National Museum Publishing Seminar

NATIONAL MUSEUM PUBLISHING SEMINAR (NMPS) 2025:

A CONFERENCE BY AND FOR THE MUSEUM PUBLISHING COMMUNITY

June 29–July 1, 2025

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

*** Descriptions and speakers are subject to change ***

Sunday, June 29, 2025 

Optional Field Trip: Maryland Center for History and Culture 

Staff-led tour of the galleries at the Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) will take place 12–1 pm. Bus transportation will be provided.

Gather by Registration Desk ║ 11:30–1:00 pm EDT on Sunday, June 29 (offsite) 

Quire Hands-On Workshop at the Maryland Center for History and Culture

This hands-on workshop will serve as an introduction to Quire, an open-source publishing tool developed by Getty and available for anyone to use for free. Held in conjunction with the biannual National Museum Publishing Seminar and in partnership with the Maryland Center for History and Culture, this workshop is free and open to all levels of technical experience. Attendance is limited to 10 participants.

Gather by Registration Desk ║ 12:30–4:00 pm EDT on Sunday, June 29 (offsite) 

Exhibitor Hall Preview 

Harborside Ballroom AB ║ 2:00–5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, June 29 

Orientation / Speed Networking 

Harborside Ballroom CDE ║ 4:30–5:30 pm EDT on Sunday, June 29 

Dinners with Colleagues (offsite)

Gather by Registration Desk ║ 6:15–8:00 pm EDT on Sunday, June 29

Monday, June 30, 2025 

Exhibitor Hall: Coffee and Light Breakfast 

Harborside Ballroom AB ║ 8:00–9:30 am EDT on Monday, June 30 

Optional Mentor Network Meetup 

Location of your choice ║ 9:00–9:30 am EDT on Monday, June 30 

Welcome Session 

Harborside Ballroom CDE ║ 9:30–9:45 am EDT on Monday, June 30 

Plenary Session

Harborside Ballroom CDE ║ 9:45–11:00 EDT on Monday, June 30 

Publishing Without Fear or Favor: Maintaining Trust with Authors, Artists, and Audiences

A museum is often a trusted space to have challenging conversations, explore controversial topics, and connect across difference. Publishing this content and producing text for a related exhibition can be difficult to navigate from start to finish. It involves building trust with all stakeholders—from museum leadership and funders, artists and authors, to audiences and the press. It often requires solid defense of decisions large and small, including essay content development, cover art, and even word choice. This discussion hopes to uncover ways the museum can continue to be a successful forum for healthy debate and shared learning through what and how they publish.

• Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan, Director Content Strategy, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
• Kari Dahlgren, Director of Publications, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Julie Trébault, Executive Director, Artists at Risk Connection

Break

Harborside Ballroom AB ║ 11:00–11:30 am EDT on Monday, June 30

Concurrent Sessions (Two Hotel Locations) 

The Care and Feeding of Publishing Guides and Knowledge Bases

Harborside Ballroom CDE ║ 11:30–12:30 pm EDT on Monday, June 30 

Active museum publishing departments can find it a challenge to create, update, maintain, and share useful information. Knowledge bases can help you record, collate, share, store, update—and even sunset—living documents that save time by providing accessible guides on a variety of topics. However, these documents require active and intentional work and a degree of commitment and ownership to be of the most use to colleagues. Two staff members from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Publications and Editorial Department will lead a discussion about the practice, and not just the product, of user guides, and how to get leadership support when time, people, and resources are all scarce, whether in museum publishing departments of two or twenty. They will share examples of department guides that cover topics such as technology, institutional style, and the onboarding of curators working on publications.

Speakers:

• Robert Weisberg, Senior Project Manager, Publications and Editorial, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (moderator)
• Kamilah Foreman, Director of Publications and Editorial, Dia Art Foundation
• Valerie Hellstein, Managing Editor, Publications, Denver Art Museum
• Lina Palazzo, Associate for Administration, Publications and Editorial, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Social Media for Museum Publishers

Essex ABC ║ 11:30–12:30 pm EDT on Monday, June 30 

This panel discussion will provide an overview of the creative ways museum publishers and their partners have been promoting publications through social media. Speakers will address successes and failures, representing perspectives from museum, museum publisher, distributor, and printer accounts. Panelists will discuss different accounts and their demographics, share data-driven performance insights, and provide practical advice on how to promote publications on social media at various scales, from starting accounts to collaborating with partners inside and outside of their institutions.

