Community Engagement & Impact

Recruiting Strategies: How to Find Community Members for Research Studies and More

By Laureen Trainer and Michelle Mileham

Despite the ongoing effect of COVID-19 on museums’ daily operations, the national Measurement of Museum Social Impact (MOMSI) project has been forging ahead with thirty-eight museum participants since January 2021. The perseverance of the …
How the Greenwood Art Project United a Community in Reflection and a Vision for the Future

By Jerica Wortham, Anita Contini, and Stephanie Dockery

By 1921, the thriving Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, had generated one billion dollars of collective wealth in today’s economic terms. Nicknamed “Black Wall Street” by W.E.B. DuBois, this neighborhood on the north side of the city …
Measuring Up

By Various

A new national study is quantifying the social impact of …
Point of View: The Relational Museum

By Cara Courage, Ph.D.

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2022 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Museums have potential as placemakers to support and strengthen their communities. In my work in and with museums across the …
The Greatest Work of Art

By Howard Taylor

The community is always the focus of San Angelo Museum of…
Looking Back to Move Forward: Examining Institutional Racism in Reprising “Afro-American Images 1971”

By Margaret Winslow

In February 1971, a newly formed Delaware organization, Aesthetic Dynamics Inc., presented its first major undertaking: an exhibition of over 130 works of art—drawings, prints, photographs, paintings, and sculpture—by sixty-six African …
Why Well-Being Is at the Heart of Museum Experiences

By John H. Falk

For nearly half a century, I have been thinking and theorizing about museum experiences—why people use museums, what they do during those experiences, and what they take away, including the value they perceive they derive. Today, though, …
The Top Ten Alliance Blog Posts of 2021

By Joseph O'Neill

Though 2021 was a slightly more normal year than 2020, with mostly open museums gradually regaining visitors, the pandemic still loomed large and colored most conversations. On the Alliance Blog, the discussion shifted from absorbing the …
After MAP, KidsPlay Children’s Museum Is Ready to Build Community Bridges

By Mary Guilfoile, KidsPlay Board of Directors

Through the Museum Assessment Program, museums gain perspective on how to improve core areas of their operations, with a combination of guided self-reflection and close consultation with an expert Peer Reviewer. One of the many museums …
Applying Art History to Workplace Safety: Saving Lives and Growing Revenue at the Toledo Museum of Art

By Adam Levine & Doug Pontsler

Over the course of its distinguished 120-year history of art education, the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) has offered classes that extend beyond simple drawing and painting into topics ranging from shop window design to robotics. As unusual …