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How the Delaware Art Museum is Centering Community Voices in Interpretive Planning

By Amelia Wiggins

In 2018, the Delaware Art Museum (DelArt) began a radically inclusive approach to reinstallation planning, integrating community voices at every stage through focus groups, iterative prototyping, and community-created content. But before …
The Top 10 Most Anticipated Events at #AAM2021

By Joseph O'Neill

One of the benefits of hosting a virtual conference, as AAM is doing with the continuation of the 2021 Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo on June 7-9, is that it introduces a bunch of new digital tools to the experience, which allow for new …
Pivoting to Virtual Field Trips and Education Programs: Advice from The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum

By Mary Pat Higgins

At The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, our mission is to teach history in order to impact behaviors today. With students in particular, we want them to encounter the history of the Holocaust and human rights while also …
Looking Within: AAM’s Internal DEAI Work

By Andrew Plumley

Most of you reading this probably know about Facing Change, AAM’s multi-year initiative to increase the diversity of museum boards and ultimately create more diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive museum cultures. But alongside any …
Virtual Programs for Children—What Do Parents Want Now?

By Scott Burg & Claire Quimby, Rockman et al.

After of year of chaos, anguish, and reflection, the world is entering a new phase—perhaps “post-pandemic,” maybe the “new normal”—it will take a while to settle on the right label. Last year, the AAM Committee on Audience Research and …
Sign of the Times: Museums Become Vaccine Clinics

By Joseph O'Neill & Rachel Lee

After a year-plus of museums stepping far outside their comfort zones, becoming everything from food distributors to protest relief stations, the final frontier is upon us. Museums around the world have started to offer their spaces as …
Inviting Engagement: Front-of-House Workers Become Online Content Creators

By Catherine Arias

After announcing our free admission initiative in January 2020, MOCA’s lobby was a bustling hive of activity. Visitor engagement staff welcomed attendees by scanning their tickets and orienting them to exhibitions, rules, and amenities. …
How Volunteer Programs Are Embracing Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion

By Elisa Kosarin, CVA

One of the most powerful ways for the public to engage with museums is not as visitors. It’s as volunteers. Here’s why: the volunteer experience is direct and immediate. Volunteers spend extensive time within their chosen museums, getting …
Empathy Interventions: Mia Experiments with Cultivating Empathy in Museum Visitors

By Alice Anderson & Karleen Gardner

Can the visual arts foster empathy and understanding? From our experiences as art museum educators, we believe they can, but there is little empirical research to support this theory. So, in 2017, the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), …
It Is Time to Include AANHPIs In Museum Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Efforts

By Edward Tepporn

Over the past year, we have all witnessed the increasing acts of hate and violence against Asian Americans, particularly against women and the elderly. Some have tried to cast these incidents as a new trend. Yet, for those of us who …