Speakers:

• Rachel High, Manager of Editorial Marketing and Rights, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (moderator)
• Hope Stockton, Managing Editor, MFA Publications at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Jake Yuzna, Content Producer, Walker Art Center
• Cory Reynolds, Editorial Director, D.A.P.
• Silvia Zanetti, Project Coordinator, Trifolio

Lunch on Your Own 

12:30–2:00 pm EDT on Monday, June 30 

Post-Lunch Concurrent Sessions

The Style Slam: A Collaborative Approach to Creating a House Style Guide 

Harborside Ballroom CDE ║ 2:00–3:00 pm EDT on Monday, June 30 

So, you’re writing a style guide . . . now what? Join Leslie Poster and Judie Evans, editors at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, for a discussion on the museum’s “style slams” process for developing and maintaining a house style guide. They will share lessons learned from the collaborative process of drafting and refining the style guide in an environment where language authority is negotiated among many writers. Their presentation will offer practical tips on making the case for a style guide, getting staff and leadership buy-in, advocating for readers, managing difficult conversations around inclusive and conscious language, and maintaining version control in the midst of it all.

Attendees will learn how to implement practical guidance for creating and updating a house style guide, examine their workplaces to develop effective engagement strategies, and develop an effective method for receiving and vetting staff feedback. 

Speakers:

• Leslie Poster, Director of Editorial Services, National Museum of American History
• Judie Evans, Writer/Editor, National Museum of American History

The Life Cycle of Great Images: Best Practices from Image Receipt to the Printed Page

Essex ABC║ 2:00–3:00 pm EDT on Monday, June 30 

How does an artwork become a beautiful and accurate reproduction? How can I markup color proofs with actionable notes, and what do I do with these terrible files? 

This panel discussion will track the full life cycle of an image, showcasing effective strategies to communicate and execute a project’s goals. Our first panelist will discuss photography and the evaluation of incoming images. Then we will cover the construction of a design brief to match the goals of a project with associated materials, printing methods, and production techniques. A color separation specialist will walk us through the process of marking up color proofs and adjusting files for print, including a live interactive workshop. Last, we will cover the on-press experience from press tests to bound samples. Together we will build a glossary of terms related to image reproduction and a checklist for each stage of this process to share with attendees.

Speakers:

• Lauren Makholm, Director of Production in Publishing, The Art Institute of Chicago (moderator)
• Christina Wiginton, Production Manager, Office of Brand Strategy and Publishing, The National Gallery of Art (moderator)
• Joseph Mohan, Production Director, The Museum of Modern Art
• Tony Manzella, Owner, Echelon Color

Break

Harborside Ballroom AB ║ 3:00–3:30 pm EDT on Monday, June 30

Plenary Session

Lightning Round

Harborside Ballroom CDE ║ 3:30–4:30 pm EDT on Monday, June 30 

This session will feature five short presentations of recent innovations or case studies in the museum publishing field, followed by Q&A from the audience:

1. Managing Publication Content with Airtable

Airtable is an intuitive, flexible, and free tool that can be used for managing publication content. In this lightning-round presentation, we will look at a case study for the use of Airtable in creating a shared reference table that functions as a content outline, photography tracker, permissions repository, and captions manager. This tool is being used by the Saint Louis Art Museum to streamline collaboration with internal and external contributors to bring additional transparency and clarity to the book production process.

Presenter: Valerie Lazalier Edmison, Head of Publications, the Saint Louis Art Museum

2. Being on Press: Tips and Tricks from Editors

Whether you are on press solo or accompanying a designer, artist, or production staff, an editor can bring their own skill set to a press check. There are also ways to ensure accuracy and quality from afar. This lightening round will provide insights from editors to help break down the mystery of this final stage of the book production process. These tips will help editors gain confidence and be prepared by reviewing the basics of what to expect, how best to work with the printing staff, and how to tackle challenges that might arise during press check.

