Based in Massachusetts and serving the northeast region, the New England Museum Association (NEMA) connects a community steeped in learning, collaboration, and action to cultivate a better museum world. A world where all institutions consistently fulfill their potential for their stakeholders and society at large. NEMA creates opportunities for learning, personal growth, creative idea exchange, and inspiration that help individuals and institutions do their best.

NEMA can be traced back more than 100 years ago to the first “New England Conference” organized by Delia Isabel Griffin, founding director of the Boston Children’s Museum. Since then, NEMA has grown to become the country’s largest and one of the most active regional museum association with programs and services that extend beyond the region’s borders. NEMA hosts a variety of programs and events throughout the year, including networking receptions, educational webinars and workshops, roundtables with leaders, and the annual conference attended by an average of 800 museum professionals; where Publications, Excellence, and Lifetime Achievements Awards are given. Resources for the field include NEMA Marketplace, New England Museums Now (an online journal), NEMA jobs, Museum Document Exchange, NEMA 911, and Professional Affinity Gatherings. NEMA’s efforts also include a salary and benefits survey, advocacy through public policy, and work that addresses the relationship between the environmental crisis and the cultural sectors.

The NEMA Conference is one of the most significant annual museum community events for networking in the country. With over a hundred educational sessions, renowned keynote speakers, local off-site visits and evening events, the conference is NEMA's second-largest operating revenue source after membership. NEMA’s network of memberships, over 2,600, includes museums of all scale and subject matter, other cultural institutions, individual museum staff persons and professionals, businesses who provide products and services to the museum field, and colleges and universities who educate museum professionals. Member benefits include admission to participating regional museums, discounts for insurance plans, access to NEMA publications, professional networking and professional development, award competitions, and numerous professional resources, including an online forum and an annual conference.

Over the past two years, the NEMA board and staff have engaged in intensive organizational reflection and training on issues relating to diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and justice (DEAIJ). NEMA recently announced its revised mission and value statements, along with a long-term strategic focus that centers equity and justice. New leadership will be key to implementing this ambitious and important strategy at all levels of NEMA’s operations.

Central to the new mission, are six core values:

• NEMA exists to cultivate a better museum world.
• NEMA believes that all people should be treated equitably, and that equity centers on changing the museum structures that are systemically oppressive.
• NEMA believes in expanding and enriching the diversity and interconnectedness of the museum field.
• NEMA believes that the existential threat of the global environmental crisis poses unprecedented risk to museums, historic resources, and belongings of cultural value, requiring immediate sector-wide action.
• NEMA believes in anticipating, assessing, and fulfilling the evolving needs of our museum community.
• NEMA believes that the people, stories, collections, and experiences that enliven museums have the ability to create a more just society.

NEMA has a physical office in Arlington, Massachusetts with four full-time members, including a Director of Administration, a Director of Programs and Advocacy, a Director of Membership and Development, and a part-time administrator. NEMA has a 15-member board of directors led by President Raney Bench. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, NEMA reported a total revenue of $437,217, with $256,234 in contributions and grants, $146,712 from program services, and $34,039 from other investment income. Total expenses were $391,409.

NEMA recognizes that the organization and those of its members were founded within a colonizing society that continues the exclusion and erasure of many Indigenous peoples throughout New England and beyond.