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Museum as Living Room: A Q&A with Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts’ Victoria Ramirez

By Adam Rozan

I believe museums matter because they serve as vital community spaces, where we can meet, mingle, work, learn, study, daydream, and everything in between. I came to this realization, in part, after reading Ray Oldenburg’s The Great Good …
What Works for Building Audiences? Let’s Review the Data.

By Joseph O'Neill

One of the biggest issues museums face right now is diminished attendance. Years after most pandemic-induced closures have lifted, the majority of institutions have still seen only a partial return of their visitors—an average of 71 …
How to Transform a Volunteer Program in Six Steps

By Joseph O'Neill

Dive into the theme of The Next Era of Volunteerism at The Museum Summit this October! Are you taking a second look at your museum’s volunteer program? Maybe you’re struggling with flagging recruitment and retention, questioning how the …
A Guided Wellness Workshop for Taking Care of Yourself Before Your Communities

By Janet Tillman

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to join the AAM team for two wellness sessions in the lead-up to May’s Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo. Given the meeting’s wellness-focused theme, “Thriving Museums, Healthy Communities,” the team …
Reframing the Collection: How a Literary Catalog Experiment Brought New Voices to Interpretation

By Derek (DK) Nnuro

The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art (Stanley) is part of the arts ecosystem at the country’s premier university for the study of creative writing. As a curatorial team, we have long been aware of the unique position this puts us …
The Pains and Pleasures of Being a First-Generation Museum Person

By Jojo Galvan

Every few months or so, there’s a family gathering. From a birthday celebration to a family cookout, my family never seems to have a shortage of reasons to gather. At the time of this writing, I am twenty-six years old, making me the right …
Meet Marilyn Jackson: A Q&A with AAM’s New President & CEO

By American Alliance of Museums

At the 2024 AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, the outgoing Vice Chair of AAM’s board, Nathan Richie, sat down for a Q&A with our new President & CEO, Marilyn Jackson, to help attendees get to know her a little better. In their …
Celebrating Deaf Culture: How 5 Leading Museums Approach Accessibility and ASL Year-Round

By Irma Cedeno Verdon

After I asked my husband to repeat himself multiple times in one conversation, he eventually turned to me and said, “You don’t hear anything I say. Please get your hearing checked.” I balked at his request and suggested that he speak …
Guiding Light: How Values Exercises Can Help You Present Challenging Content

By Ashley Witherspoon

When a visitor enters a museum, they arrive with more than just their belongings. They bring their entire cognitive framework to interpret and store knowledge, including their complex understanding of how significant events throughout …
How Book Bans Might Impact Museums: A Q&A with PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman

By Adam Rozan

This series of Q&As by the author are conducted as independent work and not part of his professional activities. If you follow the news, you’ve likely seen a surge in headlines about censorship and book-banning, with libraries and …