Environmental Sustainability

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 …
2019 Award Winner for Innovation in Museum Education: Vizcaya’s Urban Farming School Program

By Diana Peña

The EdCom Award for Innovation in Museum Education recognizes, encourages, and celebrates new, creative ways of engaging with audiences. Vizcaya Museum and Gardens‘ Urban Farming School Program was lauded by the judges for engaging …
Five Museums and One Individual Recognized for Environmental Sustainability by American Alliance of Museums

By American Alliance of Museums

ARLINGTON, VA – Five museums have been recognized with 2019 Sustainability Excellence Awards, presented by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the only organization representing the entire scope of the museum community. First presented …
Reflections on the Historic House Summit from Scholarship Attendee Sarah Ortiz-Monasterio

By Sarah Ortiz-Monasterio

On February 3-5, 2019, AAM’s Historic Houses and Sites and Environment and Climate networks hosted a rare convening of experts at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida, for “Sustainability: Governance, Relevance, and the …
How We Maximized Our Museum Building’s Impact on Human and Environmental Health

By Richard V. Piacentini

Abundant research demonstrates the efficacy of a building’s design to enhance and support human and environmental health. Peer-reviewed professional studies in journals such as Indoor and Built Environment, Journal of the Illuminating …
Reflections on the Historic House Summit from Scholarship Attendee Abigail Winslow

By Abigail Winslow

On February 3-5, 2019, AAM’s Historic Houses and Sites and Environment and Climate networks hosted a rare convening of experts at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida, for “Sustainability: Governance, Relevance, and the …
The Mission-Driven Café: When doing the wrong thing is the right thing to do

By Larry Bain

Ask most museum directors, restaurant consultants, and other knowledgeable folks and they will tell you: “Hire an outside food-service company to run your café.” Well, that makes perfect sense—that is what most museums choose to do. The …
The Future is Climate

By Sarah Sutton

Until we perfect my AI-powered digital avatar, I rely on an informal network of correspondents to cover critical events taking place around the globe. In today’s guest post, Sarah W. Sutton reports from the Global Climate Action Summit …
Exploring a Fragmented Future

By Elizabeth Merritt

The second installment of TrendsWatch 2018’s scenarios of 2040 is now up on the web for discussion and comment! Fragmentation is woven from some of the anxieties shared by museum people when I asked, “What are your fears about the future?” …
We Are Still In: A look at how the cultural institutions sector has responded to the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.

By Stephanie Shapiro

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2017 edition of Museum magazine. On June 1, 2017, President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the multinational effort to take concrete steps …