Defining Our Firm

HMA Cultural is a boutique consulting firm providing full-service strategic planning, evaluation, research, organizational development services, and facilitation.  We work with all types of cultural non-profits but we specialize in history, museums, and arts organizations.  Our approach is defined by listening and asking questions to seek clarity. We steadfastly uphold and maintain national standards, best practices, and current trends as established by the American Alliance of Museums and the American Library Association. Our goal is to help cultural organizations, regardless of their size, add to their communities’ quality of life and be relevant to their patrons needs and challenges.

Our work has one overarching goal: to help staff and boards create an organization that better fulfills its mission and is an asset to its community.

We guide our clients in improving practice to achieve impact. We demonstrate our commitment to the field by sharing our specialized knowledge and expertise with professionals in cultural organizations and the cultural sector at large.

Principal/Founder Tim Hoheisel

Principal and Founder Tim Hoheisel has twenty years of experience working with all types of arts and cultural organizations including history museums, historical societies, historic houses, historic sites, archives and libraries, visual and performing arts organizations, arts councils, and college and university museums.  He has been the executive director of an AAM Accredited museum and even led the process to get a museum a Smithsonian Affiliation. 

Tim Hoheisel has a BA in history, a MA in public history, and worked on a doctorate degree in history.  His scholarly areas of expertise focus on all aspects of U.S. history, specific research areas include: agricultural, environmental, immigration, religion, ethnicity, sports, and American Indian history; history of the U.S. West; public history; historic preservation; and cultural and historical geography. 

He began his career as a museum professional in 1997 as the executive director of a small county historical society in South Dakota.  Since then he has worked as an administrator in a variety of non-profit history and arts organizations in several different states.  Moreover, he was an adjunct professor for several years teaching a variety U.S. and world history courses at four different universities. 

In his career as a museum professional, Hoheisel has worked in every aspect of operations: administering budgets, fundraising and development, promotion and outreach, exhibits, collections, educations, archives and publishing.  He has published three local history books and numerous articles.  In addition, in his museum work he was awarded more than 30 grants. 

As a public speaker, he was on the South Dakota Humanities Council Speaker’s Bureau for more than 10 years.  He has delivered more than 300 other presentations and invited lectures on a variety of historical topics to professional conferences, service clubs, museums, schools, and community groups on a variety of historical and arts topics. 

His consulting experience includes being a museum surveyor for the American Alliance of Museums since 2000.  He has done consulting work for more than a dozen museums and helped in the formation and organization of three new historical societies. 

 As a museum professional for 20 years, Hoheisel has been given many awards for his work, including:

Reflection of the Year Award, City of St. Cloud, MN, 2014
Leadership in History Award of Merit, American Association for State and Local History, 2013
Mid-Career Professional Network Fellowship, American Alliance of Museums, 2012
Research Grant, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre
     Dame, 2005
James C. Carey Graduate Student Research Award, Kansas State University History Dept., 2004
Ninth Annual Graduate Research Forum Award, Humanities, Kansas State University, 2004
Award of Merit for General Excellence, American Association for State and Local History, 2001
Governor’s Award for History, Organization Award, South Dakota State Historical Society, 2001
Organizational Achievement Award, Historic South Dakota Foundation, 2000
Annual Meeting Professional Scholarship, Mountain-Plains Museum Association, 1999