Community Engagement & Impact

Why Cities, Museums, and Soft Power

By Gail Dexter Lord

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2015 edition of Museum magazine. An adapted excerpt from Cities, Museums and Soft Power by Gail Dexter Lord and Ngaire Blankenberg, available from The AAM Press in late April. Please go …
More on Trust: The Malleable Past

By Elizabeth Merritt

In my study at home is a beautiful wooden couch handcrafted by my uncle Bob. It cleverly converts into a (narrow, hard) sleeper sofa when you lift the woven back. I was very happy to inherit this piece of family memorabilia, and always …
Trust Me, I’m a Museum

By Elizabeth Merritt

Back in 2001 AAM sponsored a survey which showed that 87% of respondents viewed museums as “one of the most trustworthy sources of objective information.” We cited that figure a lot in the following decade. commissioned by the …
The Multi-dimensional Museum

By Elizabeth Merritt

I was delighted to hear this story over the weekend on NPR, on how the Pacific Science Center opens early, one Saturday each month, to provide an environment tailored to the needs of visitors with autism. For this time, they turn down the …
Magnetic Museums Part 3: Embracing 360 Engagement, Widening the Circle

By American Alliance of Museums

In this recorded webinar learn the ways in which magnetic museums connect people to each other around ideas, issues and experiences while providing opportunities to participate and contribute, advance institutional missions and strengthen …
Won’t you be my neighbor?

By Elizabeth Merritt

By the time this post goes up, session submission for AAM 2015 will have closed. I’ve had a hard time keeping up with all the great proposals streaming into the site and look forward to seeing how many match topics on my wish list. You …
Instigating Social Justice Sessions for AAM 2015

By Elizabeth Merritt

David Fleming, director of the National Museums Liverpool laid the groundwork for the next AAM annual meeting in his “Big Ideas” session at the conference last spring: “when I use the term “social justice,” he said, “I mean two things: …
Unaccompanied Children at our Borders: Can Museums Help?

By Elizabeth Merritt

The theme of the Alliance 2015 conference is Museums and Social Value. Leading up to that meeting in Atlanta, CFM will be hosting a number of guest bloggers addressing various aspects of museums and social justice. Last month, Robert …
Turning the Museum into a Personal Oracle

By Laurie Phillips

I’m always on the hunt for examples of people “hacking” museum content in interesting ways. Museum fans come up with amazing ways to use museums—things museum staff may not have thought of in a million years. This week, artist / educator / …
Magnetic Museums Part 2: Building Core Alignment, Empowering Others

By American Alliance of Museums

Watch this recorded webinar to learn how to build a shared vision, mission, and compelling set of long-t…