No Blueprint: Collaborative Conversations on Museum Capital Projects

ID: WMA2026_614

Track:

Museum capital projects are complex, collaborative efforts—yet there’s no single roadmap for success. This session invites participants to shape the agenda and engage in peer-led discussions on partnerships, project management, fundraising, and vendor relationships. Designed for active participation, the session creates space for attendees to share experiences, ask questions, and exchange practical strategies across a range of project types and scales.

Session Information

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

Uniqueness: This will break from traditional panels by empowering attendees to lead the conversation, share expertise, and collaboratively solve capital project challenges across the museum and vendor perspectives.

Objectives:

Aligned with the spirit of ASPIRE, we invite museum professionals to deepen partnerships, amplify underrepresented voices, and develop frameworks for capital projects that are not only transformative, but also innovative and rooted in community—creating space for possibility, creativity, and ingenuity. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the collaborative nature of museum capital projects and how different roles—museum staff, vendors, and partners—intersect across project phases. By engaging in peer-led discussions, attendees will identify practical strategies for navigating key aspects of capital projects, including partnerships and community involvement, project management, development and fundraising, and vendor relationships.

Through shared experiences and facilitated dialogue, participants will explore approaches to building effective partnerships, selecting and working with vendors, and aligning internal teams and external collaborators. The session will also highlight how institutions of varying sizes and capacities can adapt these strategies to meet their specific needs.

By the end of the session, participants will leave with actionable insights they can apply to their own work, along with new connections to peers facing similar challenges. Outcomes include increased confidence in managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects; a clearer understanding of how to approach different phases of a capital project; and access to shared ideas, resources, and real-world examples generated through group discussion.

Engagement: The session will begin with a quick look at exciting capital projects across the Western U.S., then shift to participant-driven discussion. Presenters will lead small-group conversations focused on: partnerships and community engagement; project management; development, marketing, and fundraising; and vendor relationships and selection. Facilitators will spark dialogue with prompts and stories, and encourage the sharing of experiences, challenges, and strategies. The session will end with groups sharing takeaways with the room.

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Curators/Scientists/Historians Development and Membership Officers Events Planning Facilities Management Personnel Marketing & Communications (Including Social Media) Other Registrars, Collections Managers Technology 

Professional Level: All levels 

Scalability: This session is designed to be relevant across a wide range of organization types and sizes by focusing on adaptable strategies rather than one-size-fits-all solutions. Through the knowledge cafe format, participants will shape discussions based on their specific contexts—whether early-stage planning at a small institution or managing large-scale, multi-year capital projects.

Participants