Presenter: Julianna White, Writer-Editor, Publications, National Museum of African American History and Culture

3. Adapting for the Future: A Digital Migration Case Study

Over the last decade, user needs and technology have evolved, prompting The Art Institute of Chicago to find a more accessible, responsive, and maintainable platform for its online scholarly catalogs. This case study examines the collaborative effort of the museum’s Publishing and Experience Design departments, with consultant Design for Context, to migrate 17 digital catalogs from 2014–2020 to a sustainable new platform. We cover key migration stages, from defining goals and analyzing content to transferring materials, while addressing challenges faced along the way. What content survived the transition, what was left behind, and what new trends are shaping digital publishing? The study highlights lessons on building sustainable digital publication infrastructures that other museums can adopt. The first catalogs on the new platform will debut in Spring 2025, providing a fresh comparison to earlier online publications.

Presenter: Armando Román, Digital Production Coordinator, The Art Institute of Chicago

4. Digital Publishing’s Second Renaissance

Fifteen years ago, following the first releases of the Kindle, iPhone and iPad, we saw a flourishing of experimental digital publishing. Publishers of all sizes rushed to explore and define the future of the book. They made books as apps, enhanced e-books, and interactive and hybrid books. After a few years, the gold rush sputtered when publishers realized there wasn’t all that much gold to be had, and the business realities of developing digital products with print book budgets hit home. There followed a period of retrenchment, where publishers sought stability in their digital activities. The intervening years have been marked by an increased focus on open access, open standards, accessibility, and sustainability. As a result, we today find ourselves in a more humane future of the book. From this new foundation, publishing may be ready to again take up the innovative experiments of those early years. They are likely to be smaller and more open than those undertaken in the past, but can still offer readers and authors new types of interactions, help them see things in new ways, and allow them to go deeper with content than they could with print alone.

Presenter: Greg Albers, Digital Publications Manager, J. Paul Getty Trust

5. Inclusive Language and Reparative Description: Joining Forces with Your Library

This presentation will dive into the IDEA Collaborative developed at the Maryland Center for History and Culture; a grassroots-led, hub-and-spoke model of championing initiatives related to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access. More specifically, we will look at the collaborative Reparative Description and Inclusive Language Working Group, which emerged as our collections, publications, education, and marketing teams realized they often grappled with similar questions: how to acknowledge identities in collection descriptions as well as marketing collateral; which inclusive language and reparative description principles to apply in content-generation throughout the organization; how inclusive and reparative language can contribute to the organizational voice.

Presenter: Martina Kado, VP of Research and France-Merrick Director of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library, Maryland Center for History and Culture

Exhibitor Reception 

Harborside Ballroom AB ║ 5:30–7:00 pm EDT on Monday, June 30 

Dinners with Colleagues (offsite) 

Gather by Registration Desk ║ 7:00–8:30 pm EDT on Monday, June 30 

Tuesday, July 1, 2025 

Exhibitor Hall: Coffee, Tea, and Light Breakfast 

Harborside Ballroom AB ║ 8:00–9:00 am EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Optional Museum Publishing Digital Interest Group (MuPuDIG) Meetup 

Location TBD ║ 8:30–9:00 am EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Concurrent Sessions

Buenas intenciones, Myriad Challenges: Adventures in Multilingual Exhibitions

Harborside Ballroom CDE ║ 9:00–10:00 am EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Museums of all sizes and specialties are faced with the challenge—and opportunity—to diversify how we present our exhibitions, programming, and publications. Whether your institution is in the early, middle, or late stage of reaching your multilingual goals, we can all gain from the challenges other museum colleagues have faced. Our panelists will each focus on an exhibition project that illuminates the variables at play at our institutions, highlighting practical takeaways that you can adapt for your own purposes. 

