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Serving Broader Audiences, Museums Engage Communities with Public Space

By Erin Flynn & Andrew Barwick

Many of today’s museum leaders recognize a need to engage more closely with the public, and a related desire to make their facilities and programs more flexible and valuable. In order to achieve these goals, it can be useful to explore new …
A Historic Textile Mill Inspires Creative Agers at Museum L-A

By Denise Scammon

In 2018, twenty organizations enrolled in a special museum cohort of Aroha Philanthropies’ Seeding Vitality Arts program. With funding from Aroha, and training provided by Lifetime Arts, these museums are developing high-quality, intensive …
What Kind of Ancestor Will You Be?

By Omar Eaton-Martínez

As Facing Change Senior Diversity Fellows, I and my associate fellows have been tasked with supporting museums as they address the lack of racial diversity in the governances of their institutions. In this journey, I’ve been reminded of a …
Programming Through the Lens of Empathy

By Lorena Bradford

At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, two new public programs and one new high school tour are built on the premises that empathy is worth cultivating and listening to the perspectives of others is valuable.[1] These programs …
Museums and the Census: How can you help?

By American Alliance of Museums

The 2020 United States Census is right around the corner, with National Census Day taking place on April 1, and it’s time for museums to start thinking about how they’ll be involved. This once-a-decade process of counting the country’s …
A Welcoming Week Celebration on the US-Mexico Border

By Ann Fortescue and Claudia Martinez

This fall, AAM partnered with Welcoming America to encourage museums to participate in its annual Welcoming Week, in which organizations around the country welcome new immigrants and refugees into their new communities. For one AAM member, …
The Old Man’s Guide to Health and Longer Life, 1750!

By Bill Tramposch

In the nearly endless stacks of the British Library there rests a little book entitled The Old Man’s Guide to Health and Longer Life. It was written in 1750 by a gentleman named John Hill, and it is a delightful read for two reasons: …
Dispelling Myths: Seven tips to build your museum partnership with the disability community

By Heather Irish and Christine Sonnabend

“We want our students to do more than just wipe tables,” said Lucas LaFaver, vocational coordinator at St. Coletta of Greater Washington, a DC-based charter school for students with intellectual disabilities. He’s passionate about creating …
Transforming Data into Stories with the Annual Survey of Museum-Goers

By Lindy Hoyer

Who visits our museums? What are their motivations, and what do they expect from the experience? Alternatively, who is not visiting, and why not? These are critical questions for the future of individual museums, and for the entire field. …
So You Want to Serve on a Museum Board?

By Christina Carr

In my last article for AAM on welcoming the next generation of board leadership, I encouraged young people who were interested in board service to develop their leadership skills and create opportunities at the museums they love. This is …