Better Together: Exploring Large-Scale Cross Organization Collaboration

ID: WMA2026_592

Track:

What methods can we use to work together in offering top-notch, state-wide, programming and coordination? Join three organizations to discuss one model of large-scale cross organization collaboration involving school programs teams from 10 organizations. Through the iSEE partnership, museum and school staff work together to promote excellence in education, navigate challenging situations, maintain funding sources, and offer programming statewide. Participants will learn from presenters about the benefits and logistics of running programs of this kind.

Session Information

Format: Regular session/panel (roundtable, single speaker, etc.)

Uniqueness: Utah’s unique legislative support sustains robust informal education presence in schools. Through this partnership, organizations offer a larger scale and range than in individual programming.

Objectives: Participants in this session will learn about one model of large-scale cross-organization collaboration, including specific logistics of decentralized leadership, processes for adding new organizations, and funding advocacy.  Participants will also understand the benefits of similar collaborations and hopefully be inspired to seek out their own partnerships with other museums and institutions. We anticipate this session will be most helpful for leadership and department heads, but also hope it will be informative for all career levels. In the “Session Audience” choices below a few options appear to be missing, but the intended audience is Educators and Leadership.

Engagement: The engagement in this session will prompt structured reflection based on case studies and data. Participants will share their experiences and collaborate on new ideas. Participants will make connections in the room and ideate new connections in their communities.

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Other 

Professional Level: Mid-Career Senior Level 

Scalability: The scalability of this session comes from the presenting organizations and the main theme of the session. The three presenting organizations are each unique from the other: one is a collections-based museum, nested in a large research university, one is an outdoor nature center, and one is a zoological museum. Each organization has a very different sized staff, budget, and facility. The organizations also span across Utah’s population center: from Ogden to Salt Lake City to Draper, these organizations represent different communities. The main theme of the session is to show how different sizes and types of organizations can be united in purpose for mutual benefit, just as we have done through the iSEE collaboration.

Participants