2021 – Page 9 – American Alliance of Museums

September Advocacy: Congress Returns and National Voter Registration Day

By American Alliance of Museums

Advocacy Alert – September 15, 2021 In this Alliance Advocacy Alert: Act Now: Urge Legislators to Include Museums in Reconciliation / Infrastructure Legislation Contact Your Senators: Approve House Historic Funding Increase for OMS …
A Self-care Practice: Spend Some Time in Utopia

By Elizabeth Merritt

“Utopia is born of the hunger for something better, but it relies on hope as the engine for imagining such a future.” –Marge Piercy The news has been pretty bleak for the past 18 months, and I struggle to find a few optimistic …
Ethical Contracting: Is Your Museum Doing It?

By MJ Hagan & Avi Decter

The way we work is changing. The growth of the “gig” economy is accelerating in a post-COVID world, as the desirability of freelance work increases for employees seeking flexible schedules and greater autonomy, or who were forced into a …
All Hands on Deck: How Museum Staff Boosted Wisconsin’s Pandemic Response

By Christian Øverland

Prior to the onset of the global pandemic, it would have been hard to imagine a scenario in which history and museum professionals played a direct role in matters of public health and workforce development. Yet this is the challenge some …
#AAM2021 Elevate Stage Session: Resilient Together, Philanthropy in Museums

By Cecelia Walls

Confronted with the global pandemic, individual and institutional philanthropy has been responsive, engaged, and nimble. What role can philanthropy play in helping museums to recover and become more resilient? Do funders still view museums …
#AAM2021 Elevate Stage Session: More Than Words—Solidarity Statements in Action

By American Alliance of Museums

When it comes to structural racism, museums must be honest about their past mistakes, including how they will address them and what they believe in now. Sites of Conscience members will discuss their museums’ statements in response to the …
#AAM2021 Elevate Stage Session: Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity on Museum Boards

By American Alliance of Museums

How do we diversify the makeup of museum boards while promoting artists, curators, leaders, and museums who preserve and tell the stories of people of color? Many museums are challenged with navigating the steps to create a more equitable …
From Preservation to Participation: The Journey of Sandy Spring Museum

By Allison Weiss

Many museums think that serving the needs of more ethnically diverse constituents will lose them “traditional” audience and supporters, but at Sandy Spring Museum (SSM), we’ve found just the opposite. Nearly ten years ago, when a financial …
COVID Update—Fall 2021

By Elizabeth Merritt

I had hoped that by this fall COVID-19 would be receding in our rear view mirror, and we could turn our attention to the post-pandemic future. Unfortunately, my June update, which flagged the potential for the Delta variant of the virus to …
Point of View: Why Creative Aging? It’s more than personal—it’s societal.

By Maura O’Malley

I began thinking about becoming “old” in my mid-40s when I was a caregiver for my energetic, intelligent, and creative aunt. Over the course of 10 years, while I was working in the K–12 arts education arena and raising a family, I moved …