Speakers:

• Sheila Majumdar, Senior Editor, Publishing, Art Institute of Chicago (moderator)
• Antonio Díaz Oliva, Editor, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
• Emily Fry, Executive Director, Interpretation, Art Institute of Chicago
• Jack Radley, Editor, MoMA PS1

New Approaches to Digital Catalogues

Essex ABC║ 9:00–10:00 am EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Collections catalogues and catalogues raisonnés occupy a unique space between traditional research publications and database resources. Digital formats offer flexibility, embracing the evolving nature of object research and shifting art historical methodologies. This panel features projects that rethink digital catalogues, aiming to maximize relevance and accessibility for diverse audiences and stakeholders.

Speakers:

• Liz Neely, Curator of Digital Experience, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (moderator)
• Judy Lee, Scholarly Programs and Publications Specialist, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art
• Sana Mirza, Library of Congress
• Caitlin Sweeney, Senior Director of Digital Strategy and Publications, Wildenstein Plattner Institute

Break

Harborside Ballroom AB ║ 10:00–10:30 am EDT on Tuesday, July 1

Concurrent Sessions

How Can Museums Effectively Use Freelance Editors?

Harborside Ballroom CDE ║ 10:30–11:30 am EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Museums are increasingly turning to freelance editors to refine their publications, from exhibition catalogs to educational guides. This session, led by Flatpage cofounder Cara Jordan, will explore the essential editorial services available to museums—developmental editing, copyediting, and indexing. We will break down what each service entails, from shaping content and structure to ensuring clarity and accuracy, and pinpoint when to bring in editorial professionals for maximum impact. Attendees will learn best practices for collaborating with freelance editors, ensuring smooth workflows and high-quality outcomes. Whether enhancing visitor engagement through polished publications or ensuring scholarly rigor, this discussion will empower museum professionals to optimize their use of freelance editorial talent. This session is perfect for anyone involved in museum publishing, curatorial work, or communications.

Speakers:

• Cara Jordan, Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer, Flatpage (moderator)
• Emily Bowles: Freelance copyeditor based in NC who specializes in art and art history texts
• Chenoa Baker: Freelance editor and curator based in Philly who specializes in arts texts
• Anne Roecklein: managing editor at the Clark Art Institute

Leveraging AI to Enhance Image Descriptions for Art Collections

Essex ABC ║ 10:30–11:30 am EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Museums strive to provide universal access to their collections, yet many museums have little—if any—of their digital collection and digital publications augmented by image descriptions or alternative text (alt text), limiting access for visitors who are blind or have low vision. Over the past year, a collaborative, inter-museum working group of US-based art museums has been exploring the very real future of using multimodal AI to begin to bridge this gap: using generative AI to describe, tag, and provide image descriptions and alt text for artwork. 

Bringing in experiences from several museums, this session will dive into overall best practices for writing image descriptions and how to build upon those to develop, review, and deploy AI-generated descriptions. We will share active use cases and lessons learned from our exploration and discuss how this work can improve accessibility for digital and digitized publications and broader applications in the museum field.

Speakers:

• Dr. Mark Osterman, Assistant Director for Digital Experiences, The Wolfsonian-FIU
• Mike Trizna, Data Scientist, Office of Digital & Innovation, Smithsonian Institution
• Julia Demarest, Data Scientist, National Gallery of Art
• Adam Purvis, Data Architect, National Gallery of Art
• Ariana French, Former Director, Digital Technology at American Museum of Natural History

Optional Mentor Network Meetup 

Location of your choice ║ 11:30 am–12:30 pm EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Optional Quire Community Meetup 

Essex ABC ║ 11:30 am–12:30 pm EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Keynote Luncheon 

Harborside Ballroom CDE ║ 12:30–2:00 pm EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Concurrent Sessions

The Power of Partnerships: Raising the Profile of Museum Research through the Scholarly Community

Harborside Ballroom CDE ║ 2:00–3:00 pm EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Museum publishers contribute vital research to the scholarly record, but it is a challenge to break through the noise of digital distribution and engage a global audience. Strategic partnerships within the scholarly community can provide opportunities to expand and strengthen a publishing business into new markets, audiences, access models, and formats. This session will explore the network of partnerships and collaborations that museum publishers may leverage to innovate their publishing programs and bring their research to the broadest possible audience of researchers, scholars, and general readers. The panel will discuss real examples of successful collaborations that have expanded the reach and impact of museum publications.

