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Seven Key Insights for a Data-Informed 2026

By Carys Kunze

For museum professionals striving to make data-informed decisions, 2025 brought a bevy of research reports on our field and the wider arts and culture sector. Since you likely didn’t have time to read them all, I wanted to highlight some …
Trust and Responsibility to Community, Part Three: A 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers Data Story

By Susie Wilkening

This visual Data Story is based on findings from the 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers, a national survey of American museum visitors from AAM and Wilkening Consulting. Every year, the survey partners with individual museums to research …
Trust and Responsibility to Community, Part Two: A 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers Data Story

By Susie Wilkening

This visual Data Story is based on findings from the 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers, a national survey of American museum visitors from AAM and Wilkening Consulting. Every year, the survey partners with individual museums to research …
Trust and Community Responsibility, Part One: A 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers Data Story

By Susie Wilkening

This visual Data Story is based on findings from the 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers, a national survey of American museum visitors from AAM and Wilkening Consulting. Every year, the survey partners with individual museums to research …
Solo Museum Visitors: A 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers Data Story

By Susie Wilkening

This visual Data Story is based on findings from the 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers, a national survey of American museum visitors from AAM and Wilkening Consulting. Every year, the survey partners with individual museums to research …
The Top Ten Alliance Blog Posts of 2025

By Joseph O'Neill

Some years, it takes a bit of reflection to find the throughline in museum discourse. 2025 has not been one of them. The main story has been clear: as a new presidential administration came into power, its actions and policies shook the …
Twelve Museum Innovations in 2025

By Joseph O'Neill

Throughout the year, AAM’s Center for the Future of Museums keeps careful track of how the future is looking, for our world and for our field. In its regular Dispatches series, the CFM shares both broad signals of social, …
The Most Active Museum Junction Threads of 2025

By Joseph O'Neill

Whether you want to pose a question to the general museum community, start a discussion with members of your specialty, or reach people who share the same identity or affinity, AAM’s virtual Museum Junction network is your go-to …
How Closing Perception Gaps Can Depolarize Issues and Motivate Action

By Sray Martin

When designing exhibitions, museums try to create experiences that expand visitors’ awareness of their social context, providing new information to broaden or shift their perspective. To do so, we have to understand where they’re coming …
Five Ways to Pitch Your Museum Story to the News Media

By Steve Lott

Museums aren’t just buildings filled with artifacts; they are homes for stories that inspire, educate, and connect us with our world. When you share these stories with the news media, you help your museum stand out, attract new visitors, …