Education & Interpretation

Read the Winners of This Year’s Excellence in Exhibition Label Writing Competition

By American Alliance of Museums

Exhibition labels are a primary tool museums use to communicate with visitors, so every word (and punctuation mark!) counts. To underscore this, AAM’s Curators Committee sponsors a yearly competition spotlighting the work of …
Taking Native Lands and Lives

By Christine Lashaw

Museums have power—the power to tell stories, shape narratives, and influence the lens we bring to bear on the past. That power can be harnessed for healing, as museums contribute to a reparative reexamination of history and the legacy of …
2019 AAM Education Committee (EdCom) Award Winners

By Veronica Alvarez

What does it take to win a competitive EdCom Award, read below to find out! Each year, the Education Committee of the American Alliance of Museums presents awards for outstanding work in the field of museum education at a luncheon at the …
Why the Tenement Museum Launched a Podcast

By Kevin Jennings

Earlier this year, I gave the keynote speech at the annual conference of the Council of American Jewish Museums. The theme of the conference (as well as the prompt I received for my remarks) was “The Creativity Challenge.” In my speech, I …
Designing for a Divided People: Planning the permanent exhibition for the Kurdistan Museum, Erbil

By Christine Echtner

“The next generation do not know about it. I talk to them, but it’s not like a film. If I tell them it may not stick, this way is more permanent.” Najiba Ahmad Hakeem, Kanitu Village, Kurdistan, Iraq about the Kurdistan Memory Programme …
Crowdsourcing the Peabody Museum’s Future

By Jaan Elias

I’m often asked which topics featured in CFM’s TrendsWatch report proved to be of enduring importance, and which fizzle. I’m happy to say that so far, all the trends we’ve identified have continued to be significant for our field. Case in …
A Fellowship Helps One Emerging Professional Find Her Footing

By Asmaa Walton

Art has been a part of my life since very early on. When I was around four, my mother began working at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and I spent many hours after school and on weekends there with her hanging out in her office. Even at …
Collecting Girlhood: Why the new activist museum is virtual

By Tiffany Rhoades Isselhardt

The assumption that museums must be permanent buildings with physical collections is no longer sustainable. With decreased funding, increased competition, and the burden of care, museums have had to reimagine themselves. Some small …
Meet Marabou! The furry, friendly creature reimagining the museum

By Megan Elevado

When you visit a museum, do you feel empowered? Do you feel like you have authority and control of your experience? That’s why Marabou is here: to remind us that we all have agency in our museum experiences. Marabou is a rainbow-colored …
Backcasting: Or, how to apply 20:20 hindsight to museum planning

By Elizabeth Merritt

“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,’ says the White Queen to Alice.” ― Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass In today’s post, I’m going to introduce you to backcasting, a planning method that helps people …