It was lovely to see over 4,000 of you in Los Angeles last week! I hope those of you who did attend share what you learned through conversation, social media, blog posts, presentations to colleagues, etc. etc. You can search #AAM2025 on Instagram, Facebook, etc. for some glimpses of the conference. For a slightly deeper dive, check out AAM TV, a new feature of the conference made possible by WebsEdge. You can browse the entire playlist of short videos on YouTube. This post shares three videos that illustrate some of the best aspects of the annual meeting.  

Practical Advice on Emerging Issues

In Should museum curators embrace Generative AI (6 minutes) Nik Honeysett, CEO of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative, and Lori Fogarty, Director of the Oakland Museum of California, encourage museum people to take time to understand this powerful and disruptive technology, even while being “curious, skeptical, and a little apprehensive.” The Oakland Museum is actively exploring use of AI, with a committee of their board deliberating on policies and ethical guidelines and staff investigating how they might use AI to supplement their “very lean” curatorial staff to interpret over two million objects. One speculation from Nik and Lori: will “prompting skills” be a new must-have on resumes for museum staff?

Hear from Amazing People

Cheech Marin was one of our guests for the general session. In “The Cheech” and Chicano Art (~ 9 minutes) he likens becoming a museum founder to having “jumped off a cliff and hoped for the best.” As a dedicated collector of Chicano art, Cheech saw his role as a way of supporting emerging artists, which naturally evolved into the creation of touring exhibits. The success of one such exhibit at the Riverside Art Museum (RAM) in 2017 led the city manager of Riverside to propose repurposing the old public library building, on the condition that Cheech donate his collection. A collaborative effort between the city, RAM, and Mr. Marin led to the opening of The Cheech (formally The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture) in June 2022. I hope that city manager got a raise–a study commissioned by the city found that the center generated over $29.1 million in local economic impact in its first two years.  

One Cheech quote that stood out for me: “something that’s of your own culture is much more attractive than something that isn’t.” He goes on to note that for many, The Cheech is their first experience visiting a museum. Having just finished writing my own presentation, on the impact of recent Executive Orders on museum financial models, this poked me to think: The museum was made possible with funding from Target and Hewlett-Packard. In the current political climate, Target has backed away from DEI initiatives, while Hewlett-Packard is standing firm. Will it be more difficult to garner broad corporate support for culturally specific museums and exhibits in coming years?

Special Access to Museums in the Host City

Another fabulous aspect of the Annual Meeting are the on-site workshops, evening events, and the “Show Your Badge” program that encourages attendees to visit local museums for free or discounted admission. You can see a bit of what attendees had the opportunity to explore in Behind the Scenes at LA’s Autry Museum and MOCA (~8 minutes). At the Autry we get a tour of the museum’s resource center led by Livi Andreini, Textile Conservator. Acquisition Registrar Marion Leathers-Bonnet takes us through collections storage (OMG the saddle collection!). At MOCA, Catherine Arias, Director of Education & Visitor Engagement, tours us through the Olafur Eliason exhibit featuring works the artist created to interact with the vast building, a converted police garage.

Looking Forward to AAM2026

I hope you will be able to join us next year in Philadelphia, May 20-23, for the 2026 Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo. Stay tuned for an announcement this summer about the theme, about which I am very, very, very excited. (Yes, that’s a hint.)

Yours from an optimistic future,