2019 – Page 3 – American Alliance of Museums

Science Gone Viral: An interactive comic engrosses readers in educational material

By Geralyn Abinader

What’s more fun than reading comics? And what if a comic could not only model science inquiry processes, but also offer readers the opportunity to jump in and solve a mystery along with the protagonists of the story? Action, adventure, and …
Sustainable Investing: A Practical Guide for Museums – Part 1

By Anna Raginskaya

Earlier this year a guest post on this blog advocated for museums harnessing their endowments to mission-related goals through a financial practice known as impact investing. In today’s post, Anna Raginskaya, Financial Advisor, Blue Rider …
How Are Older People Different?

By Bill Tramposch

It’s always risky to bundle a demographic into one description, but very credible research has revealed a great deal about the over-fifty demographic in the United States: who they are, in general, and what they seek in their lives. As …
Museopunks Episode 40: A very human exhibition

By Suse Anderson and Ed Rodley

Being Human, the new permanent gallery at Wellcome Collection explores what it means to be human in the 21st century. In creating the exhibition, the Wellcome Collection worked with two advisory panels – one composed of scientists, …
For the Love of Front-End Research: How to make new ideas audience-centered using visitor studies

By Elizabeth Bolander

The “Eureka!” moment when you come up with a fabulous idea to implement at your museum is a great one, but it is also sometimes accompanied by trepidation: What if visitors don’t respond to the idea? How can I get my colleagues on board? …
Sharing the Wealth: Museums as Equity Engines

By Elizabeth Merritt

Recently, I’ve been speaking of museums as banks—repositories of enormous wealth of reputation, knowledge, and influence, in addition to the sheer value of their endowments. I’ve advanced the thesis that by managing this wealth as a type …
Speak Up for Museums: Federal Funding and Museums Advocacy Day

By American Alliance of Museums

Advocacy Alert – November 22, 2019 Federal Funding Update Stop-gap Funding Extended through December 20: While FY 2020 began on October 1, a short-term funding bill that had kept the federal government running at FY 2019 levels until …
The Stages of Aging

By Gretchen Jennings

Senior…Elder…Older American…Aging Boomer…Octogenarian…Centenarian Have you ever thought about how many decades are contained in these references we make to old age? There are almost fifty years between becoming eligible for an AARP card …
Belonging: Co-creating welcoming and equitable museums

By Sandra Bonnici

“Can you describe a time you felt unwelcome or like you didn’t belong in a museum?” This question was posed during a recent conference call for the Facing Change Senior Diversity Fellows. As I listened to my distinguished colleagues …
Animated Museums: The Ongoing Experiment Called “Art Mix” at the Crocker Art Museum

By American Alliance of Museums

Museums continue to think outside the box when engaging their audiences. This EdCom One Good Thing panel discussion occurred October 10, 2019 at the Crocker Art Museum. Panelists share recent experiments with engagement through evening …