Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion

2019 Award Winner for Excellence in Practice: David Rios

By David Rios

According to his nominator, David Rios, Director of Public Programs and Curator of Contemporary Art at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM), “excels in building experiences and shaping content in ways that create engagement and …
Meet the Facing Change Senior Diversity Fellows

By Ibrahim Shafau

Only nine short months have passed since AAM began its initiative Facing Change: Advancing Museum Board Diversity & Inclusion, which provides training, support, and resources to help museum leadership become more representative of the …
Andrew Plumley Joins American Alliance of Museums as Director of Inclusion

By Cecelia Walls

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 7, 2019 — ARLINGTON, VA – The American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the only organization representing the entire scope of the museum community, has named Andrew Plumley as director of inclusion. In this role, …
A Reading Group for Building Inclusive Museums

By Rose Paquet and Janeen Bryant

Between April and August of this year, 270 museums professionals, scholars, and students joined The Incluseum and participated in the #MassActionReadingGroup. What is MASS Action? MASS Action—Museum as Site for Social Action—is a …
Decolonizing the Future: museums as agents of generational equity

By Elizabeth Merritt

“We treat the future like a distant colonial outpost devoid of people, where we can freely dump ecological degradation, technological risk, nuclear waste and public debt, and that we feel at liberty to plunder as we please.” –Roman …
With Their Subject Matter in the Crosshairs, What Should Museums Do?

By Kevin Jennings

My parents were part of the generation that fought and won World War II. As their children, it was common for us to ask them, “What did you do during the war?” We wanted to be reassured they had stood up and done the right thing when it …
No Stone Left Unturned: How the Oakland Museum of California is practicing equity and inclusion.

By Lori Fogarty, Kelly McKinley, and Ayanna Reed

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2019 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Over the past decade, the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) has begun to apply the principles of equity and inclusion …
Trans Inclusion: Shedding light on gender transition and inclusion in the workplace.

By Anna Woten and Alison Kennedy

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2019 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Transgender people are a lot more common than you might imagine: recent studies suggest that 1–2 percent of the US …
Partnering with the Blind to Make Exhibits More Accessible

By Carrie Christoffersen, Anil Lewis, and John Olson

The opportunity to experience photography, art, and other museum exhibits can be life-altering to a blind person. “As a blind person, when I can experience a painting on my own without asking for help, that represents increased freedom, …
Monday Musing: Managed Retreat

By Elizabeth Merritt

Did you know that over a third (34.6 percent) of US museums sit are within 100 kilometers of the coast? A quarter of those are in areas that score very high on the Coastal Vulnerability Index, meaning they face high risk from rising sea …