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Essential Evaluators: A New Era Emerges

By Rose Jones, Laureen Trainer, and Andréa Giron Mathern

In sync with the rest of the world, the museum field has exploded and imploded. Crushed by the weight of ongoing, unresolved systemic racism and paralyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic, parts of the field have collapsed or dissipated, other …
Advocacy is (Always) Essential

By Allison Titman

Do you have five minutes to take a small action that could make a big impact? I know, it sounds like a cheap sales pitch, and if you work in a small museum, your answer may be no. Whether closed, working to reopen, or able to welcome …
How Chinese Museums Closed and Reopened During COVID-19

By Yiru Zhang

What Chinese museums did during their month-long closure Almost all Chinese museums closed immediately on January 24, only one day after the city of Wuhan locked down, to reduce the risk of infection in crowded places. Beginning in early …
6 Data-Tested Approaches to Building New Audiences

By Joseph O'Neill

It’s safe to say that most museums would like new visitors. Visitors actualize museums’ missions, give them vibrancy as places of insight and connection, and contribute to their financial welfare. Even for museums that receive plenty of …
Supporting Museum Professionals During a Time of Need

By Ryan Bourke

One of the best pieces of wisdom I’ve ever received came from a former boss of mine who later became a good friend. The year was 2009, almost a decade after our professional paths converged, and like so many folks during the Great …
Leveraging Smartphone Technology to Protect Museum Visitors

By Kim Spencer

Everyone is eager for a return to normal, which includes access to museums and other cultural venues. While countless people likely have been inspired and sustained by virtual museum tours these past few months, there is something very …
Staying in Touch: Addressing Concerns to Allow Tactile Exploration at Museums

By Cheryl Fogle-Hatch, Ann Cunningham, and Matt Gesualdi

The COVID-19 pandemic is creating new norms that discourage touching all manner of objects to curtail the spread of the virus. However, when public spaces reopen, understandable concern about disease transmission may lead museums to …
Key Takeaways for Museum Education at #AAMvirtual

By Reema Ghazi, Reggie Lynch, Mickey Maley, Meriel Stokoe

The theme of the Virtual Annual Meeting—Radical Reimagining—was already poignant in the context of the field’s reckoning with the impacts of COVID-19, but became even more so in the midst of nationwide protests against police brutality and …
What Museum Education Students Learned at #AAMvirtual

By American Alliance of Museums

With the AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo transitioning to a virtual format this year, a new crop of colleagues was able to attend, participate, and share their reactions on social media. Among these were students in the Museum …
Diary of a Museum Reopening

By Peter Seibert

As of May 7, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is officially reopened to visitors. The BBCW is a massive AAM-accredited facility located in rural Wyoming in the Yellowstone National Park gateway community of Cody, with a budget of around …