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Scholarship Opportunity! Learn Museum Foresight

By Elizabeth Merritt

I am happy to announce that applications are now open for the CFM Foresight Scholarship, supporting participation in the Foresight Certificate program at the University of Houston, August 10-16, 2026. I highly recommend this course for …
Re-imagining Museums as Sites of Repair at AAM2026

By Aisha Shillingford

How can museums use their significant assets: space, resources, art works, relationships, influence etc to shape a future beautiful, beyond our wildest dreams? At the 2026 AAM Annual Meeting & Museum Expo, staff of Intelligent …
Explore the AI Future at AAM2026

By Elizabeth Merritt

What goes on in the brain of a futurist when you say “artificial intelligence?” Join me for TrendsWatching: To Live or Die in AI, on Thursday, May 21, at 8:30 a.m. in Room 115 B at the AAM Annual Meeting in Philadelphia for …
Your Guide to the Future at AAM 2026

By Elizabeth Merritt

The most common lament about AAM’s annual meeting is that its sheer size makes it difficult to navigate.There are worse problems to have than a surfeit of tantalizing sessions, but I get it. Decision paralysis is a thing, and this year’s …
Lessons in Leadership: Transition Planning for Executive Directors of Small Museums

By Kimberly Bender

As I researched the “looming leadership crisis” for this year’s TrendsWatch report, I heard two things loud and clear. First, that succession planning is immensely helpful in smoothing transitions, and second, that …
Reading the Declaration Together

By Steve Light

In today’s post, Steve Light, Vice President for Education and Guest Experience, shares how Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello is fostering nonpartisan civic engagement during our country’s semiquicentennial and sharing resources …
What do Hollywood and Museums have in common? They are America’s greatest storytellers

By Karissa Raskin

The lastest data from the Annual Survey of Museum-Goers shows that trust in museums is rising from already high levels, even as trust in the government declines. That gives our sector a unique platform from which to bridge partisan divides …
Learning from History: Museum Heroes in the Archives

By Marjorie Schwarzer

Powerful stories about the past can inspire positive action in the future. In the wake of ongoing political threats like Executive Order 14253, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” and the White House’s letter to the …
How a Chatbot is helping museums wish about the future

By Cory Garfin and Devon VanHouten-Maldonado

As a futurist, there is nothing I love more than encouraging people to think both forward AND back. America’s 250th anniversary is a great opportunity to reflect on our country’s past and to “remember the future” we …
Speculating on the Futures of Here

By Anand Pandian and Jordan Tierney

“I don’t exist in an after climate crisis—we know now that there is no after, only varying degrees of loss, varying degrees of change. My mother was a climate writer who found that her words had run dry one day, that she had run out …