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Civic Duty Calls
In this blog post, AAM Director of Government Relations and Advocacy Gail Ravnitzky Silberglied explores why advocacy—like voting, jury service, and paying taxes—is a civic duty that furthers our nation’s democracy and prepares us and our … -
Questioning Assumptions: The Ideal Employee:Volunteer Ratio
Today’s thought experiment: what if, in the future, museums asked not “how many volunteers do we need” but rather “how can we structure our operations to engage as many volunteers as possible in meaningful work?” Volunteers are already … -
The Workforce of the Future Starts Now
We get a lot of questions about who will be working, or should be working, in the museum of the future, and how museums should be finding, recruiting and training these future staff members. Any exploration of the future of the museum … -
Futures Studies 101: Implications Wheel
What would happen if a space craft full of weak, disoriented insectoid aliens parked itself in orbit over South Africa? The implications of that (highly) improbable event are explored the 2009 film District 9. The director posits humans … -
Can Disasters Help Us Build a Better Future?
The best that can be said of a disaster is that sometimes we can learn something, if we are wise and attentive, that will make for a better outcome in the future. I just finished reading a great essay, Lost and Found in Japan, on the World … -
Building a Better Fishing Pole: how technology-focused organizations can help their museum community
Many museums are struggling to navigate the expanding universes of social media and digital content with the slim resources available to them in constrained budgets. Fortunately, some entrepreneurial museums are breaking trail—pooling … -
Futurist Friday: Agenda 2026
To paraphrase Churchy, from Pogo, “Futurist Friday comes on a Thursday this week.” I am delighted to find that our museum association colleagues in the Netherlands—the Nederlandse Museumvereniging—produced a report last year that parallels … -
Feeding the Spirit Symposium: A Fresh Frame of Reference for Museums-Community-Food
This guest post is by David R. Curry, a member of the CFM Council. As someone who has refined a set of strategies to survive symposiums and conferences (which all too often seem like they could be half as long and twice as substantive) I … -
The Backward ABC’s of Museum Data
This week’s blog post comes from Philip M. Katz, assistant director for research at AAM. This was going to be an essay about the power of museum financial and operating data—robust, reliable numbers that can help museums plan for the … -
SmartSteps at the Senator John Heinz History Center
Today’s guest post is from Lisa Dundon, manager of multimedia communications at the Senator John Heinz History Center. Lisa introduces a new video showcasing the History Center’s SmartSteps exhibit, demonstrating yet another way museums …
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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 …