual TAM conference. The Tennessee Association of Museums is offering three full scholarships to attend the 2018 TAM Conference, which include conference registration, all meals provided by the conference, two nights lodging at the conference hotel, and mileage reimbursement up to $50. The three scholarships are awarded to one emerging museum professional from each of the three regions (West, Middle, East) of Tennessee. The deadline for the TAM Scholarships is January 12, 2018. Humanities Tennessee is also offering scholarships, which are available to volunteers without museum related backgrounds who work with a nonprofit museum or with an organization that is starting a museum. Organizations with paid, professionally trained staff are not eligible, nor are previous scholarship recipients. Preference will be given to applicants whose organizations are new to TAM. This scholarship provides two nights lodging at the hotel in Pickwick Landing, all meals provided by the conference, and conference registration fees. Scholarship recipients will be responsible only for their mileage, and an institutional TAM membership at a cost of $60.00. The deadline for the Humanities Tennessee Scholarships is to be announced soon so keep an eye on our website. For further information about both of these scholarship opportunities and how to apply, click here. 2018 TAM AWARDS The deadline for the 2018 TAM Awards nominations is coming soon – January 19, 2018! The awards committee has compiled a few documents to help you in filling out your nominations, including guidelines, hints on how to write an award-winning nomination straight from the judges' mouths, a link to the online nomination form, and a list of your Awards Committee members. You can find the person who represents your county, plus our three at-large representatives on this last list. These are the people to reach out to if you have ANY questions about the nomination process. They are here to help you get the recognition you deserve! Click here for all this great and useful information and to start your nomination process! Once you submit your nomination, you will receive an email reply saying your nomination was successfully received. You will also have a way to print off your filled-out nomination form. ***IMPORTANT*** If you do not receive the email saying your nomination was successfully submitted, resubmit it, or contact Tori Mason, Awards Committee Chair, at tmason@nashvillezoo.org. 
RSVP for Tennessee Music Pathway Information Sessions Commissioner Kevin Triplett continues his travels across the state to talk about the new Tennessee Music Pathway, expected to launch late spring/early summer 2018. Topics include an overview of the program, the potential impact to your community, updates on the project, criteria for the Pathway and how to get involved, and a Q&A segment. Interested parties are encouraged to RSVP now and plan to attend the presentation in your area. Two roadshows have already been held on December 12 at the Stax Museum of American Soul in Memphis and the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Jackson. Other roadshow dates and times are listed below: * December 19, 2017, 10am at Leslie Town Centre, Cookeville * January 11, 2018, 2:30pm at Visit Knoxville, Knoxville * TBD in Northwest Tennessee
Space is limited, so RSVP today!
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