Our Vision
The Museum Association of New York is the key strategic resource for the New York state museum community.

Our Mission
The Museum Association of New York provides an information, advocacy and professional standards network that serves and strengthens New York State’s diverse museum community and enables its museums to fulfill their missions.

Who We Are/What We Do
Chartered by the New York State Education Department in 1962, the Museum Association of New York (MANY) is a nationally recognized state museum association committed to strengthening the organizational development of the state’s diverse museum and heritage organization communities.  As a member-based information and advocacy resource, MANY engages in a variety of programs and services addressing legislative and policy issues, analyzing and collecting trend data, and building information networks. Recent programmatic efforts are focusing on future leadership issues in the field resulting in the publication of a white paper, discussion guides, and outreach to graduate programs, graduate students and young professionals.  

MANY is a not-for-profit corporation governed by an elected board of directors whose members represent museums and historical organizations from across the state.

MANY's current programs and services include

• collaboration with state agencies regarding chartering of museums, standards and best practices, and the role of museums in cultural tourism initiatives;
• research gathering activities that gauge leadership and management trends and issues in the statewide field resulting in white papers and publications;
• production of a biennial salary survey that is the largest of its type in the US;
• a shared annual conference with the Upstate History Alliance that is now the largest gathering of museum professionals in the state;
• a monthly e-newsletter featuring leadership and management articles, advocacy and member updates, job listings, and professional development and funding calendars;
• arts and tourism advocacy activities in Albany and development and dissemination of advocacy literature to elected and agency officials and to the field;
• an interactive Web site (manyonline.org), and
• information referrals and networking opportunities.

The Audience We Serve
MANY’s membership numbers nearly 360 institutional, individual, and corporate members. Institutional members reflect the great diversity of organizations found in New York State and range from large, urban art museums to all-volunteer historical societies serving rural communities.  MANY broadens this audience by collaborating programmatically with the state's regional museums service organizations, state agencies, funders, and related statewide organizations.  For example, the work MANY does with the New York State Education Department (the primary regulator of museums) in terms of standards development and trustee training, affects the state’s entire museum community, which numbers in excess of 1900 institutions.

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