What is EMP? Short for Emerging Museum Professionals, EMP is an initiative that was started by a handful of staffers at the American Alliance of Museums (formerly the American Association of Museums). This organization expanded the idea of EMP to a national scale and there are currently active EMP networks in eleven cities, including Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago! Each network is organ
ized by one or more local museum professionals, and most active areas have 4-10 events each year. What's it for? EMP is designed to facilitate social and professional opportunities for museum professionals in the first 10 years of their career. We aim to create a fun and accessible platform for emerging museum professionals to build a strong network of colleagues and advance their careers through a variety of opportunities. Am I an EMP? Emerging Museum Professionals are museum or arts-related staff/employees that have been in the field for 10 years or less. This covers a wide range of people—from staff of traditional museums to zoos, aquariums and other institutions supporting informal education. Established professionals who have been in the field for over 10 years are encouraged to become involved to guide and collaborate with the next generation of museum professionals. If you are interested in this group, then you are in! What can I expect from EMP? That is the beauty of this group! We can get what we want and need out of it for our local community—whether that be networking, professional development, or something else! What can I contribute to EMP? Your ideas, enthusiasm and community. We want to hear from all of you—what kind of experiences are you looking for? Do you have resources our group could use for an event or program? maybe a venue or a great speaker? Finally, the most important things you can do is spread the word. The larger our network is, the better! If you are interested in planning an event or have a great idea - let us know! How does this work? Currently we're focused on holding quarterly networking events. In between events, we keep in touch through this page.
