New TrendsWatch! Navigating a Disrupted Future
In a normal year, TrendsWatch explores the impact emerging forces of change may have on museums in the next decade or longer. Some, such as demographic shifts, affect all museums in the present. Others, such as the rise of blockchain …
Tales from Campus: Radical Collaboration at the Nasher Museum
In today’s guest post, Wendy Hower, Director of Engagement & Marketing at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, describes how an outdoor art exhibition became a wide-reaching way to support students, faculty and the local …
Crowdsourcing a Database of Permanent Museum Closings
Due to the independent nature of the nonprofit sector in the US, there no comprehensive way to track museum openings or closings (much less arrive at a definitive head count of museums at any given time). This is of particular concern as …
Mapping Uncertainty in 2021
I have been wishing everyone HAPPY NEW YEAR (in all caps) because I am so relieved to see the backside of 2020. But “better than last year” is a very low bar indeed, and we face many very hard months ahead. That being so, my focus this …
Ten Uplifting Museum Stories of 2020
This year my scanning feeds were clogged with relentlessly depressing news. My heart was eased, however, by the way that museums rose to the challenges posed by 2020. Here are a dozen stories of how museums helped their communities and …
A Pandemic Time Capsule and Tools for 2021
This blog has become an incidental time capsule of 2020, a monthly record of how the museum sector responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, when the first of the posts featured below was published, the US had 1,700 reported cases—that …
Game Plan Call for Applications! Professional Development for Museum Educators
In 2008, Dr. Jane McGonigal delivered the inaugural lecture for the new Center for the Future of Museums. McGonigal, who is both a professional futurist AND a ludologist, made the case that museums could learn a lot from games design. (AAM …
Tales from Campus: Oxy Arts
One of the risks posed by the pandemic is that the public health imperative for social distance might discourage activism and engagement just when it is needed most. In this guest post, Frankie Fleming, Manager of Education and Community …
The Museum of Future History: An Antidote To Chronological Squatting
Those of you who follow my writing may be aware of my passion about the need to decolonize the future. I believe museums can play a vital role in helping the public be better stewards of the world we leave to future generations. Today’s …
Museums as First Responders: Museum of Homelessness
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed gaping holes in the systems that should shield communities from harm. Patching the frayed social safety net will require government, private, and non-profit sectors to work together, going beyond their …
