43rd Annual Conference:
Museums and the Power of Place

Every museum is shaped by where it stands. The land beneath it, the community around it, the history embedded in it, the place is not just a backdrop, it’s part of the story we tell.

Few places carry that story more powerfully than Rochester, New York. This is Haudenosaunee homeland, where the People of the Longhouse built a confederacy whose influence shaped our nation and whose people remain a vital, living presence today. It’s a city where the Erie Canal drove commerce and connection, where freedom seekers found refuge along the Underground Railroad, where Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony helped reshape what America could be, and where Kodak changed how the world remembers itself.

Join us February 21–24 at the Strong National Museum of Play and other local museums as we explore how location shapes mission, how community defines relevance, and how small museums carry the weight and wonder of the places they call home. Evening receptions and time to explore Rochester’s vibrant museum community will give you a firsthand look at how this city’s past lives on in the institutions keeping it alive today.

Whether your museum sits in a historic district, a rural town, an urban neighborhood, or a place the world has overlooked, where you are matters. And so does what you do there.

About the Conference

The annual SMA conference attracts more than 200 museum professionals, board members, and volunteers from a wide variety of small museums. They attend sessions on topics ranging from collections and education to staffing and board issues. We offer a large Museum Resource Hall and plenty of informal networking opportunities for you to talk with (and get ideas from!) other small museum professionals and volunteers.

When & Where

February 21–24, 2027

Strong National Museum of Play
Rochester, New York