The Worcester Art Museum: A Re-envision Case Study
THE VISION With the arrival of a new director in 2011, the board envisioned a more accessible and inclusive museum providing physical, sensory, intellectual, aesthetic, and social access for everyone. The board also aspired for the museum …
Don’t Raid the Cookie Jar: creating early interventions for deaccessioning crises
Or, “when ethics statements are not enough…” I’m working on the agenda for a convening hosted by the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, December 14-15, at which participants are going to try to come up with early warning systems …
Statement on The Berkshire Museum Proposal to Deaccession Works of Art for Its Endowment, Operations, and to Fund Capital Investments
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 25, 2017 ARLINGTON, VA ─ The American Alliance of Museums (AAM), an organization representing the entire scope of the museum community, and the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), an organization …
The Future of Ownership
When it comes to collecting, museums are at the very end of a long chain of decisions. Before that new acquisition comes under the registrar’s pen, someone had to create an object, purchase or collect it, enabling it to eventually wend its …
Taking A Fresh Look At Provenance
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2016 issue of Museum magazine. Pursuing a future in which provenance research and data are efficient, accessible, and equitable. Museums know that provenance, including provenance …
Direct Care of Collections: Ethics, Guidelines, and Recommendations
This article originally appeared in the July-August 2016 issue of Museum magazine. First issued in 2016, the white paper was updated in 2019 to reflect the updated FASB accounting standard that allows for direct care as well as …
Why Create & Use Open Source Software? Reflections from an imaging nonprofit
Doubtless your news-feed, like mine, is flooded with stories about the “open” economy: the rise of open data, open software, open government. (For an introduction to the trend, revisit the related chapter in TrendsWatch 2015.) …
Tackling Collections Backlogs for Small Museums
Watch this recorded webinar in which small museum professionals discuss issues related to tackling collection…
Museums as 21st Century Databases
In August, Jeff Inscho blogged for CFM about the launch of the Carnegie Museums’ new Innovation Studio at Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. This week his colleague David Newbury, who leads development on the Art Tracks project for Carnegie …
Why are we locking our data away from the public?
When I was researching TrendWatch2015 I sent out a call for examples of how museums struggle with the trend towards “openness” when it threatens traditional ways we have shared (or not shared) our data. Chris Norris, in the Division of …
