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Highlighting Museums on #GivingTuesdayNow

By Josette Souza

With #GivingTuesdayNow taking place May 5, as an emergency COVID-19 edition of the annual fundraising event, we wanted to highlight the great work of museums across the country and share what they had to say about the campaigns they’re …
How the Anchorage Museum is Telling the Story of Climate Change

By Julie Decker

As the world faces the unprecedented in climate crisis and pandemics, museums are more important than ever for facilitating essential human connection and meaning-making. As a result of these crises, human lifeways and ecosystems will be …
What Can Data Teach Us About Museum Collections?

By Diana Greenwald

Author’s Note: When I initially wrote this blog post several months ago, it was to describe and celebrate an initiative that I spearheaded at the National Gallery of Art that made new use of museum collection data. The point of the …
Seeking Self-Care Solutions, for COVID-19 and Beyond

By Reggie Lynch and Meriel Stokoe

Support Free COVID-19 Resources for the Field The current crisis is taking a distressing financial toll on cultural organizations, and AAM is no different. The Alliance Blog is supported by membership dues and donations. In these …
Earth Day during COVID-19: Green Tips for Closed Museums

By Joyce S. Lee

In 2020, Earth Day falls during a time when much of the coronavirus-stricken world is staying at home. Every part of the global community is impacted, and museums have been hit particularly hard. Meanwhile, we find ourselves living in a …
Introducing the Museum Distance Learning Repository

By Sarah Jencks

When our institutions shut their doors for the foreseeable future just over a month ago, museum educators did what they do best. That is to say, we pivoted. Across the continent—and around the world—those of us who spend our days designing …
What Does a Welcoming Online Collections Portal Look Like?

By Cassi Tucker

In late February 2020, the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University became the latest institution to launch an online collections portal, a feature that is increasingly expected of art museums. Built on our existing …
Supporting Teaching Artists with Creative Aging Trainings

By Sarah Drebelbis

In 2019, one hundred Minnesota teaching artists participated in two teaching artist trainings in creative aging, co-presented by Aroha Philanthropies and the Minnesota State Arts Board, in partnership with Lifetime Arts. Today on the blog, …
A Small Museum’s Rapid Response Collecting Project for COVID-19

By Anne Raymond

For historians, there is history in the making at any given moment. The life events, triumphs, and tragedies we experience and record help us define our ever-changing world for generations to come. So, when the coronavirus began affecting …
How Complexity Theory Can Help Decision-Making in Chaotic Times

By Jennifer Martin

You wouldn’t be wrong to call these times chaotic. But chaos, though not always life-threatening in the way of COVID-19, is not uncommon in our work. In November of 2011, I was a CEO leading the opening of a brand-new science center—new …