From Preservation to Participation: The Journey of Sandy Spring Museum
Many museums think that serving the needs of more ethnically diverse constituents will lose them “traditional” audience and supporters, but at Sandy Spring Museum (SSM), we’ve found just the opposite. Nearly ten years ago, when a financial …
These Museums Helped Welcome Immigrants and Refugees to their Community, and Yours Can Too!
Welcoming America’s annual Welcoming Week enlists organizations around the country to welcome new immigrants and refugees into their new communities. This year, AAM is a national partner of Welcoming Week and is calling on museums to get …
Rethinking Our Human Resources Practices to Build a More Equitable Museum
Less than three weeks after COVID forced museums around the globe to close their doors last year, an article by Arundhati Roy in The Financial Times titled “The Pandemic is a Portal” stopped me in my tracks. In the midst of an …
A Deeper Model of Community Co-Creation
Museums often talk about reaching out to communities, or co-creating with community members, for an exhibition or project. But often in these cases, the formula is lopsided in favor the museum; even though they may be eliciting feedback, …
What I Learned in a Year of Writing “Museums and Creative Aging: A Healthful Partnership”
The creative aging movement is coming of age, and just in the nick of time. As of last year, 80 percent of state arts agencies across the United States reported a high or very high demand for creative aging programs in their state, which …
Strategies for Engaging and Representing Latinos in Museums
The Latino Network of the American Alliance of Museums has released Strategies for Engaging and Representing Latinos in Museums, a new in-depth resource which provides background information and strategies for engaging and representing …
How the Delaware Art Museum is Centering Community Voices in Interpretive Planning
In 2018, the Delaware Art Museum (DelArt) began a radically inclusive approach to reinstallation planning, integrating community voices at every stage through focus groups, iterative prototyping, and community-created content. But before …
It Is Time to Include AANHPIs In Museum Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Efforts
Over the past year, we have all witnessed the increasing acts of hate and violence against Asian Americans, particularly against women and the elderly. Some have tried to cast these incidents as a new trend. Yet, for those of us who …
Audiences and Inclusion: A Primer for Cultivating More Inclusive Attitudes Among the Public
In a deeply divided nation, museums can play an essential role in creating safe and welcoming spaces for the most marginalized and at-risk communities. A component of this work is in guiding current museum-goers towards more inclusive …
Virtual Internships Are Here to Stay—and That’s a Good Thing
Amid the challenges of 2020, one of the most successful learning experiences for me was pivoting to a 100 percent remote internship program at the National Gallery of Art. When I began planning to make the transition last March, I saw …
