Exploring Museums and Trust 2021
The 2019 edition of TrendsWatch took a deep dive into the topic of trust, summarizing the global “trust deficit” and its effect on society. The subject was of particular importance to museums because, as a sector, museums had bucked that …
Digital Migrants and Digital Nomads: Reshaping Museum Communities
Hello, this is Elizabeth. I’m trying to recover from my pandemic writing rut by drafting a short post each week, commenting on the news. (Kind of like the old CFM series “Monday Musing,” but who can tell which day is Monday anymore?) You …
A Self-care Practice: Spend Some Time in Utopia
“Utopia is born of the hunger for something better, but it relies on hope as the engine for imagining such a future.” –Marge Piercy The news has been pretty bleak for the past 18 months, and I struggle to find a few optimistic …
COVID Update—Fall 2021
I had hoped that by this fall COVID-19 would be receding in our rear view mirror, and we could turn our attention to the post-pandemic future. Unfortunately, my June update, which flagged the potential for the Delta variant of the virus to …
Pandemic Disruption as an Opportunity for Change: Intuit
A year ago, I wrote about how Venice is using their pandemic induced pause to rethink how they can create a better future of sustainable tourism rather than rebounding to the status quo of day-tripping hordes. Many museums are using the …
Same Storm, Different Boats
Sometimes, in the wake of disruptive events. the world acts like a rubber band, snapping back to its original shape. Other times, disruptions have a lasting impact—resetting our boundaries, reshaping our practice. It will take several …
Combat Ageism. Your Future Self Will Thank You.
Of the many -isms we are grappling with as individuals and as a society, one of the strangest is ageism. Strange because, in the best case, we will all reach old age. So we are effectively discriminating against our own future selves. …
The next COVID scenario: Delta Force
The near term future is looking much brighter than it was in March 2020, when I published my first set of scenarios exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic might play out. While the death toll in the US has surpassed 600,000 (a grim statistic …
Digital Readiness and Pandemic Adaptations
On February 10, 2021, the American Alliance of Museums and the John S. Knight Foundation hosted an online conversation about “Digital Readiness and Pandemic Adaptations.” The webinar recording and transcription are available to AAM members …
Navigating a Disrupted Future at #AAM2021
How is a talk different from a written report? How is a digital presentation different from its analog kin? Earlier this week I gave my annual TrendsWatch session at the #AAM2021 virtual conference. As usual, I used the presentation as an …
