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Future Babble by Dan Gardner
Today’s recommended reading is contributed by Rob Waller, president of the Protect Heritage Corporation. Prior to PHC, Rob spent thirty-three years at the Canadian Museum of Nature, including periods as chief of the Conservation Section … -
Prodding Sacred Cows: The Mission Statement
When I was pulling together the book National Standards & Best Practices for U.S. Museums, I found myself increasingly uneasy with the way that the standards use mission statement as the ultimate touchstone for determining what a given … -
Making the Most of What We Have: Museums & Collaboration
Yesterday, at the orientation for Museums AdvocacyDay, deputy director Cora Marrett of the National Science Foundation predicted that, in a future of increased resource constraints, museums will need to collaborate on competitive funding … -
Ethics and the Distributed Museum
I’m wrestling with the draft report of “Forecasting the Future of Museum Ethics.” One of the most delightful things about this project is that, despite the constraints of format (multiple choice and free text in an online survey) the … -
Open Authority & the Future of Museum Ethics
Lori Byrd Phillips is the U.S. Cultural Partnerships Coordinator for the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikipedian in Residence at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. As a museum studies graduate student at Indiana University-Purdue … -
Choosing Roles: Facilitator or Advocate?
Would you rather be loved, or would you rather save the world? You can’t necessarily have both. I pondered this choice, as it applies to museums, yesterday morning at the last half day of the 21st Century Learning in Natural History … -
The Future of Funding
Everyone wants to know what the next business model for museums may be. Will they morph into hybrid nonprofit/for-profit social benefit corporations? Lose tax exempt status entirely? In today’s post Carl Hamm, immediate past chair of the … -
How a Cookbook Can Help Your Museum Engage with Food
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
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
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 …
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How to respond to new threats to nonprofits
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Center for the Future of Museums Blog
Last week, I learned that the IRS is planning to propose regulations that would give it …
Take Action to Protect the Independence of the Smithsonian Institution and America’s Museums
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Advocacy Alert
Advocacy Alert – July 20, 2026 AAM statement on the independence of the Smithsonian …
AAM Statement on the Independence of the Smithsonian and America’s Museums
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Press Release
The American Alliance of Museums condemns the Administration’s continued attacks on the …