Community Engagement & Impact

The Dirt on the Stearns Museum’s Children’s Garden

By Elizabeth Merritt

Ella Mitchell, who is interning in AAM’s Government Relations and Advocacy department, reports on her interview with director Charlene Akers of the Stearns History Museum, an early volunteer for the Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens …
Practical Futurism: a Case Study

By Elizabeth Merritt

This week’s guest blogger is Bill Martin, director of the Valentine Richmond History Center in Virginia. Bill was one of our panelists on the session “Practical Futurism” at the AAM annual meeting in Houston last week, and shares how his …
Closing the Loop

By Elizabeth Merritt

Over the past month we’ve hosted a conversation about the spectrum of control museums exert over audience input and participation. Barbara Stauffer from the National Museum of Natural History wrote of the challenges of inviting over 800 …
Museums & Community: Steampunk Love

By Elizabeth Merritt

This weekend, the city of Waltham, Mass. will host International Steampunk City. Presented by the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation, this “con” (convention) mashes together industrial history, Victorian culture and fashion, …
Help Choose the Next CFM Lecturer!

By Elizabeth Merritt

When I gave you an early peek of CFM’s plans for the year, I dropped a hint about the topic of the 2011 CFM lecture. Now I will spill the beans. We are going to address museums and…food! “Wait,” you may say. “Gaming (Dr. Jane McGonigal) I …
Some Great Museums Ready to Move

By Elizabeth Merritt

How can we make sure museums are recognized for all the good things they do for their communities? Kudos from the White House would be one great thing, wouldn’t it? That’s why AAM is partnering with ACM and APGA to launch a “Let’s Move …
Let’s Help America Move!

By Elizabeth Merritt

How can museums change the world? Here’s an invitation to rise to one compelling challenge—helping our communities raise a generation of healthy, active kids. The American Association of Museums (AAM) is working with the American Public …
Saving the Historic House—While Saving the World

By Elizabeth Merritt

This week’s guest post is by Laurie Ossman, director of Woodlawn, a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. As I pointed out in an earlier profile of an historic house, museums can use food to build community and tackle …
Advice on the Strategic use of Twitter from a Master Tweeter—Neil Tyson

By Elizabeth Merritt

Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of AMNH’s Rose Center for Air and Space, is an astrophysics rock star. How many museumers get interviewed four times by Jon Stewart? In the first interview, Jon reveals he is a “big fan” of AMNH and the Hayden …
The Short Term Future—CFM 2011

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’m going to use this first blog post of the New Year to share a preview of the themes CFM will focus on in 2011. Based on the trends we monitor through Dispatches from the Future of Museums, your feedback on our forecasting reports, …