Community Engagement & Impact

The Louisiana State Museum’s Community-Building Creative Aging Program

By Sara Lowenburg

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 …
4 Tips for Effectively Reaching Visitors with Disabilities

By Dani Doughty

It’s been nearly three decades since the original Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law. Since the protective act was ratified, great strides have been made not just to prevent discrimination against people with …
Lessons from History: Museums and Pandemics

By Marjorie Schwarzer

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 Center for the Future of Museums is supported by AAM membership and …
A Community Museum’s Plan to Document Gentrification

By Sarah Zenaida Gould, PhD

This past November, I attended Reimagining the Museum: Conference of the Americas, held in Oaxaca, Mexico. Part of my excitement about attending the conference was that Latin America, and especially Oaxaca, is known for its community …
Why We’re Covering the Opioid Crisis at the Indiana State Museum

By Cathy Ferree

As museums look to the future, it is paramount that we stay relevant to our visitors and continue to meet their needs. Instead of only serving as stewards of the past, museums can put history in context and look to the future and tackle …
#5WomenArtists Shaping Museum Practice

By Elizabeth Merritt

Museums are among the most trusted sources of information and can use that superpower of trust to nudge society towards preferred futures. Today on the blog, Amy Mannarino, Director of Communications and Marketing at the National Museum of …
What Can Museums Learn from the “American Dirt” Controversy?

By Eric Carpio

As an avid reader of Chicanx/Latinx literature, I’ve been closely following the national conversation about the recently released novel American Dirt by author Jeanine Cummins. The conversation—which highlights issues of race, ethnicity, …
What It Means to Be a University Museum in the Twenty-First Century

By Amy Gilman

These days, when I stop by the café at the Chazen Museum of Art, I often find myself in conversation with my University of Wisconsin–Madison colleagues—students, staff, and professors from across the campus. I know that these informal …
Cravings Nourished: Museum experiences that elicit emotions

By Matthew Ramirez

Today on the Alliance Blog, we’re featuring a post by a Social Media Journalist for AAM’s 2019 Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo. The application for this year’s Social Media Journalist opportunity, in San Francisco, is now open! See …
The Transformative Power of Inclusive Storytelling in Museums

By Makeba Clay

My mentor Dr. Johnnetta Cole, the former director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (NMAfA), often says, “It’s easy to live without art, but it’s hard to live well.” For me, the power of art lies in its transformative …