2019 – Page 10 – American Alliance of Museums

Growing Audiences with the Annual Survey of Museum-Goers

By Rebecca Gilliam

Who visits our museums? What are their motivations, and what do they expect from the experience? Alternatively, who is not visiting, and why not? These are critical questions for the future of individual museums, and for the entire field. …
Creative Agers Throughout History

By Bill Tramposch

I’ve recommended Gene D. Cohen’s book The Creative Age any number of times in these Ad Summa blogs, and one of the elements that makes the book so memorable is the continuing list in the margins of significant cultural contributions older …
“Most Americans are trapped in a history that they do not understand”

By Carla Galfano

The final keynote speaker at this year’s AAM Annual Meeting In New Orleans was Jose Antonio Vargas, author of Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist, filmmaker, and founder and CEO of the …
Museopunks Episode 38: Decolonization and its Discontents

By Suse Anderson and Ed Rodley

As decolonization moves more firmly onto the agenda in museums, so too does its critique. In this episode, we speak with Sumaya Kassim, author of the essay ‘The Museum Will Not Be Decolonised’, and Nathan “Mudyi” Sentance to …
The Unexpected Joys of Launching a Creative Aging Program

By Elizabeth Merritt

In 2018, 20 organizations enrolled in a special museum cohort of Aroha Philanthropies’ Seeding Vitality Arts program. With funding from Aroha, and training provided by Lifetime Arts, these museums are developing high quality, intensive …
Meeting Educator Needs, Serving Museums: A model for state museum associations

By Cynthia Sweet and Dr. Heidi Lung

State museum associations have a unique opportunity to serve the museums in their state by bringing them together for common activities. Over the past several years, the Iowa Museum Association (IMA) has brought Iowa’s museums together to …
The Power of a Story Well Told

By Bill Tramposch

We all know the power of a story well told. One example: the books that became the Odyssey and the Iliad were told orally long before they appeared in book form. Imagine—so powerfully memorable were those tales that even in their great …
With Their Subject Matter in the Crosshairs, What Should Museums Do?

By Kevin Jennings

My parents were part of the generation that fought and won World War II. As their children, it was common for us to ask them, “What did you do during the war?” We wanted to be reassured they had stood up and done the right thing when it …
Is the future of museums, museums from the future?

By Elizabeth Merritt

Readers of this blog know I collect exhibits that explore imaginary futures, especially when these explorations inspire people to take action today. In today’s post, Ludwig Bengtsson Sonesson, Project Leader and Communications Officer at …
Lessons in Cross-Cultural Partnerships for Mid-Sized Museums

By Nannette V. Maciejunes

On paper, the relationship between Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) and the Dordrecht Museum in the Netherlands looks like a typical museum partnership. For our recent exhibition Life in the Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Masterpieces from the …