Speakers:

• Phillip Hearn, Senior Publisher Relations Manager, Project MUSE (moderator)
• Maureen Winter, Associate Publisher, Getty Publications
• Laura Foster, Director, Academic Publishing, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Elisabeth Maselli, Senior Editor, University of Pennsylvania Press

Increasing Access and Equity on Both Sides of the Editorial Desk

Essex ABC ║ 2:00–3:00 pm EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

Where universities fall short, museum publication offices can step in to increase opportunities for future content-shapers. This panel will be a moderated conversation about an experimental program that was designed to support emerging art-history scholars yet had the unexpected outcomes of also 1) training editorial apprentices to recognize and address conditions that limit who gets published as well as who works in publishing; and 2) training authors to become future editors. In 2021, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s journal American Art created Toward Equity in Publishing (TEP), a pilot program that offered free developmental editing and workshops to demystify scholarly publication processes. Simultaneously, the journal invited our informal “apprenticeship” program of interns, volunteers, and work-study assistants to attend these workshops and to think about the restricting processes that limit whose voices are heard. Four years down the road, some of those interns are working in museum curatorial and publication offices and some of the authors are not only publishing their own research but also becoming editors themselves. In this panel, we will hear from them about lessons learned in the TEP program, and their own ideas on how to address inequities on both sides of the editorial desk.

Speakers:

• Robin Veder, Executive Editor, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum (moderator)
• Jenevieve DeLosSantos, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Art History Pedagogy & Practice Journal, Rutgers University
• Oscar Flores-Montero, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Baltimore Museum of Art
• Cyle Metzger, Co-Executive Editor of Panorama, the journal of the Association of Historians of American Art

Farewell Toast 

Harborside Ballroom AB ║ 3:00–4:00 pm EDT on Tuesday, July 1 

NATIONAL MUSEUM PUBLISHING SEMINAR (NMPS) 2025:

A CONFERENCE BY AND FOR THE MUSEUM PUBLISHING COMMUNITY

June 3–4, 2025 

All presentations will be held virtually.

VIRTUAL SESSIONS

*** Descriptions and speakers are subject to change ***

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

12–12:50 pm EDT

Publishing Fundamentals—Project Development and Questions for Success

Wondering how to get a new book off the ground? This session will go over the early planning stages of a project, from identifying your goals and audience, developing the concept and content, translating it into a book map and budget, and assembling a team (including authors, designers, and distributors). Learn the right questions to ask up front to set your publication up for success.

1–1:50 pm EDT

Publishing Fundamentals—Production

What is Production? A delve into the mysteries and delights of book production. Covering essential skills, the three key production criteria and principal stages of planning and manufacturing any given book project. A short and detailed dip into color theory, file supply, and the manufacturing process, including sustainable book manufacture. Aimed at anyone new to production and for those looking for an intro to more detailed elements of the complete book production process.

Presenter: 

• Clare Davis, former Design and Production Manager, Getty Publications

2–2:50 pm EDT

Publishing Fundamentals— Avoiding Rights and Reproductions Risks

As platforms for publication expand and intellectual property (IP) law becomes increasingly complex, we publishers worry more and more about the dangers of copyright infringement and how we can achieve our publishing goals without putting our institutions in legal jeopardy. This session will make copyright clearance and image licensing less daunting by introducing some fundamental IP and copyright principles as they apply to museum publishing, including Fair Use, Public Domain, orphan works, Creative Commons, rightsstatements.org, and managed rights. 

The session leader will walk participants step-by-step through the processes of copyright clearance and requesting a license, from identifying the copyright status of a work to tracking required license updates a few years down the road, offering templates and tools to help along the way. We have some tricks of the trade for copyright-infringement risk management to share. And we will identify pitfalls to avoid—like not assuming “non-commercial” means the same thing globally or not realizing there can be multiple rights holders for a single work. 

