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Spend Some Time Daydreaming the Future
Humans are natural storytellers. That should make my work easy, because the apex of strategic foresight is using storytelling to plan for the future. Futurists call these stories “scenarios,” and while they have a very serious purpose, … -
Dark Futures: Nonprofit Fragmentation
I wanted to start the year on a positive note, I really did. But I find myself writing about a middle-of-the-night worry, instead.What gave me nightmares? Not a bad dinner, unfortunately, but a steady diet of sobering news. I spent most of … -
Museums in the Future: A View from Across the Pond
I was originally going to feature the report “Museums in a Digital Age” from Arups’ Foresight + Research + Innovation thinktank in a Futurist Friday post, but I try to confine the recommendations in that series to short bites of reading or … -
The Fourth Sector
The second flight of “Test Pilots” is winging their way through the CFM Digital Badging project. Besides helping the Alliance test the potential of this form of microcredentialing to serve our members, and providing some training on … -
Futurist Friday: Artifacts of the Future
What artifacts will history museums of the future collect, and how will we interpret them? Scenarios—fictional stories of potential futures—can help us imagine how we would adapt to alternative outcomes. Often scenarios can be found in … -
Four Ways of Seeing the Future
Last July, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop Per Child project and co-founder of MIT Media Lab, keynoted at the WorldFuture 2013 conference. In the ten minute extract of his talk embedded below, he offers four ways of looking … -
TrendsWatch Update: The Internet of Things
One of the trends we featured in TrendsWatch 2013 was “When Things Talk Back: the rise of networked objects and attentive spaces.” What could happen in a future where the “stuff” that surrounds you collects and shares information about … -
Want to Make a (Long) Bet On That?
It’s summer and things are slow, so sometimes Futurist Friday (my sporadic series of posts recommending reading & viewing) is going to fall earlier in the week. This week’s recommendation: the Long Now Foundation’s Long Bets site. … -
Museums in a Common Core World
Over the course of the summer, the CFM Blog is featuring posts based on sessions called out in this year’s Guide to the Future at the Alliance Annual Meeting. Today we hear from Naomi Coquillon, Manager, Youth and Teacher Programs in the … -
What Movie is your Museum?
Everyone wants to know the secret to running a successful museum. Anne Bergeron and Beth Tuttle tackled that question in a new book from the AAM Press Magnetic: The Art and Science of Engagement. Bergeron is associate director for external …
Future Forecasting
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December Advocacy Alert: Museums Advocacy Day Registration Open, IMLS Grants Restored, and more
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Advocacy Alert
Advocacy Alert – December 12, 2025 In this Alliance Advocacy Alert: Museums …
The Next Incarnation of Dispatches from the Future of Museums
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Center for the Future of Museums Blog
On September 2, 2009, the Center for the Future of Museums sent the first edition of …
Info Sheet: New York County District Attorney Targeting Museums Outside of its Jurisdiction
Background: The Art Institute of Chicago is involved in civil litigation in Illinois over …