Posts
Education & Interpretation
Family Interactive Spaces: Are They Necessary or Just Nice?
Cultivating a strong family audience is critical for museums, and as practitioners we use many different strategies to do this, including special family days and festivals, workshops, …
With Strategic Focus, TikTok Creates New Opportunities for Cultural Institutions to Inspire Critical Thinking and Constructive Dialogue
In September of 2021, TikTok surpassed one billion users, making it the fastest-growing social media app. The video-sharing platform allows users to post short-form videos, which are then …
For Your Radar: The National Association of Museum Schools
When invited to make a statement I’d like to be true in the future, I often offer a vision of America in which “any child can choose to go to school in a museum.” Today’s guest post by …
Catching Feelings for a Triceratops: How Live Theater in Museums Evokes Empathy in Visitors
An excited murmur can be heard throughout the audience as they await the show to begin. When we come together to watch a live performance we expect to be moved, to be transported out of the …
STEAMing into Solvency: Integrating a Museum into the Public School System
The pandemic was an economic tsunami for museums, particularly those already experiencing financial stress. Relatively new museums, still getting their feet under themselves, were at …
In the Pandemic a New Museum Charter School is Born
Over the past two years, the pandemic has prompted museums to experiment with new products and services to meet the needs of their communities. Some of these experiments have turned out to …
The Top Ten Alliance Blog Posts of 2021
Though 2021 was a slightly more normal year than 2020, with mostly open museums gradually regaining visitors, the pandemic still loomed large and colored most conversations. On the Alliance …
The smell of success: how scent became the must-have interpretative tool
In the beautifully lit interior of Chiswick House (pictured, top), cellist Rebecca Knight paused in her playing and put her hand to her nose. It was a pre-arranged sign for the audience …
Integrating Civic Learning Across Museum Education
For years, museums have wondered how to be more relevant and to embrace our identities as civic institutions. At a time when multiple pandemics and crises of governance face the country and …
How Can Education Programs Help Bridge the Digital Divide?
In this series of posts, EdCom’s Trends Committee is taking a deeper look at emerging phenomena identified in the 2021 edition of TrendsWatch from the Center for the Future of Museums. In …
How Philadelphia Cultural Institutions Embraced Collaboration to Address Opportunity Gaps
If there is a positive outcome of the pandemic’s impact on cultural institutions, it may be the willingness to ideate and take different approaches to our work to ensure that no one is …
Telling overlooked stories at New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society Museum and Library has announced a $140m expansion of its building on Central Park West. This will add more than 70,000 square feet of space to the …