2015 – Page 10 – American Alliance of Museums

Toward Lean Collections with Greater Impact

By Elizabeth Merritt

In around 2000, the Accreditation Commission took a long, hard look at their tabling decisions—this is when they pause their review to give a museum time to take corrective action. They were troubled to find that over a quarter of these …
Monday Musing: On Failure

By Elizabeth Merritt

I was a dinner a couple months ago, when people started dissing buzzwords. One that came in for a hit was “failure.” “I hate it when people start touting the importance of failure” one diner declared (I’m paraphrasing here). The …
Futurist Friday: My Mind to Your Mind

By Elizabeth Merritt

While we are not ready for the Vulcan Mind Meld (yet), researchers are already making great leaps in brain-to-computer interfaces. Now scientists are beginning to play with brain-to-brain communications. Recent experiments include: fitting …
Throwback Thursday: the Coming Dementia Epidemic

By Elizabeth Merritt

This past Tuesday, Lisa Eriksen blogged about museum programs for people with dementia and how staff address the thorny challenge shifting focus from impact to engagement, and assessing programs that explicitly do not expect to impart new …
The American Alliance of Museums presents the Chair’s Leadership Award to Director, President and CEO Graham Beal and the Detroit Institute of Arts Board of Directors

By American Alliance of Museums

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 9, 2015 AAM honors Beal and the DIA with special award for leadership excellence Washington, DC—The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) announces that Director, President and CEO Graham W.J. Beal and the Detroit …
Older Adults and Programming for People with Dementia

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’ve been planning a workshop for the Alliance’s Accreditation Commission, helping them explore evaluation programs that focus on impact, and how that may translate to our field. Bill Gates’ blithely sets numeric goals for eliminating …
Monday Musing: Up Periscope

By Elizabeth Merritt

The week before last I took a tour of the British Museum’s “Defining Beauty” exhibit, hosted by historian Dan Snow (who has a gorgeously plummy accent. Bonus). I did this while pacing the corridors of AAM, channeling Dan …
Futurist Friday: A Plug for Reading Science Fiction

By Elizabeth Merritt

Rather meta–today’s Futurist Friday is about why you should read (good) science fiction for a glimpse of realistic futures. This 8 minute video from PBS Digital Studios includes clips and quotes from many of the greats, notably …
Museums and Social Justice: Supporting Self-Assessment

By Elizabeth Merritt

In a guest post here on the blog earlier this week, Nina Pelaez and Alyssa Greenberg reported on the self-organized convening of Museum Workers Speak at the AAM annual meeting in Atlanta a few weeks ago, where attendees addressed issues of …
Your Roving Reporter: Interview with Nik Honeysett

By Betty Brewer

Nik Honeysett recently addressed members of the Leadership and Management Network at their luncheon at the annual AAM Conference. I asked Nik to share his thoughts on museums and IT in a way only a non-IT person could ask. Nik accommodated …