The California Mission Foundation (CMF) Board has unanimously selected Mission Santa lnés as the site for the 2017 California Missions Conference, scheduled for February 17-19, 2017.
To accommodate the CMF Conference, Old Mission Santa Inés Church will be closed for public tours on Saturday, February 18th from 8:30-4PM. Museum and Gift Shop will be open from 9AM - 5 PM.
2017 California Missions Conference Theme
CMFs California Mission Studies Committee has chosen "Change and Continuity in the Missions and Related Lands of California" as the theme for its 2017 conference. According to the CMF mission statement: "The California Missions Foundation is a nonprofit public benefit corporation dedicated to preserving the landmark California Missions and associated historical and cultural resources for the benefit of the public through funding preservation activities and facilitating educational programs, conferences, and scholarship."
It is true that California is a land of great change, but while many events have transformed California, change was not abrupt nor did it erase what had come before. It was, rather, the slow change of the blending and layering of ideas, cultures, religious tradition, and DNA. And despite thousands of years of tumultuous cultural history, there are many places in California that have not changed much at all.
According to CMF Vice Chair, Ty Smith, "The membership and other supporters of the California Missions Foundation represent a variety of interests. Some are scholars, of a wide range of disciplines and others are enthusiastic laypeople. The conference theme was designed to capture the imaginations of potential presenters, but it is broad enough to incorporate many facets of California mission studies.'
Tentative Schedule
The three-day event, which begins on Friday and wraps on Sunday, will return to Mission Santa lnés for the first time since 1999.
The conference will begin Friday morning, when, for the first time, CMF will host two additional and Missions related events as part of the California Missions Conference: the inaugural Presidio Institute and the 19th Annual California Missions Directors and Curators Conference. Formerly hosted by the Old Mission Santa Barbara, the Directors and Curators Conference has served employees and volunteers of the missions, while the 1st Presidio Institute will introduce several new topics to the conference weekend of presentations.
Mission Santa lnés will be an ideal backdrop for both events. More information can be found below.
Following lunch, all Conference attendees are invited to enjoy afternoon in-depth tours of the Mission Santa lnés complex, as well as the adjacent Santa Inés Mission Grist Mills.
Friday evening, there will be a hosted reception for attendees, followed by an evening program in the mission church and the annual business and general membership meeting.
Saturday, the Conference will feature a full day of paper presentations, with lunch served at the mission. That Saturday evening, the Annual Conference Awards Banquet will honor those who have made significant contributions to the study, preservation, and interpretation of the California Missions and related historic sites and to furthering the mission of the California Missions Foundation.
Sunday, the Conference wraps up with an optional tour of Mission La Purisima.
Sheila Benedict, long-time archivist at Mission Santa lnés, has been instrumental in local conference arrangements.