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Upvote Museum Sessions for SxSW 2026!

By Elizabeth Merritt

The SxSW Innovation conference describes itself as “an opportunity for the global community of creatives to encounter cutting-edge ideas, discover new interests, and network with other professionals who share a similar appetite for …
The New Stablecoin Legislation and Why Museums Should Care

By Elizabeth Merritt

Today’s post exemplifies the service the Center for the Future of Museums provides to the museum people: helping you stay abreast of emerging trends, understand the implications of significant events (in this case, legislation), and factor …
The Sounds of Change

By Meeghan Kane

I have an enduring interest in multi-sensory museum experiences, especially when they bring in outside experts to expand a museum’s sensory impact. My collection of favorites include the Brooklyn Museum appointing a Cellist in …
The Formula for Relevance

By Alex Fraioli

I love finding examples of museums that use their resources to boost the fortunes of makers, craftspeople and local businesses. The California Indian Museum and Cultural Center fostering Native-led food start-ups, the Empowerment Hub at …
Museum Ethics in a New Gilded Age

By Elizabeth Merritt

Readers of this blog may remember Erik Ledbetter, who served as the Director of International Programs and Ethics at AAM from 2003-2010. I am sorry to share the news that Erik passed away last week while on the job as assistant manager at …
EO Impact: Is There an Existential Threat to Nonprofit Status?

By Elizabeth Merritt

Charitable giving may fluctuate year to year, tourism ebbs and flows, your museum’s endowment will perform better some years than others. That’s normal and expected, and nonprofits have traditionally cobbled together a diverse set of …
EO Impacts and the Next Era of Museum Funding Part 3: Charitable Contributions and Investment Income

By Elizabeth Merritt

Welcome to part three of my exploration of the current and potential future impacts of presidential orders and actions on museums’ income streams and business models. If you’re joining midstream, you may want to pause and read the first …
What’s your wish for U.S.? turns history museums into future-imagining incubators

By Caroline Klibanoff and Adam Rozan

In 2021, history museums across the nation, working in collaboration with one another and with Gen Z-ers through Made By Us, generated an idea to link together Juneteenth and the Fourth of July in a new tradition – Civic Season. Civic …
EO Impacts and the Next Era of Museum Funding Part 2: Earned Income

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is the second installment in a series of essays exploring the impact of executive orders and actions on museum income streams. It summarizes what we know about the immediate, accumulating effect of these actions, as well as offering …
Staying True to Mission: Why JANM Spoke Out

By Ann Burroughs

As my colleagues and I catalogue the damage being done to our sector, we take heart from a small but growing cadre of museums taking principled positions in the face of attacks on their institutions and the communities they serve. In 2019, …