Face2Face Workshop (July 2025)

In July 2025, 13 museum curators, educators, conservators, and archivists gathered in Honolulu for the inaugural Asia-Pacific Museum Exchange (APME) Face2Face Workshop.

APME is a new initiative and pilot program, funded by the US State Dept. U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, that aims to connect marginalized and under-supported museum workers based in Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands to rethink best practices, collections care policies, conservation methods, and exhibition-making that instead prioritizes cultural and Indigenous practices of the region.

APME is a first of its kind to convene in Hawaiʻi to reimagine how museums, libraries, archives, and historic sites are managed, maintained, and shared with the community. By bearing witness to each other's labor of caring for cultural materials, the APME cohort practiced true transnational solidarity and together imagined liberatory possibilities of healing colonial histories through museum stewardship.

This workshop brought together incredible regional expertise and local knowledge. We were honored to host these professionals in Hawaiʻi and to witness the depth of mutual learning and collaboration that emerged. Our goal is to build a network across islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific that supports specialists in cultural and heritage institutions.

Hands-on Museum Skills

From July 15 to 30, 2025, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa welcomed 13 museum and heritage professionals from across Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands to share knowledge, sharpen skills and reflect on shared challenges. CSEAS hosted the inaugural Face2Face Workshop of the Asia-Pacific Museum Exchange (APME) at UH Mānoa campus.

Each day focused on a theme, from disaster planning and object-based storytelling to digital preservation and curating exhibitions. Sessions were led by local experts and held at institutions such as Bishop Museum, Honolulu Museum of Art, Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Hawaiʻi State Archives and Waikīkī Aquarium. The group also visited UH Mānoa resources such as the Hawaiian Pacific Collection, the Center for Oral History, and the Campus Arboretum.

Participants engaged in hands-on activities, crafted exhibit narratives, and drafted catalog records from their own museum collections and also practiced digital storytelling. Talk story sessions with Hawaiʻi-based professionals, including those of Kānaka Maoli heritage, sparked deep conversations on cultural resources, community engagement, and digital access.

Participants came from Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Palau, Solomon Islands, American Samoa, Saipan and Vanuatu. Their expertise ranged from collections care and exhibition design to cultural education, digital archives, and preservation of Indigenous knowledge.

The 16-day workshop was the first major in-person event since the program launched this spring with a Virtual Webinar Series by the National Park Service’s Museum Management Program. Together, they form a growing platform for collaboration, professional growth and peer support in the museum field.