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Scanning for Change: or How Important Work Can Sometimes Look Like Wasting Time
Last week’s mini-tutorial in futures studies was on the sneaky nature of change. How can we notice change as it creeps up or springs upon us? We can actively look for bits of information that give hints of the future. This information may … -
The Sneaky Nature of Change
This is part three in a series of short essays exploring the basics of Futures Studies and how they can be applied to the museum field. Find the whole series by clicking on “Futures Studies 101” in the blog’s tag cloud. Complacency is the … -
Future Studies 101: Potential Futures
This is part two in a series of short essays exploring the basics of Futures Studies and how they can be applied to the museum field. Read part one here. Studying the future isn’t all that different from studying history. We start with … -
Sea Change: Museums Must Prepare for Demographic Shifts
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2010 edition of the Museum magazine. How will people use museums in the future? And which people will use them? Much of the future is unknown and unpredictable. But, as … -
Futures Studies 101: The Purpose of Foresight
This post is the first in a series of short essays exploring the basics of Futures Studies and how they can be applied to the museum field. Why is foresight important? Without someone playing the important role of futurist, we risk being … -
The Pinky Show Cats’ Report on the Future
“We, three cats from the Pinky Show, went to the future. We brought back notes & stuff.” Read the report . Those of you who attended the AAM annual meeting this spring may have stumbled upon a curious exhibit in MuseumExpo—a set of … -
Forecasting—The Future of Planning
Today’s guest post is from Angie Kim, Principal Project Specialist at the Getty Foundation. Angie joined about 40 other participants from various sectors in the daylong working session “Forecasting the Future of California Museums” at the … -
Engaging and Empowering New Immigrants through Art
AAM’s recently released forecasting report Demographic Transformation and the Future of Museums highlights the gap between current museum audiences and the majority minority future of American society. The sobering statistics are leavened … -
Demographic Transformation and…What Next? A Call to Action
On May 24th, at our annual meeting in Los Angeles, AAM released the latest CFM trends paper, Demographic Transformation and the Future of Museums. Betty Farrell and her colleagues at the Cultural Policy Center of the University of Chicago, … -
Questions of Scale: The Hard Business of Interpreting Trends
One of the fundamental tools of forecasting is trends analysis. If various things (price of oil, use of social media, craze for cupcakes) putter along in the direction they are headed now, at the same speed, how will these trends interact, …
Future Forecasting
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