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Collection Ranking: Making deaccessions work for you
For all the objects in a museum’s collection that meet the standard criteria for accessioning—they fit the museum’s mission, are in good condition, and have thorough provenance—a significant percentage meet only one (or none) of these … -
Lessons in Cross-Cultural Partnerships for Mid-Sized Museums
On paper, the relationship between Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) and the Dordrecht Museum in the Netherlands looks like a typical museum partnership. For our recent exhibition Life in the Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Masterpieces from the … -
Read the Winners of This Year’s Excellence in Exhibition Label Writing Competition
Exhibition labels are a primary tool museums use to communicate with visitors, so every word (and punctuation mark!) counts. To underscore this, AAM’s Curators Committee sponsors a yearly competition spotlighting the work of … -
Taking Native Lands and Lives
Museums have power—the power to tell stories, shape narratives, and influence the lens we bring to bear on the past. That power can be harnessed for healing, as museums contribute to a reparative reexamination of history and the legacy of … -
Collecting Girlhood: Why the new activist museum is virtual
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 … -
Curator as Catalyst: How an interdisciplinary fellowship inspired “a new way of doing museum”
A few years ago, I had the unique opportunity to work across four fiercely independent and starkly different museums in the fine arts, sciences, and natural history. After being awarded ACLS Public Fellow with the Carnegie Museums of … -
Listen to the Interns: The Importance of the “Budding Scholar” for Museum Decolonization
As a junior in college, I think I might have found my calling—for now anyway. For the past two and a half years I have been studying Art History, Museum Studies, and African American History at Duke University. I’ve committed myself to the … -
Join me in Detroit to Explore the Future of Immersive Practice
I’ve spent the past week designing some futurist exercises for a convening the Alliance is organizing at Detroit Institute of Arts, September 6-7. My colleagues and I are organizing Immersion in Museums: AR, VR or Just Plain R?, an intense … -
Tools and Resources in the Wake of Charlottesville
First, let me state how proud I am to work in a field where museums and other institutions (AAM included) publicly denounce hatred and bigotry. Simply knowing there are places that offer respite to those affected by violence and … -
Exhibition Label Writing & Audience Engagement
Exhibition labels can be an important means to deeper audience engagement. This program provides several approaches for including audience voices and telling intriguing stories that can help audiences make connections as part of their …
Curatorial Practice
Latest Stories from AAM
October Monthly Advocacy Alert: Government Shutdown, Save the Date for Museums Advocacy Day, and more
Advocacy Alert – October 17, 2025 In this Alliance Advocacy Alert: Government …
K-12 STEM Education, Museums, and Perceived Curricular Gaps: A 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers Data Story
Category:
Alliance Blog
This visual Data Story is based on findings from the 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers, …
Measuring What Matters: Vital Signs for Museums
Category:
Alliance Blog
More numbers don’t equal more insight. If your dashboard feels more like a data dump than …