Community Engagement & Impact

How We Maximized Our Museum Building’s Impact on Human and Environmental Health

By Richard V. Piacentini

Abundant research demonstrates the efficacy of a building’s design to enhance and support human and environmental health. Peer-reviewed professional studies in journals such as Indoor and Built Environment, Journal of the Illuminating …
TrendsWatch 2019: Give Me Shelter: Everyone deserves a place to live

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is one of the five trends from the 2019 TrendsWatch. Click here to read more about the full report. “You call this progress, because you have motor cars and telephones and flying machines and a thousand potions to make you smell …
Collecting Girlhood: Why the new activist museum is virtual

By Tiffany Rhoades Isselhardt

The assumption that museums must be permanent buildings with physical collections is no longer sustainable. With decreased funding, increased competition, and the burden of care, museums have had to reimagine themselves. Some small …
Museopunks Episode 33: A Museum for Everyone

By Suse Anderson

OF/BY/FOR ALL is a global movement and a set of tools to help community institutions around the world become more representative OF and co-created BY their communities. In this episode, we’re joined by OF/BY/FOR ALL founder Nina Simon and …
Handing the Mic to People Experiencing Homelessness

By Terence Lester

For me, the most exciting part of publishing TrendsWatch is making new connections with people doing great work around each issues’ themes. One of the topics we address in TrendsWatch 2019 is homeless and housing insecurity. In a happy …
Meet Marabou! The furry, friendly creature reimagining the museum

By Megan Elevado

When you visit a museum, do you feel empowered? Do you feel like you have authority and control of your experience? That’s why Marabou is here: to remind us that we all have agency in our museum experiences. Marabou is a rainbow-colored …
Join the Conversation on Museums and Creative Aging

By Bill Tramposch

Calling all kindred spirits! Museums and the field of “creative aging” have a wonderful future together. As Aroha Fellow for Museums and Creative Aging for the next two years, I would like to explain clearly the intents of our …
#WhyILoveMuseums: See the inspiring responses!

By Joseph O'Neill

March 13 was #WhyILoveMuseums Day, a social media movement started by Mar Dixon, a consultant who has led monthly hashtags for the cultural field from her @CultureThemes platform for almost a decade. Mar tells us that she founded …
The Mission-Driven Café: When doing the wrong thing is the right thing to do

By Larry Bain

Ask most museum directors, restaurant consultants, and other knowledgeable folks and they will tell you: “Hire an outside food-service company to run your café.” Well, that makes perfect sense—that is what most museums choose to do. The …
Build Lifelong Friendships at #AAM2019

By Cecelia Walls

Watch this video to see how attending the AAM Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo helps you connect with others in the field and build lifelong friendships. We hope you will join us May 19–22 for the 2019 AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo in …