The Western Museums Association (WMA) is a nonprofit, membership organization dedicated to serving museums, museum professionals, as well as the related organizations and individuals, by providing vision, enrichment, intellectual challenge, professional development, and a forum for communication and interaction. WMA believes museums MUST be essential to the communities they serve, and that their impact contributes to why those communities thrive. By sparking a generation of ideas that continually refresh the museum field, WMA ensures museum professionals are inspired to create meaningful experiences that their communities and visitors value. The WMA is primarily comprised of members across the Western states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, the Western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and the Pacific Islands, among others. The WMA is a self-sustaining network of museum professionals is strengthened by memberships (individual, institutional, and corporate), WMA's premier Annual Meeting, and valued partnerships.