2020 – American Alliance of Museums

Ten Uplifting Museum Stories of 2020

By Elizabeth Merritt

This year my scanning feeds were clogged with relentlessly depressing news. My heart was eased, however, by the way that museums rose to the challenges posed by 2020. Here are a dozen stories of how museums helped their communities and …
The Top Ten Alliance Blog Posts of 2020

By Joseph O'Neill

If 2019 was a “whirlwind year,” 2020 was a full-blown tornado. Forces that had been gathering speed in the museum field—like growing emphases on digital content and diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion—came to a dramatic head …
A Pandemic Time Capsule and Tools for 2021

By Elizabeth Merritt

This blog has become an incidental time capsule of 2020, a monthly record of how the museum sector responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, when the first of the posts featured below was published, the US had 1,700 reported cases—that …
The Leadership Imperative: A Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Primer for Museum Boards

By American Alliance of Museums

Support Free DEAI Resources: AAM provides all of our DEAI resources for free to AAM members. In these challenging times, we ask that if you can, consider supporting this work by making a donation to AAM. Thank you for your much-needed …
Museums Score Major Victories in End-of-Year Deal

By American Alliance of Museums

Advocacy Alert – December 21, 2020 Museums Score Major Victories in End-of-Year Deal Congressional leaders on Sunday evening announced a deal on a $900 billion COVID-19 aid package in addition to $1.4 trillion fiscal year (FY) 2021 …
An End-of-Year Message from Laura Lott, AAM President and CEO

By Laura Lott

Hello AAMers, I’m sending this video today to reflect with you on this historic year. It has tested us in ways few of us could have imagined. Probably like you, I have uttered a few four-letter words this year. And while it’s clear the …
Game Plan Call for Applications! Professional Development for Museum Educators

By Elizabeth Merritt

In 2008, Dr. Jane McGonigal delivered the inaugural lecture for the new Center for the Future of Museums. McGonigal, who is both a professional futurist AND a ludologist, made the case that museums could learn a lot from games design. (AAM …
Essential Evaluators: Snapshot | Data Decisions

By Laureen Trainer and Andréa Giron Mathern

Essential Evaluators seeks to gather evaluators in a common space to dialogue, reflect, and support each other in a world upended by COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protest movement. This is a time of uncertain and unknown expectations …
Rebuilding Pathways: How DEAI and Creative Aging Intersect at the Speed Art Museum

By Toya Northington, in conversation with Marjorie Schwarzer

As museums work to become more diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive, one community is often left out of the discourse: people over the age of fifty-five. This may be because they already appear to be well-represented. After all, …
Facing the Rising Tide: How the Whitney Museum of American Art Addresses Resiliency and Storm Preparedness Through Design

By Erin Flynn, RA LEED AP

With rising sea levels and stronger floods and hurricane seasons, priceless cultural sites and museum collections around the world are increasingly under threat from severe weather events and the impacts of climate change. A recent and …