Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion

Hosting Remote Internships: Successes, Challenges, and Thoughts for the Future

By Emily Shield

When I posted our call for internship applications last December, I had a very different idea of what the summer would look like. A typical internship at the Chrysler Museum of Art involves current students or recent graduates gaining …
With Rapid Response Collecting, Who Are We Responding To?

By Carol Ghiorsi Hart

After the start of protests over the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent looting of businesses, hundreds of plywood boards went up in Greensboro, North Carolina’s downtown. But these boards, which could have been an angry reminder …
The Shifting Sands of Excellence: A Q&A with Accreditation Leaders

By Joseph O'Neill

One of AAM’s closest-watched programs is Accreditation, the flagship program on a continuum that measures and confers excellence, giving museums an external seal of credibility which helps further their ambitions. The process, in …
Running with Scissors: Creating a Sustainable History Experience (2017-2020)

By Franklin D. Vagnone

You may know that Old Salem Museums & Gardens (OSMG) and The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, have been making considerable changes over the past four years. What you may not know is …
How to Start an Accessibility Movement at Your Museum

By Katy Menne

Think back to a childhood trip to a museum, aquarium, or historic home. Chances are the first thing you heard was a directive: “Hands in pockets and do not touch anything.” Today, we still see similar interactions in museums …
My Primary School is in a Museum—US Pandemic Edition

By Elizabeth Merritt

Can you imagine being a school-age kid during this pandemic? Whether they are glued to a screen trying to learn via Zoom, attending class masked and distanced, or being home-schooled, this experience will shape our youngest generation for …
Setting A Higher Bar

By Josh Barr

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2020 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Since its inception, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum has focused on universal accessibility. Well before the …
Essential Evaluators: What’s in Your Soup?

By Rose Jones, Laureen Trainer, and Andréa Giron Mathern

Essential Evaluators seeks to gather evaluators in a common space to dialogue, reflect, and support each other in a world upended by COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protest movement. This is a time of uncertain and unknown expectations …
The Keys to Sustainable Online Programming? Partnerships and Professional Development

By Megan Ennes

Recently, I’ve been analyzing the efficacy of museum-developed digital programs over their thirty-year history, and I’ve noticed a common theme: Every study extols the benefits of such programs, including increased outreach and engagement …
How Can We Make Volunteer Programs More Inclusive and Accessible?

By American Alliance of Museums

Last year, AAM released a popular toolkit on structuring, developing, and supporting volunteer programs—whether starting from scratch or reimagining an existing program. Since the release of Designing a Museum Volunteer Program, many …