35th Annual Meeting of the AMIS
Vermillion, South Dakota
19-22 May 2006
 

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The National Music Museum (NMM) on the campus of The University of South Dakota (USD) in Vermillion, South Dakota (USA), will host the 35th annual meeting of the American Musical Instrument Society, held in collaboration with The Galpin Society and the International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections (CIMCIM) of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Friday-Tuesday, May 19-23, 2006. The AMIS/Galpin component of the meeting will conclude on May 22nd, with May 23rd reserved for CIMCIM paper sessions (open to AMIS/Galpin members who wish to stay) and business.  Please click here for a list of sessions.

The program committee is chaired by John Koster, Conservator & Professor of Music at the NMM/USD. Abstracts for 20-minute papers, as well as other program proposals, should be sent to him by November 30, 2005, at the National Music Museum, The University of South Dakota, 414 E. Clark Street, Vermillion, SD 57069 USA, or by e-mail at jkoster@usd.edu or by fax at 1-605-677-6995. Please include a brief biography suitable for inclusion in the program booklet. 

For the AMIS/Galpin sessions, proposals on any subject related to the history and use of musical instruments will be considered. For the CIMCIM sessions, proposals are invited from CIMCIM members on the themes “Presenting Musical Instruments to a Non-Musical Public” and “Patrons, Politics, and Prosperity.” The first of these concerns issues confronting musical-instrument collections that may be in institutions primarily concerned with other fields, such as history, art, technology, and ethnology.  How are instruments presented in these contexts, what interpretive constraints or problems might arise, and how are these challenges met are some of the subjects to address. The related topic, “Patrons, Politics, and Prosperity,” will address the interface of fund-raising with a philosophy of display and the impact this has on serving institutional missions, whether they be of music-related institutions or non-music museums. Areas of consideration include use of new technologies, working with donors and politicians, educational programs, and collection management.

 For local arrangements, contact André P. Larson, Director & Professor of Music at the NMM/USD, by email at aplarson@usd.edu or by fax at 1- 605-677-6995.