The 2023 Nebraska Museum Association held its annual conference and meeting on Tuesday in Columbus.

The NMA conference's purpose is to present workshops, network among various museums, and host business meetings for the museums across the state.

This year's theme was "Small but Mighty: How Museums Power Your Community."

NMA President, Erin Hauser, says the association chose this theme as most of the museums in the state are small and they wanted to cater to them.

"We have all sorts of museums, we have small ones, we have big ones. We have some that have lots of staff, we have some that have no staff," said Hauser. "One of our goals is for this conference is to sort of filter that information down to the people who need it and are interested in that type of thing, and are taking it back to their own organizations."

The first conference was held in 1984 but has happened annually since 2009.

At the end of each conference, Hauser says they take note of what people want to learn and discuss for the year to come.

This year's conference was hosted by the Platte County Historical Society Museum.

The conference welcomes everyone but caters to those associated with museums.

Hauser says she appreciates all of the museums in the state despite their mission as they range from historical to children.