Facilities & Risk Management

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 …
Up On the Roof: The McNay Art Museum’s re-roofing project

By Christy Rhone

The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX houses a world-class collection of more than 22,000 works by masters from around the world—Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, O’Keefe and many more. The collections include: Medieval and Renaissance …
Capturing the Spirit of the Field Museum

By Megan Williams

One of my current projects is helping museums figure out how to develop new mission-related-income streams. In 2016, I helped develop and teach a workshop at which staff from natural history museums worked on ideas to create products and …
Get Prepared: MayDay 2018

By Janet Vaughan

Join museums around the country in doing at least one thing in the month of May to prepare for an emergency. MayDay is an annual call to action for cultural organizations to improve their disaster readiness. Need ideas for steps to take? …
My Take Embracing the Personal: Developing a self-care plan is a critical part of disaster training.

By Seema Rao

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2018 issue of Museum magazine. When I first started in the museum field, I remember sitting in a mandatory egress training session to learn how to evacuate students from galleries during an …
Information PLEASE Preserving History as It Happens: Orange County Regional History Center undertook rapid-response collecting after Pulse nightclub shooting

By Pamela Schwartz

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2018 issue of Museum magazine. On June 12, 2016, a home-grown terrorist entered Orlando’s Pulse nightclub during Latin Night after last call. He murdered 49 beautiful individuals, injured …
A Fragile but Resilient Eco-System: Santa Barbara’s Museum Community and Natural Disasters

By Bruce Robertson

Santa Barbara, as it is known to the world, is a small city that is a major tourist destination—on the Pacific with great beaches, close to Los Angeles but far enough away to leave the stress of the metropolis behind, and a very pretty …
Seamless Coordination: 7 Reasons to Hire Your Architect and Exhibit Designer at the Same Time

By David Whitemyer, AIA

A museum expansion, or the design and construction of a brand new museum, usually begins by hiring an architect, and may also include bringing on engineers, estimators, interior designers, and other building specialists. This makes a lot …
Rescuing Puerto Rico’s Cultural Heritage

By Janet Vaughan

Janet Vaughan is Vice President, Membership & Excellence for the American Alliance of Museums. Not one, but two powerful hurricanes devastated Puerto Rico in less than two weeks’ time in September. The eye of Hurricane Irma passed …
Tools and Resources in the Wake of Charlottesville

By Cecelia Walls

First, let me state how proud I am to work in a field where museums and other institutions (AAM included) publicly denounce hatred and bigotry. Simply knowing there are places that offer respite to those affected by violence and …