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Reframing the Collection: How a Literary Catalog Experiment Brought New Voices to Interpretation

By Derek (DK) Nnuro

The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art (Stanley) is part of the arts ecosystem at the country’s premier university for the study of creative writing. As a curatorial team, we have long been aware of the unique position this puts us …
The Pains and Pleasures of Being a First-Generation Museum Person

By Jojo Galvan

Every few months or so, there’s a family gathering. From a birthday celebration to a family cookout, my family never seems to have a shortage of reasons to gather. At the time of this writing, I am twenty-six years old, making me the right …
Meet Marilyn Jackson: A Q&A with AAM’s New President & CEO

By American Alliance of Museums

At the 2024 AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, the outgoing Vice Chair of AAM’s board, Nathan Richie, sat down for a Q&A with our new President & CEO, Marilyn Jackson, to help attendees get to know her a little better. In their …
Celebrating Deaf Culture: How 5 Leading Museums Approach Accessibility and ASL Year-Round

By Irma Cedeno Verdon

After I asked my husband to repeat himself multiple times in one conversation, he eventually turned to me and said, “You don’t hear anything I say. Please get your hearing checked.” I balked at his request and suggested that he speak …
Guiding Light: How Values Exercises Can Help You Present Challenging Content

By Ashley Witherspoon

When a visitor enters a museum, they arrive with more than just their belongings. They bring their entire cognitive framework to interpret and store knowledge, including their complex understanding of how significant events throughout …
How Book Bans Might Impact Museums: A Q&A with PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman

By Adam Rozan

This series of Q&As by the author are conducted as independent work and not part of his professional activities. If you follow the news, you’ve likely seen a surge in headlines about censorship and book-banning, with libraries and …
Faces of Baltimore Museums: Gage Branda

By American Alliance of Museums

Have you heard about AAM 2024 in Baltimore this month? (We hope so—we’re doing our best!) If so, you might have seen one of our ads for this year’s edition, featuring a lovely cast of smiling faces. But just whose faces are …
The Best Museum Gardens, According to Museum People

By Joseph O'Neill

Gardens can be artful, historic, and scientific—beautiful, educational, and ecological all at once. So they tend to go hand in hand with museums, uniting much of the diverse subject matter our field encompasses. Some museums are gardens, …
Toward Equity in Metadata: How Sandy Spring Museum Is Going beyond Reparative Cataloging

By Allison Weiss

Equity: freedom from bias or favoritism Metadata: data that describes and provides context for digital items, which in turn helps users find and discover these resources. Though Black and white residents numbered almost equally throughout …
Faces of Baltimore Museums: Rachel Leeds

By American Alliance of Museums

Have you heard about AAM 2024 in Baltimore this month? (We hope so—we’re doing our best!) If so, you might have seen one of our ads for this year’s edition, featuring a lovely cast of smiling faces. But just whose faces are …