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Philadelphia Calling: Two Gatherings for the Museum Exhibition Community
Join SEGD’s Museum Exhibition Professional Practice Group for two events you won’t want to miss: A Rooftop Kickoff Party + Exclusive Symposium | May 19–20, 2026, Philadelphia, PA
The sold-out 2025 SEGD ME-PPG Party at the GRAMMY Museum LA
A group of women celebrating at the ME-PPG party in 2025
Why You Should Be There
May is a busy month for museum professionals, and Philadelphia is the place to be. Whether you’re already heading to the city that week or you’re based in the Philadelphia region and looking for an exceptional professional gathering close to home, this is your invitation.
SEGD’s Museum Exhibition Professional Practice Group is hosting two back-to-back events designed for museum and exhibition professionals at every level: a high-energy rooftop networking party on Tuesday evening and an intimate, behind-the-scenes symposium on Wednesday afternoon.
This is a rare chance to gather with colleagues from across the country and right here in the region—curators, designers, educators, technologists, and storytellers—in one of America’s great cultural cities. No SEGD membership required. Open to all.
Join SEGD and fellow museum professionals for an evening at the super-swank rooftop Stratus Lounge, Hotel Monaco.
Rooftop Kickoff Party
Tuesday, May 19 | 7:00–10:00 PM
Stratus Rooftop | Kimpton Hotel Monaco Philadelphia
Kick off the week on a high note—literally. SEGD is taking over Stratus, the Kimpton Hotel Monaco’s stunning year-round rooftop bar and lounge, for an evening of music, crafty cocktails, and the kind of conversations that spark real collaboration.
With museum and design professionals gathering—as well as colleagues from the Philadelphia and mid-Atlantic region—this is the perfect opportunity to connect, reconnect, and meet new faces before schedules fill up. Come for the skyline views. Stay for the people.
The Dell Theater at the museum
SEGD Symposium
Wednesday, May 20 | 2:00–5:00 PM
Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History | Philadelphia, PA
This is not a typical conference session. On Wednesday afternoon, we’re going behind the scenes of one of the most ambitious new exhibitions celebrating America’s 250th—The First Salute at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History—with the curators, content strategists, exhibit designers, and media producers who built it.
The afternoon includes a guided tour of the 4,500-square-foot exhibition with its creative team, followed by a panel discussion in the Dell Theater moderated by Michael Denison of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Whether you work in exhibition design, visitor experience, interpretation, digital media, or museum operations, you’ll leave with fresh perspectives on the challenges and opportunities shaping museum experiences today.
Speakers
Mike Denison — Head of Design, Smithsonian National Museum of American History — Symposium Moderator
Josh Perelman — Senior Advisor for Content & Strategic Projects, Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History — Lead Curator, The First Salute
Abigail Honor — Partner, Lorem Ipsum Corp — Media & Interactives
James Lide — Creative Director for Content & Interpretation, G&A Strategy and Design
Jamie Rains — Design Director, Exhibits, G&A Strategy and Design
Ariel Efron — Co-Founder and Creative Director, Felt
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the First Solute exhibition at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History
About the Exhibition: The First Salute
The First Salute tells the story of a small group of Jewish merchants in the Caribbean whose little-known contributions helped tip the scales of the American Revolution—a story so obscure it has never before been the subject of a major museum exhibition.
But for our symposium, the story behind the story is what matters most: how do you take something virtually unknown and make it feel urgent, visceral, and relevant to a broad and diverse audience? How do you build an emotional connection to characters from 250 years ago? How do you balance scholarly rigor with accessibility, and historical authenticity with immersive, theatrical experience design?
That is exactly what the symposium will unpack. The curatorial team at the Weitzman, exhibition designers from G&A Strategy and Design (formerly Gallagher & Associates), and media and interactives producer Lorem Ipsum Corp will walk us through the creative and strategic decisions that shaped the exhibition—from early concept and content research, to the design of environments that place visitors inside the walls of an 18th-century Caribbean synagogue, to the development of films and interactives that bring largely undocumented histories to life.
The conversation will explore questions that resonate across every kind of institution and every scale of project: How do you find the emotional core of a complex historical narrative? What does it take to make an unfamiliar story feel personally meaningful? When does interpretation serve the visitor, and when does it get in the way? And how do creative teams—clients, curators, designers, and media producers—collaborate effectively under the pressures of ambitious projects?
Come for the Ideas. Leave with the Connections.
The best conversations in our field don’t happen in lecture halls—they happen in hallways, on rooftops, and in exhibition galleries when the right people are in the same room at the same time. These two events are designed to create exactly that.
Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or early in your career, whether you work at a major institution or a small regional museum, whether you’re traveling to Philadelphia that week or you’re just down the road, you belong here. SEGD’s Museum Exhibition Professional Practice Group exists to support practitioners across every corner of this field, and these events are a direct expression of that mission.
Spots are limited. Sign up today, and we’ll see you in Philadelphia.
