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Why Teachers Want Virtual Field Trips to Stay

By Holly Duskin

On a virtual field trip, students search their screens for signs of movement as they try to spot the elusive macroinvertebrates lurking in a pond water sample. A grid appears over the screen with the numbers one through six in each box, so …
Finding Wonder in a Virtual World

By Rachel Serkin

Envision a group of schoolchildren standing before you, giddy with anticipation and excitement. In front of them are two elongated rectangular wooden doors, which, once opened, will transport them to another time. The doors swing open and …
Hindsight is 2020: What We Learned About Leadership in a Crisis

By Preeti Gupta, Daniel Zeiger, Sara Pelleteri, Alie LeBeau, Lindzy Bivings, and Kristin Evans

At the height of the pandemic, as so many aspects of our professional and personal lives hung in the balance and emotions fluctuated between despair and hope, effective leadership surfaced as essential. Facing public health restrictions …
Designing for Engagement: Five Steps for Co-Creating Exhibits and Programs with Your Communities

By Bryan Markovitz and Isabel Singer

Museums are changing how they interact with the communities they serve, adopting practices that are more inclusive and engaging for all. One of the practices they are increasingly turning to is co-creation: forming an equal partnership …
Crafting the Museum Experience: How Mingei International Museum Centered Mission and Visitor Experience in a Major Renovation

By Jennifer Luce & Rob Sidner

In September 2021, Mingei International Museum will reopen after a three-year, fifty-five-million-dollar renovation. This ambitious and unique capital project, completed in partnership with architect Jennifer Luce, has resulted in a fully …
Rethinking Our Human Resources Practices to Build a More Equitable Museum

By Micah D. Parzen, Ph.D., J.D.

Less than three weeks after COVID forced museums around the globe to close their doors last year, an article by Arundhati Roy in The Financial Times titled “The Pandemic is a Portal” stopped me in my tracks. In the midst of an …
Microclimates: A Greener Future for Collection Care

By Joyce Lee & Kelly Krish

There are many options available for museums to address climate action and become more sustainable, but recent work at two institutions has highlighted the value in one particular method: creating “microclimates” which confine …
The Peabody Essex Museum’s Climate + Environment Initiative Seeks to Create a Different Climate Future

By Jane Winchell

As the director of an interactive art and nature space, I’ve included climate change as a topic in many shows and programs over the years. But until recently, I had convinced myself that focusing an entire exhibition on climate change …
A Deeper Model of Community Co-Creation

By Marjorie Bequette and Robby Callahan Schreiber

Museums often talk about reaching out to communities, or co-creating with community members, for an exhibition or project. But often in these cases, the formula is lopsided in favor the museum; even though they may be eliciting feedback, …
What’s the Connection Between Financial Capital and Museum Education?

By Kerry Sautner and Abby Newkirk

In this series of posts, EdCom’s Trends Committee is taking a deeper look at emerging phenomena identified in the 2020 edition of TrendsWatch from the Center for the Future of Museums. In this post, they dive into financial capital, with a …