The Memory Café: Creating a museum program for people with dementia
At Conner Prairie—a Smithsonian Affiliate living history museum in Fishers, Indiana—we recently debuted a program for people with Dementia and Alzheimer’s. In partnership with the Central Indiana Council on Aging (CICOA) and Dementia …
Autism in Museums: a revolution in the making
As we work to increase diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility among museum audiences and in the workplace, we need to attend to the needs of neurodiverse visitors and employees. In today’s post, Claire Madge, founder of the …
Financial Sustainability Is Everyone’s Responsibility
Prepared Remarks of Laura L. Lott President & CEO of the American Alliance of Museums Opening General Session of the 2019 Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo May 20, 2019 Good morning and welcome to the 2019 AAM Annual Meeting, the largest …
Ageism is All Around Us
Greetings! This is my second blog as Aroha Fellow for Museums and Creative Aging, and I begin by reiterating my invitation to meet colleagues who share an interest in creative aging during the 2019 AAM Annual Meeting in New Orleans this …
Outside the Collection Box: Connecting community with collections via augmented reality
Immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and cross reality (XR) are quickly gaining momentum as a mass media tool deployable in all areas of industry and society, which has …
Four Things I Learned When I Started Thinking about Museum Accessibility
I first started working with the Disabilities community in 2011. Over the years, I’ve worked with individuals of all ages in their homes, at their jobs, and in their communities. The state I live in, Rhode Island, has had to …
A New Way to See: Looking at museums through the eyes of the blind
Let’s talk about accessibility. In the twenty-first century era of inclusivity, museums are working towards making the visitor experience a more positive and unique one, as part of efforts to increase the number of visitors to museums. In …
The A in DEAI: Seven tips for greater accessibility at events
In being a museum professional during the social media age, there are few things cooler than getting to be a Social Media Journalist for the American Alliance of Museum (AAM) conference. In my application, I spoke about how I wanted to …
Call for Nominations: Zero Project 2019
I love to see museums and museum people winning awards and recognition outside our sector. Such accolades demonstrate the ability for museums to good in world-changing ways, and buffs the reputation of our field. For example, Rick Lowe, …
Envisioning the Accessible Future of Peer Review
One of my favorite parts of putting together the recent “future issue” of Museum was asking my colleagues at AAM to imagine how their work, and the programs they staff, such as accreditation and advocacy, might be different in the year …