Service to the Field

Our annual conference serves 300 to 400 people and is hosted in a different region to ensure we are serving the entire state. MANY offers direct technical services and training, publishes a monthly e-newsletter, shares original content on social media platforms, hosts a job board, works with funders to distribute grants, produces an annual conference, and offers professional development workshops including The Museum Institute at Great Camp Sagamore, a leadership retreat that promotes professional and personal growth.

At the start of the pandemic, we decided to offer our live virtual programming free of charge to remove cost barriers and promote access to the important information being shared. Since March 2020, over 8,500 people from more than 800 organizations in 48 states have participated in at least one of 70 virtual programs. MANY offers as many as 20 live virtual programs each year free of charge and includes closed captioning and ASL interpretation.

MANY is the designated partner for the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program, circulating Smithsonian-created exhibitions across New York State. From June 2019 to April 2020, MANY was the statewide organizer for Water/Ways, the first time New York State participated in the MoMS program. Six museums were selected to host the exhibition and MANY staff worked with twelve museum professionals to develop complementary exhibitions reaching 25,000 people, a 78% increase in attendance with 50% of visitors identified as from “out of town.” From March 2024 to January 2026, MANY will travel the exhibition “Voices and Votes: Democracy in America” to 12 museums in 9 REDC regions, help the museums promote the exhibition widely, and produce an interactive website, a local history exhibition, and public programs.

In 2020, MANY received an Institute of Museum and Library Services CARES Act grant for “Building Capacity, Creating Sustainability, Growing Accessibility,” which supported the work of 98 museums and 203 staff with 3,580 hours of training to help them reach audiences virtually. Between January 2021 and July 2022, MANY staff and consulting experts conducted 24 site visits, delivered 62 virtual trainings, and led 29 in-person workshops across the state. 97% of participants reported building new digital skills and 90% of partner museums have applied their technology and learning to additional programs and projects.

In 2022, MANY partnered with Museum Hue, a nationally recognized organization that works to paint a larger portrait of the arts and culture field by providing greater support and recognition for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color throughout museums and other cultural entities across the United States, to produce “Museums Support Democracy”, a seven-part webinar series funded with $49,884 from NEH’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant program presented and discussed by museum professionals from a broad range of locations and disciplines featuring the work of culturally responsive museums. 869 people attended from 48 states/territories (including D.C., Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands) and eight countries.

In 2023, the Special Collections Library of the State University at Albany acquired MANY’s organizational archives so that future generations can learn from MANY's history.