Center for the Future of Museums Blog

The Center for the Future of Museums Blog shares musings on the future of museums and society.

Read Dispatches from the Future of Museums online!

Get more resources from the Center for the Future of Museums.

Explore all Publications from the Alliance.

Explore the AAM Resource Library by topic, and further filter by subtopic or resource types to find what matters most to you!

How a Cookbook Can Help Your Museum Engage with Food

By Elizabeth Merritt

I hope you’re planning to join us for the free Feeding the Spirit webinar, Friday, Feb. 17, 1:45-5 p.m. (ET). To help you plan your discussions before, during or after the webcast (as well as your menu for your potluck) we’ve assembled the …
The Curation of Collaboration: Experiments in Mobilizing Museum Archives

By Elizabeth Merritt

This guest post is by Gaurav Vaidya, Andrea Thomer, Rob Guralnick and David Bloom. Gaurav, a graduate student at CU Boulder, has been editing Wikipedia since 2002. Rob is a biodiversity informatician, museum curator and collaborative …
Food: A Recipe for Successful Museums

By Elizabeth Merritt

I hope you’re planning to get together with colleagues to share “Feeding the Spirit: Museums, Food & Community,” CFM’s free webinar on Feb. 17, and explore food literacy, values-based food service and community building. If you’re …
IMLS Strategic Plan, 2012 – 2016: Creating a Nation of Learners

By Elizabeth Merritt

Last month IMLS released the IMLS Strategic Plan, 2012 – 2016: Creating a Nation of Learners. Recently I had the opportunity to sit with director Susan Hildreth and discuss how she sees the plan shaping the future of IMLS and the nation’s …
Drawn Together: Drawing Club convenes at AAM Annual Meeting

By Elizabeth Merritt

Scott Stulen is the project director for mnartists.org, one of the programmers of the Walker Open Field Program, creators of Drawing Club and a visual artist. Here he gives us a sneak peek of something to look forward to at the AAM Annual …
Horizon Report: Museum Edition

By Elizabeth Merritt

For this week’s suggested reading we bring you the Horizon Report: Museum Edition. Released at the MCN Conference this past November, this report examines emerging technologies for museum education and interpretation. I encourage everyone …
Innovation Ignites: Announcing the 2012 Lab Museums

By Elizabeth Merritt

Cue fanfare! I am so happy to share with you the names of the museums that have been selected to participate in the inaugural round of Innovation Lab for Museums. AAM is bringing Innovation Lab to the museum field through a partnership …
Questioning Assumptions: Museums in the 21st Century

By Elizabeth Merritt

I hope you have been following my posts on the Forecast of the Future of Museum Ethics being conducted by CFM and the Institute for Museum Ethics at Seton Hall University. CFM and IME staff are compiling the (copious) input provide by our …
Advocacy Day 2027: museums fight to regain nonprofit status

By Elizabeth Merritt

I looked across the table at the poised young woman politely scanning the figures I had pulled up on the airscreen between us. “Ms. Guerrera,” I said, palms sweating, “as you can see, in the ten years since the Federal Government withdrew …
Museum Food Services: Serving up our Missions and Eating our Words

By Elizabeth Merritt

What do visitors eat, when they come to your museum, and what messages do they take away from the experience? We’ve devoted many posts on this blog, over the past year, to celebrating how museums can help their communities improve their …