Investing in the Creative Economy for Good and Profit
When it comes to managing their endowments, museums typically focus solely on financial return. This is a missed opportunity to advance their mission-related work. Some avoid investing in sectors (tobacco, extractive energy) at odds with …
Revisiting Volunteers and Museum Labor
I’m working on an essay about museum volunteers and diversity, exploring how this issue intertwines with efforts to diversify our staff, boards, and audiences. What are the barriers to volunteering? Is the opportunity and ability to …
Talking with Visitors About the Eviction Crisis
This year’s TrendsWatch profiles several museums working to educate the public about homelessness and housing insecurity. One of the exhibitions I highlighted was Evicted, presented by the National Building Museum from April 2018-May 2019. …
Building an Equitable Future: Museums and Reparations
Today is Juneteenth, commemorating the emancipation of enslaved black people in America. This holiday is a big deal here in my home town of Washington D.C. Not coincidentally, today the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates will trek up Capitol Hill to …
An Intergenerational “School of Drag” Connects LGBTQIA+ Youth and Elders
Last year, 20 organizations enrolled in a special museum cohort of Aroha Philanthropies’ Seeding Vitality Arts program. With funding from Aroha, and training provided by Lifetime Arts, these museums are developing high quality, …
Artificial Intelligence in Service of Understanding and Delight
I continue to be amazed and delighted at the ways in which museums are harnessing artificial intelligence to power their work. This week Dr. Hank Hine, Executive and Creative Director of The Dali Museum, tells us how The Dali has used AI …
Two Artists on the Future of Blockchain and Art
Every year I feature an emerging technology in TrendsWatch, and this year I dove into blockchain—the distributed, encrypted digital ledger system that supports both cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, and “crypto-art” like Primavera …
Taking Native Lands and Lives
Museums have power—the power to tell stories, shape narratives, and influence the lens we bring to bear on the past. That power can be harnessed for healing, as museums contribute to a reparative reexamination of history and the legacy of …
TrendsWatch 2019: Take Care: Building resilience and sustainable practice
This is one of the five trends from the 2019 TrendsWatch. Click here to read more about the full report. “Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.” —Eleanor Brownn Society owes a debt to everyone who does the hard …
For Your AAM2019 Schedule: Talking about the Future with Your Community
Heads up on a session I’ll be moderating at the annual meeting in New Orleans next week: Engaging Community in Conversations about the Future Wednesday, May 22, 11 am – noon, Room 356-357 The session was instigated by Meredith Doby, of the …
