Posts
Ethics
A Modern-Day Fundraising Dilemma
I recently renewed my certification as a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), which recognizes an individual’s comprehensive understanding of the fundraising profession and their …
“As Native Americans, We Are in a Constant State of Mourning”
The return of ancestors and artifacts can become a form of restorative justice. By Chip Colwell Dr. Colwell is an anthropologist and museum curator in Denver. In the early 1920s, the …
Museums and AI: Is There a Ghost in the Machine?
What are the ethical implications of AI? What role do museums play in the global conversation about data privacy? How can bias impact AI systems? This post, one of three on the topic of …
Museums and their Observers Debate the Field’s Deaccessioning Ethics
August 1, 2018; Hyperallergic "Deaccessioning-the permanent removal of objects and/or art from a museum's collection-has been at the forefront of many discussions of museums of late," notes …
Science Museum under pressure to shun big oil sponsorship
The broadcaster Chris Packham and a a former Nasa expert who led early warnings on climate change are among scientists urging London's Science Museum to terminate its partnerships with the …
Museums too: what should institutions do when artists are accused of abuse?
Shortly after the publication last October of two exposés detailing decades of sexual abuse and assault by the US film producer Harvey Weinstein, the #MeToo movement hit the art world. As …
Commerce vs. Curation: Lessons From Today’s Museums World
"We see more private collectors engaged with museum boards and loaning works to museums," said John Mathews, head of private wealth management at UBS America. "Competition for the best …
Futurist Friday: Emotional Intelligence
For your Friday future-break, here is a lovely short film by Dennis Sungmin Kim, exploring a future in which artificial intelligence has been supplemented by “artificial …
Direct Care of Collections: Ethics, Guidelines, and Recommendations
This article originally appeared in the July-August 2016 issue of Museum magazine. First issued in 2016, the white paper was updated in 2019 to reflect the updated FASB accounting standard …
Futurist Friday: All Too Human
To add to your TV viewing list: Humans, a new eight part series on AMC. (You can watch all eight episodes online if you have an account with any one of a number of providers.) The …
The Limits of Neutrality: A Message From The Natural History Museum
Today’s guest post, from the team at The Natural History Museum (including director Beka Economopoulos), illustrates one of the trends I discuss in TrendsWatch 2015, and touches upon …
Monday Musing: On Small Dead Things
15 minutes of top-of-my-head thoughts on a story featured in last week’s Dispatches from theFuture of Museums e-newsletter. One of the things that drove me out of graduate school (besides …