Armed with these resources for learning about IP and tools for effectively seeking permission, we hope participants will be better able to manage confidently the risks of Rights and Reproductions work

Presenter: 

• Suzanne Abrams Rebillard, Managing Editor, Publications, The Corning Museum of Glass

3–4:00 pm EDT

Publishing Fundamentals—Working with Co-Publishers

Whether you are looking to enhance your museum’s publications or seeking to understand the co-publishing landscape better, this session offers practical insights and actionable advice from panelists with a variety of backgrounds, from both art and history museums and from publishers large and small.  Discover how co-publishers can provide essential support in content development, copyediting, design, production, distribution, and marketing and how museums search for, select, and work with a co-publishing partner that is best suited for their specific project. 

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding the role and benefits of co-publishers
• Strategies for selecting and working with co-publishers
• Real-world case studies and practical tips
• Insights into joint communication and marketing efforts

Presenters:

• Doug Remley, Senior Editor/Publications Manager, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (moderator)
• Rhys Conlon, Head of Publications, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
• Margaret Rennolds Chace, Associate Publisher, Rizzoli Electa 
• Amy Canonico, Editor for Art & Architecture, Yale University Press

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

1–1:50 pm EDT

Collaborate Better (to Save Time, Money . . . and Your Sanity)

Flummoxed by file formats? Mystified by mark-ups? Confounded by colour correction? Creating a publication can be complicated—but it doesn’t have to be. In this workshop, graphic designer Lauren Wickware, will review various helpful tools and best practices for collaborating with a publication designer in an effective and efficient way.

Presenter: 

• Lauren Wickware, Lauren Wickware Design

2–2:50 pm EDT

Publishing Fundamentals—Style Guides and Checklists

What tools can support editors to do our best work? This session demystifies some of the basics that help editors learn to do good work consistently. We’ll discuss editorial checklists, style guides, and best practices that we can use and share to work smarter—and save our energy and attention for the things that matter most. 

This is a recorded session from NMPS 2023 Publishing Fundamentals Series. The presenter will be available for a live Q&A after the session. 

Presenter: 

• Emily Zoss, Managing Editor for Research Publications, Brand Strategy and Publishing, National Gallery of Art

3–3:50 pm EDT

Publishing Fundamentals—Marketing and Sales

Your organization has planned an exciting exhibition, and you’re producing a beautiful catalogue to accompany it—now you also have to think about marketing and selling that catalogue?! Marketing and sales can feel overwhelming for museum publishers of all sizes, but particularly when you don’t have dedicated marketing staff. This introduction to marketing & sales for museum publications offers practical advice on how to make the process less daunting, including: the importance of an internal book launch; preparing descriptive copy; cover design and design synergy; collaborating with your retail shop; collaborating with the exhibition marketing team; advertising; press outreach; sales materials; and more! 

Presenter:

• Maureen Winter, Associate Publisher, Getty Publications

4–5:00 pm EDT

One-Person Powerhouse: Thriving as a Publications Department of One

Many small and mid-sized museums often rely on very small teams to manage publications—sometimes as small as a single person! In these cases, publications are often just one of many responsibilities that individual must juggle. The challenges in this context differ significantly from those faced by larger museums with dedicated publishing departments.

This panel features professionals who almost single-handedly oversee their institution’s publication programs while also taking on roles such as curation, exhibition management, and gallery interpretation. They will share the challenges they have encountered, from developing creative solutions to best utilize limited staff and financial resources to balancing the often-conflicting demands of their diverse responsibilities.

Presenters: 

• Allie Haeusslein, Director, Pier 24 Photography
• Stephanie Rebick, Director of Publishing and Content Strategy, Vancouver Art Gallery
• Megan Carey, Director of Exhibitions and Publishing, Colby College Museum of Art 
• Martina Kado, VP of Research and France-Merrick Director of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library, Maryland Center for History and Culture