We want you … and your two-cents worth. With the big Museums Australia conference coming up next year, we’re already planning topics for the Regional, Remote and Community Museum Day.

We’ve been talking about the way museums have changed, and in particular about our obligations to engage audiences in more authentic ways; how ‘storytelling’ has become a critical skill for the industry; and how caring for a collection is no longer the sole responsibility in a museum.

And then we stopped to think about the most basic and yet fundamental questions of all: what is a museum today, and how does the work we do contribute to social good? And how do we as a regionally dispersed sector make a case for continuing this work in the current climate of political and funding challenges?

With the fast pace of change in the sector, everything from how we define our mission, to how we engage audiences is under scrutiny, so these questions are probably worth thinking about.

We’d also like to unpack some of the hype around sustainability. The term clearly means more than using energy efficient bulbs in our displays, or having efficient climate control, but how exactly do we plan and organise our tasks to address the smorgasbord of sustainability issues in our busy museum worlds? Think sustainable funding, succession planning, long term sustainable collection management, the future in cultural tourism and the list goes on.

Regional, remote and community museums have a lot to celebrate and even more to debate. If you have responses to these themes, or can think of something the sector should be discussing at a national level, let us know!

The call for abstracts and ideas is open and Museums Australia would like to hear from you!

You need to know that:

The Regional, Remote and Community Museums Day of the National Conference will be held at the Australian National Maritime Museum on the 21^st of May 2015.

To submit an abstract go to ma2015.org.au

Submissions will close on the 7^th of November.