Anti-Racist by Design: How the Oakland Museum of California Is Building Equity into Its Practices
At the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA), diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and anti-racism are commitments that have long been a part of our DNA, both internally and in our work with our community, partners, and other cultural …
Volunteers Want to Give: How to Respectfully Cultivate Donors from Your Corps
If you ask museum leaders, their advancement teams, and volunteer program staff about cultivating volunteers as donors, you’re likely to get a mix of reactions, ranging from enthusiasm to aversion. Those who oppose the idea voice concerns …
A New Year Message from Our President and CEO, Laura Lott
The past two years have taught us that in the face of extreme adversity, our field can overcome the greatest challenges through unity. Together, by sharing your experiences and speaking with one collective voice, we shifted public …
Why Well-Being Is at the Heart of Museum Experiences
For nearly half a century, I have been thinking and theorizing about museum experiences—why people use museums, what they do during those experiences, and what they take away, including the value they perceive they derive. Today, though, …
On the Ground: How Visitor Experience Teams Are Teaching Front-Line Staff to Be DEAI Advocates
In the museum experience world, making visitors feel welcome is serious business. Our goal is to exceed guests’ standards for positive experiences, and nothing undermines that goal like a lack of inclusivity or accessibility. When a …
The Top Ten Alliance Blog Posts of 2021
Though 2021 was a slightly more normal year than 2020, with mostly open museums gradually regaining visitors, the pandemic still loomed large and colored most conversations. On the Alliance Blog, the discussion shifted from absorbing the …
Building a More Just and Equitable World: Introducing AAM’s 2022-2025 Strategic Framework
The museum field, like society at large, is at a pivotal moment of reflection and rebuilding. As the collective museum community, the choices we make in the coming months and years about what and how to rebuild will set our field’s course …
After MAP, KidsPlay Children’s Museum Is Ready to Build Community Bridges
Through the Museum Assessment Program, museums gain perspective on how to improve core areas of their operations, with a combination of guided self-reflection and close consultation with an expert Peer Reviewer. One of the many museums …
Applying Art History to Workplace Safety: Saving Lives and Growing Revenue at the Toledo Museum of Art
Over the course of its distinguished 120-year history of art education, the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) has offered classes that extend beyond simple drawing and painting into topics ranging from shop window design to robotics. As unusual …
How Can Education Programs Help Bridge the Digital Divide?
In this series of posts, EdCom’s Trends Committee is taking a deeper look at emerging phenomena identified in the 2021 edition of TrendsWatch from the Center for the Future of Museums. In this post, they explore how museums sought to …
