2025 AAM Advocacy Days in Washington, DC Feb 23-24
Representing KMA, Kristy Peterson of Manhattan’s Museum of Art + Light, myself, and Dené Mosier of Topeka’s Kansas Children’s Discovery Center
I arrived at the Sheraton Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia on Sunday evening, just in time for a cocktail reception, where I had a very nice chat with a woman from the George Washington University Textile Museum and learned what it is like living and working in our nation’s capital city.
Monday was spent entirely at the hotel for conference-style informational presentations geared toward getting everyone ready for visiting their congresspeople the next day. I caught up with Andy Finch of AAMD (American Alliance of Museums Directors) after he spoke on current national policies affecting museum. Many of you will recall he was KMA’s keynote speaker at our Manhattan conference in 2017. Later in the day Andy was honored with the 2025 Advocacy Leadership Award.
There were presentations on the important “asks” we would be discussing with our legislators, especially to encourage continuing the robust IMLS funding (Institute of Museum and Library Services) and to vote for increasing charitable giving tax breaks for donors.
Other sessions included updates on the US semiquincentennial America 250th, and gathering in state groups to discuss strategies for the legislator meetings that AAM had pre-scheduled for each one of us attendees for Tuesday.
Nothing can really prepare you for the experience of running from Representatives’ office buildings on one side of the Capitol Building to the Senate Offices on the other side. There are underground hallways connecting the four office buildings on each side, but most of our Kansas visits ended up going from House offices over to Senate and back, so bringing comfortable shoes was essential!
Our Kansas “Day on the Hill” began with an invitation for 8 a.m. “Donuts with Sharice.” Representative Sharice Davids met with us in person, and was the only legislator who had time to meet directly that day. We learned that her mother has begun a master’s program in library science, and that she has always rigorously supported museums.
Our second Kansas appointment was with Rep Ron Estes staffer’s and we were joined by Arthur Afleck, Executive Director of the Association of Children’s Museums.
We ran across the Capitol grounds to the Senate office of Roger Marshall, which was quite crowded and we simply talked with the staff person in the corner of the waiting area. Then we ran back to the House office blocks for a meeting with Rep. Derek Schmidt’s assistant, Clint Blaes.
Our following meeting was in the office of Senator Jerry Moran, another reliable supporter of museum funding who has also helped with special projects in our state. We had a good discussion with his two staffers, Seth and Jack.
There were two hours before our last meeting of the day, so we did a little exploring. We had a delicious lunch at the National Museum of the American Indian and then stopped in the US Botanic Garden for a nature break.
Our final meeting of the day was in the office of Representative Tracy Mann, with his assistant Sarah Ferrell. We had a lively discussion about Kansas museums and their economic impacts, as well as the many great educational programs in our state.
After each visit, we were expected to complete a review form on how we thought conversations went and how receptive the legislators might be to our cause. But to really debrief after the long day, a reception was held in the Capitol Visitors Center for museum folk to unwind and share experiences before we hopped on the shuttle to head back to the hotel.
Andy Finch, AAMD
