Education & Interpretation

The Benefits and Challenges of Producing Creative Aging Programs for the LGBTQIA+ Community

By Eli Burke

Since 2018, AAM has partnered with Aroha Philanthropies to highlight and support museums that are developing programs for older adults, and to encourage others to do the same. The aim has been to address the epidemic of ageism, both within …
Game Plan Call for Applications! Professional Development for Museum Educators

By Elizabeth Merritt

In 2008, Dr. Jane McGonigal delivered the inaugural lecture for the new Center for the Future of Museums. McGonigal, who is both a professional futurist AND a ludologist, made the case that museums could learn a lot from games design. (AAM …
Rebuilding Pathways: How DEAI and Creative Aging Intersect at the Speed Art Museum

By Toya Northington, in conversation with Marjorie Schwarzer

As museums work to become more diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive, one community is often left out of the discourse: people over the age of fifty-five. This may be because they already appear to be well-represented. After all, …
Attracting Charitable Giving through Education Programs

By Lori Kartchner and Mickey Maley

In this series of posts, EdCom’s Trends Committee is taking a deeper look at emerging phenomena identified in the 2020 edition of TrendsWatch from the Center for the Future of Museums. In this post, they turn their attention to the …
Why I Abandoned the Traditional Museum Education Model

By Annie Thomas-Bubel

Personal stories are how we, at Nemours Estate, connect our visitors with the duPont family who once lived in this grand place. So I’d like to share my personal story of building a museum education program from the ground up, to illustrate …
A Big COVID-19 Pivot: The Museum Assessment Program Goes Virtual

By Anastasia Wallace & Dr. Matthew White

The Museum Assessment Program (MAP) is one of the most valuable programs offered by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) for emerging institutions, museums undergoing structural change, or organizations looking to improve one or more …
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 …
The Promise of Virtual Education Programs: Cross-Cultural Exchange, School-Museum Collaborations, and STEAM Learning (and Lemurs!)

By Susan Dorsey

To continue providing meaningful experiences for pre-K through twelfth-grade audiences in the era of COVID-19, museums must re-envision educational practice for the virtual realm. By sharing about a pre-COVID virtual education program I …
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 …
Should There Be a Core Document for Education?: An Update on the EdCom Task Force

By Megan Wood and Tony Pennay

As a prerequisite to accreditation, museums must submit five Core Documents for verification, a set of plans and policies considered fundamental to professional museum operations, values, and practices. As of now, this includes documents …