January/February 2026 Preview
TrendsWatch: Questioning Assumptions
This issue of Museum brings members a first look at our annual TrendsWatch forecasting report. Explore the trends having a profound impact on museums operations and get suggestions, rooted in real-world practice, for how museums might respond to these challenges. This year’s themes explore how museums can build support in a philanthropic future, develop the next museum leaders, and navigate questions about the security of the nonprofit sector.
Preview select articles from this issue of Museum below. Individual and Museum Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 3+, Ally, and Industry Members can access the full digital edition.
In this issue:
Introduction
Welcome to TrendsWatch
“Challenging preconceptions about the world, and the future, is always a major goal of foresight. This year, the challenges to basic assumptions about how our world works are profound… encompassing the whole environment in which nonprofit museums operate.”
» Introduction to the TrendsWatch issue by Elizabeth Merritt, VP, Strategic Foresight & Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums.
From the President
A Better Tomorrow
“Looking ahead isn’t a luxury: it’s an essential part of leading the field forward. Periods of challenge can be some of the most fruitful in planning for tomorrow.”
» Read the column from AAM President & CEO Marilyn Jackson encouraging thoughtful action and a new approach in the year ahead.
The Philanthropic Future
Feature | 🔒 Member Login
How will the increasing concentration of wealth, together with the values and goals of the next generation of donors, affect the nonprofit sector?
The Looming Leadership Crisis
Feature | 🔒 Member Login
People in leadership positions are burning out and leaving their professions. Who will step forward to fill their shoes?
Securing the Future of the Nonprofit Sector
Feature | 🔒 Member Login
A small but growing number of critics are attacking nonprofits as a class, seeking to shrink the sector’s ranks and curtail its role in society.
Cultivating Compassion
Short Take | 🔒 Member Login
A growing body of evidence shows that compassion toward others and oneself, can promote health and well-being, reduce burnout, combat loneliness, foster healthy aging, and reduce prejudice.
Museum Insurance and Climate Disruptions
Trend Alert | 🔒 Member Login
Climate change is disrupting the insurance industry at an accelerating pace, affecting the cost of insurance for museums and sometimes making it difficult to find coverage at all.
Outrage Fatigue and Model Collapse
For Your Radar | 🔒 Member Login
An explanation into a couple of the new terms that may be popping up in your newsfeed.
About the Cover
Singer Carole King’s refrain “I feel the Earth move under my feet” is an apt description of the way love can upend our world because, of course, the Earth usually feels stable, moored, unshaken. For millennia, the belief that our planet was the anchor for the universe, around which the sun, planets, and stars revolved, shaped science, religion, and culture, and questioning that core assumption about our place in the universe could come at a cost. In 1633, the Catholic Inquisition convicted Galileo Galilei of heresy because his defense of a heliocentric view of the universe challenged humanity’s central place in divine creation. Realizing that our planet, our solar system, and even our galaxy are mere specks in an immense universe has fostered interconnectedness, humility, and a greater sense of responsibility for Earth.
“Figure of the heavenly bodies,” an illuminated illustration of the Ptolemaic (geocentric) conception of the universe from “Cosmographia,” by Bartolomeu Velho, 1568. Via Wikimedia Commons.
January/February 2026 issue
By the Numbers:
Signals of the Future
69%
of US museums were negatively impacted by executive orders and actions in 2025.
63%
of US museums anticipate that shifts in philanthropy will significantly disrupt their business strategy in2026.
75%
of art museum directors find it difficult to build a pool of qualified candidates for open positions.
35%
of US art museums have experienced damage from climate change.
$146 billion
The total global insured natural catastrophe losses for 2024.
Sources: Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report: 2024, Gallagher Re; 2025 Annual National Snapshot of United States Museums, AAM; The 2025 Compassion Report, Muhammad Ali Index, Muhammad Ali Center; Art Museum Directors Survey 2022, Ithaka S+R; Art Museum Directors Survey 2022, IthakaS+R; 2025 Annual National Snapshot of United States Museums, AAM
About the Author
nonprofits” may look like in the future.
Elizabeth Merritt is the Vice President for Strategic Foresight and Founding Director of the Center for the Future of Museums at AAM. She studied ecology and evolution as an undergraduate at Yale and received her master’s degree in cell and molecular biology from Duke University. Her museum career has included working in a children’s museum as well as natural history and history museums. She is a graduate of the Getty Leadership Institute’s Museum Management Program and the Foresight Certificate program at the University of Houston.
Prior to starting CFM, Elizabeth literally wrote the book on museum standards and best practices as director of the Alliance’s Accreditation and excellence programs. She notes this was perfect preparation for her current role as agent provocateur—challenging museums to question assumptions about traditional practice and experiment with new ways of doing business.
Acknowledgements
TrendsWatch is made possible by the collective wisdom of many people inside and outside the museum field who contribute their time and creativity to CFM’s work. For their help with this edition, we would particularly like to thank:
Rebekah Beaulieu, Ph.D., Louise Taft Semple President & CEO, Taft Museum of Art; Lucy Bernholz, Ph.D., Founding and former Director, Stanford Digital Civil Society Lab and author of the Blueprint series on philanthropy (2010–2024); Brett Egan, President, DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management; Kaywin Feldman, Director, National Gallery of Art; Ann Fortescue, Executive Director, International Museum of Art & Science; Jena Gilbert-Merrill, Director, Institutional Relations, AAM; Charles L. Katzenmeyer, philanthropy advisor for arts/culture, education, and health care; Ben Kershaw, Director, Public Policy andGovernment Relations, Independent Sector; Rick Noguchi, M.F.A., M.B.A., President & CEO, California Humanities; Shaady Salehi, Co-Founder and Co-ExecutiveDirector, Trust-Based Philanthropy Project; Michael Singleton, Managing Director & Executive Search and Assessment Professional, Russell Reynolds Associates.
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May/June 2025
Trust
Coming Up:
March/April 2026 – The Museum Built Environment
May/June 2026 – The Museum Odyssey (Annual Meeting Issue)
July/August 2026 – Public Relations & Marketing (Article pitches due February 13, 2026)
September/October 2026 – Visitor Services & Experiences (Article Pitches Due: April 27, 2026)
» Explore the upcoming Editorial Calendar and learn potential topics under each theme.