The 2025 edition of TrendsWatch, AAM’s annual forecasting report, is now available as a free PDF download! In this post I’ll tell you how to snag your copy and preview some opportunities to delve more deeply into this year’s topics, including:
- The Next Era of Volunteerism
- Stop, Look, Think: how to manage digital vulnerabilities
- DEI Backlash
- The 990 of the Future
Why a PDF?
By publishing TrendsWatch as the Jan/Feb issue of Museum magazine, AAM ensures all AAM members receive a copy of this critical report. We release the report as a free PDF download later in the spring to:
- Make it accessible to the entire field.
- Facilitate sharing with staff, board members, and colleagues. (Readers of past editions have told us that they shared their downloaded copy, on average, with 10 other people.)
- Provide a version that includes embedded links to copious background stories, research, and resources.
Use the form at the end of the post to download your free copy.
How to engage with these trends in the coming year
The essays in TrendsWatch are just one step in a longer journey. I look forward to exploring these important topics in more depth in the coming year, and encourage you to use the following opportunities to engage with and contribute to this exploration.
At the 2025 AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo
I’ll be using my annual TrendsWatch session to delve into the implications of DEI-backlash and recent executive orders on the future of museum funding streams. How might recent events affect all source of museum income—earned, contributed, investments and, of course, government funding? How might our sector adapt? This session will take place Thursday, May 8, from 10-11 am, in Concourse 151.
Following that talk, we’ve organized discussion tables around the TrendsWatch themes in the NeighborHubs area of MuseumExpo, from 11 – 1:00 pm in Petree Hall, adjacent to MuseumExpo.
On the CFM Blog
Throughout the year we’ll be sharing commentary and examples engaging with TrendsWatch themes on the CFM blog. Check out Nik Honeysett’s post on why museums should invest in digital resilience, and follow the blog for my ongoing coverage of DEI backlash (and current policy trends more generally).
If you are interested in writing a guest post for the blog about your own work, projects, and research related to this year’s themes, please send your story pitch to Ariel Waldman, CFM Project Manager, at futureofmuseums@aam-us.org.
Future Chats
We’re planning four Future Chats this year—free, one hour virtual events in which I discuss significant trends with a special guest and provide a venue for attendees to share thoughts and experiences with each other. These events are free to all with preregistration, and recordings are available to AAM members. Access the recording of my Chat with Nik Honeysett about digital risk, and watch for announcements regarding upcoming chats on how climate change is impacting museum insurance, and on staying true to mission and values in the face of current pressures.
Join the Future of Museums Community
I’m trying to grow the Future of Museums community on Museums Junction into a space where museum people can share news, thoughts, questions, and concerns about the trends and events challenging our sector. Join up to mine the collective wisdom of this excellent crowd, currently over three hundred strong. (You don’t have to be a member of AAM to join Museum Junction, but you will have to set up a profile in our system.)
Subscribe to Dispatches
I’ll be on the hunt all year for news and research on the TrendsWatch themes and emerging issues that may be the focus of next year’s report. I share three or four of these stories each week in the free, weekly e-newsletter Dispatches from the Future of Museums. You can subscribe here.
Download the TrendsWatch PDF!
Complete the form below to download your free copy of TrendsWatch. If you share the report with others (please do!), I would be grateful if you share a link for folks to access their own download (rather that sharing the PDF directly). It makes our sponsor and funders very, very happy to see metrics of the report’s reach.
Warmest regards from the future,
