This guide was developed by the former American Alliance of Museums’ Independent Museum Professionals Network in partnership with the Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists by MJ Hagan, Principal of MJH Collections Management, and Avi Decter, Managing Partner of History Now.

This guide offers useful tips for hiring and working with contractors and consultants by providing museums with suggestions on good practice from the initial inquiry to the post-project wrap-up. Some of the questions this guide helps answer are how do you find and recruit the right IMP for your project? What should the contract include? How should you determine a budget? What if the project doesn’t go as expected? What makes for an effective, productive relationship between museum and contractor?

The guide was adapted with permission from the Guide to Working With Freelancers published by SHARE Museums East and Museum Freelance. This resource was developed to aid museums in their work with independent museum professionals and it is not an AAM endorsed standard.

Download the guide to Working with Independent Museum Professionals.