Reaching Behind the Glass

I’ve long admired the creativity and ingenuity of the Manchester Museum—following their exploits from inviting a hermit to live in the museum for forty days and forty nights and while engaging the public in an examination of what …

Visitors with Vision Loss

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2012 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Art Beyond Sight/Art Education for the Blind (ABS) encourages the visual arts to play a vital role in the lives of people who …

Ethics and the Distributed Museum

I’m wrestling with the draft report of “Forecasting the Future of Museum Ethics.” One of the most delightful things about this project is that, despite the constraints of format (multiple choice and free text in an online survey) the …

Forecasting the Future of Accessibility: Please Touch or Don’t Touch?

I wish I could preview my Inbox from 2036. How come Outlook doesn’t have an option for that? As a member of AAM’s staff Ethics Taskforce, I help answer plaintive, irate, indignant and panicked questions that come over our email. So I have …

A Global View of the Future

Bonjour, привует, Guten Tag, سلام ! This is a shout-out to and call for input from CFM’s international followers. In the past month, the traffic to this blog has come from:  United States: 5,634  France: 1,173  Canada: 334  United Kingdom: …

What’s the Point of a Museum Website?

Ignite Smithsonian. Many of you have probably already heard that on April 11 the auditorium of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian was packed from 10 a.m.– 12:30 p.m. with people talking about museums, technology …

Thoughts on the Digitization of Museum Collections

When The Pinky Show asked attendees of the 2010 AAM Annual Meeting what they thought about the digitization of museum collections, it was on no one’s radar that Google was planning to do exactly that with the Google Art Project. …

Full Spectrum: Addressing the Needs of Kids with Autism

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2011 edition of the Museum magazine. An average sixth-grade class is touring your galleries. Most of the children are only mildly interested, but one or two are not only intrigued but …

Going Beyond: What Does Universal Design Look Like?

Without a doubt, universal design and accessibility impact the exhibitions and public programs that museums produce. But how do you integrate those principles into your exhibits an…

Mining MyCulture: serving the community of creative consumers

The CFM report Museums & Society 2034 explored a trend we dubbed “MyCulture”—a rising generation demonstrating an extraordinarily high level of creative output and creative consumption. This week’s guest blogger, Allison Thurman, …

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