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Museum Ethics in a New Gilded Age
Readers of this blog may remember Erik Ledbetter, who served as the Director of International Programs and Ethics at AAM from 2003-2010. I am sorry to share the news that Erik passed away last week while on the job as assistant manager at … -
A Controversy of Monumental Proportions at the Kent State Memorial
The Kent State memorial commemorating the May 4, 1970, shootings has been polarizing since its inception. This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s July/August 2024 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. On August 24, 2023, winds … -
Reframing the Collection: How a Literary Catalog Experiment Brought New Voices to Interpretation
The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art (Stanley) is part of the arts ecosystem at the country’s premier university for the study of creative writing. As a curatorial team, we have long been aware of the unique position this puts us … -
Probing Grief at Historic House Museums
Historic house museums can connect their physical spaces with personal experiences, including grief. This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s May/June 2024 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. Historic house museums often focus … -
Toward Equity in Metadata: How Sandy Spring Museum Is Going beyond Reparative Cataloging
Equity: freedom from bias or favoritism Metadata: data that describes and provides context for digital items, which in turn helps users find and discover these resources. Though Black and white residents numbered almost equally throughout … -
Advancing DEAI in a Polarized World
Recently, we hosted a webinar with museum leaders on values-based communications for diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI). While all attendees were eager to commit fully to DEAI, many acknowledged the risks of doing so in … -
Remarks from Benin Bronzes Repatriation Ceremony
On October 11, 2022, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art hosted a repatriation ceremony in which officials of the museum transferred ownership of twenty-nine Benin bronzes and the National Gallery of Art transferred ownership … -
Museums Discover Impact Investing
CFM first flagged impact investing as a trend of significance to museums in 2013, inspired by a talk Seth Miller gave at SXSW in which he declared that “every time you spend a dollar, you are creating the world you live in.” Impact … -
Essential Evaluators: The Silver Lining
Essential Evaluators seeks to gather evaluators in a common space to dialogue, reflect, and support each other in a world upended by COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protest movement. This is a time of uncertain and unknown expectations … -
Fear Factor: In a contentious cultural climate, museums are wise to recognize the pressures to self-censor
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2020 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. In January 2020, it came to light that the National Archives had altered a photograph that introduced the exhibition “Rightfully …
Ethics
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Latest Stories from AAM
Sample Policy for Preparing for and Responding to ICE Enforcement Actions in Museums
Disclaimer: This document does not constitute legal advice. All policies and procedures …
Speculating on the Futures of Here
Category:
Center for the Future of Museums Blog
“I don’t exist in an after climate crisis—we know now that there is no after, only …
Talking to the Press: How to Excel as a Museum Spokesperson
Category:
Alliance Blog
A museum can spend years earning trust only to lose it in a single tense interview. If a …