This letter by AAM President & CEO Marilyn Jackson first appeared in the journal Exhibition (Spring 2025) Vol. 44 No. 1 and is reproduced with permission.
Dear Readers,
I’m honored to be addressing you for a major milestone in this journal’s history: the first-ever fully digital issue. This change in distribution model, together with our decision to make Exhibition an AAM member benefit, is poised to dramatically expand its audience from about 1,000 print subscribers to almost 70,000 eligible members. Given that, many of you are likely to be new readers, and I’m excited to welcome you into this excellent publication exploring a core area of museum work.
Exhibitions are one of the few things that unite museums of all types and sizes, and one of the primary ways we realize our missions. It is through our exhibitions that we bring cultural materials—whether objects, ideas, or even living things—to the public. The work of staging, showcasing, and interpreting our shared heritage is where the promise of museums comes to life, manifesting in a dynamic public square. As such, the work of producing exhibitions, and every small choice we make in the process, is all-important in how we bring forth our goals and values. Exhibition is an invaluable source of community and dialogue in this area, giving you critical perspectives and advice on everything from how to foster belonging to how to design a good credit panel.
I’m pleased that this issue is taking on a subject near and dear to our hearts at AAM: ethics. The need to establish a shared set of ethics and standards was one of the main impetuses for the founding of our organization in 1906, and to this day we continue to collaborate with members of the field to uphold and adapt these principles as the world, and the role of our institutions within it, continues to evolve. Our Code of Ethics and Core Standards for Museums capture decades of collective thinking on how we can stay true to our vision and values as a field and ultimately serve the common good. As exhibitions professionals, bestowed with great opportunity and great responsibility, I hope you will take them to heart. In the meantime, I invite you to explore the ethical approaches to this work gathered in this issue and to learn from and with our authors.
Marilyn Jackson
President & CEO
American Alliance of Museums
