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An Unconventional Museum Education: Prioritizing Community Need

By Sarah Henderson

Ever since I was a student of museum studies at Georgetown University, I’ve been interested in how to embed museums into their communities in more useful and necessary ways. Now, at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library …
The Benefits and Challenges of Producing Creative Aging Programs for the LGBTQIA+ Community

By Eli Burke

Since 2018, AAM has partnered with Aroha Philanthropies to highlight and support museums that are developing programs for older adults, and to encourage others to do the same. The aim has been to address the epidemic of ageism, both within …
Green Trends in Museum Retail

By Joyce S. Lee & Andrea Froehle

As a seamless extension of the museum experience and a culmination of the exhibitions on view, the museum store is uniquely poised to reinforce an institution’s mission and values. For many, increasingly, this includes sustainability. In …
Evaluating the Impact of Augmented and Virtual Reality

By Colleen McGaughey & John Russick

“I am perfectly astonished at the effect.” “The thrilling scenes therein depicted are beyond description.” “It is true and really wonderful.” These are reactions from visitors to the Chicago Fire Cyclorama, who, in 1892, were captivated by …
Essential Evaluators: Digital Storytelling

By Laureen Trainer and Andréa Giron Mathern

Essential Evaluators seeks to gather evaluators in a common space to dialogue, reflect, and support each other in a world upended by COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protest movement. This is a time of uncertain and unknown expectations …
How the National Air and Space Museum Took Volunteering Virtual

By Elisa Kosarin, CVA

A mother and her spaceship-loving children, ages five and seven, arrive at the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center using their timed tickets. As they enter the museum, unsure where to turn first, a volunteer on a sixty-five-inch monitor behind the …
10 Best Practices of Accessible Museum Websites

By Sina Bahram

This article explores ten high-impact areas you should consider to enhance your website’s accessibility and bring it into conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the set of rules and practices that aims to define …
The Top Ten Alliance Blog Posts of 2020

By Joseph O'Neill

If 2019 was a “whirlwind year,” 2020 was a full-blown tornado. Forces that had been gathering speed in the museum field—like growing emphases on digital content and diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion—came to a dramatic head …
An End-of-Year Message from Laura Lott, AAM President and CEO

By Laura Lott

Hello AAMers, I’m sending this video today to reflect with you on this historic year. It has tested us in ways few of us could have imagined. Probably like you, I have uttered a few four-letter words this year. And while it’s clear the …
Game Plan Call for Applications! Professional Development for Museum Educators

By Elizabeth Merritt

In 2008, Dr. Jane McGonigal delivered the inaugural lecture for the new Center for the Future of Museums. McGonigal, who is both a professional futurist AND a ludologist, made the case that museums could learn a lot from games design. (AAM …