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Creative Aging Reading List, Part Two: But wait, there’s more!

By Bill Tramposch

As the Aroha Fellowship for Museums and Creative Aging progresses, one of the delights is receiving notes from blog readers. A number of colleagues have sent further reading ideas for my list, and I am particularly grateful for the …
Every Museum Has a Story to Tell: Invite Congress to Visit Your Museum

By Ember Farber

Who: Museums and elected officials around the country! What: Annual Invite Congress to Visit Your Museum week. When: August 12-16, or whenever your elected officials and staff can make it. Where: Your museum! Why: So elected officials can …
Get about It: Change and Resistance

By Linda Norris

I’d never visited New Orleans before, and my brief but fascinating experience served as a metaphor for this year’s AAM Annual Meeting experience. New Orleans is a city of layers, with old finishes poking through, new ideas still pushing …
Unlocking the Neuroscience of Visitor Experience

By Tedi Asher, PhD

The act of understanding is fundamental to the museum experience. In visiting a museum, we come to understand the objects placed before us, along with the stories of their human pasts. So too is understanding a key to creating these …
Creating Vibrant Programs for Older Adults

By Delano Wood

It is a particular pleasure to hear from kindred spirits in creative aging who have been keeping up with our Ad Summa blogs. One such person is the indefatigable Delano Wood from DOROT in New York City. When he contacted me about his …
Confronting a Painful History: How a museum partnered with its Native community to educate the public about an offensive place name

By Michele Graves

The Black Rock Historical Society (BRHS) is a volunteer organization on the west side of Buffalo, NY, formed in 2013 around the two-hundredth anniversary of the War of 1812 and chartered with the New York State Education Department in …
Welcoming the Next Generation of Board Leadership

By Christina Carr

AAM’s Facing Change initiative has put the spotlight on museum board diversity, but not everyone thinks of bringing younger people onto the board when the topic comes up. Age diversity, though, can contribute to financial sustainability …
We, the Aged, Are an Integral Part of the Community

By Ken Gorbey

In April, while on a visit to New Zealand, I convened seven highly-respected Kiwi colleagues in Wellington to discuss creative aging. I asked two questions of the participants: How might our museums be more sensitive and responsive to the …
Taking a Museum Education Study from Research to Practice

By Emily Holtrop and Stephanie Downey

People often talk about going “from research to practice,” but in reality, this is fraught with challenges, not just among museums but in any field. One primary challenge is that research institutions operate in a realm of theories, …
2019 Award Winner for Innovation in Museum Education: Wa kuk wa jimor (“Canoe of One Community”)

By Allyn Lord

The EdCom Award for Innovation in Museum Education recognizes, encourages, and celebrates new, creative ways of engaging with audiences. The Shiloh Museum of Ozark History’s approach to collaborating with the local Marshallese …