Center for the Future of Museums Blog

The Center for the Future of Museums Blog shares musings on the future of museums and society.

Read Dispatches from the Future of Museums online!

Get more resources from the Center for the Future of Museums.

Explore all Publications from the Alliance.

Explore the AAM Resource Library by topic, and further filter by subtopic or resource types to find what matters most to you!

I Can Haz Cryptokitties and You Can Too

By Elizabeth Merritt

I will be running a Cryptokitty meet-up at the AAM annual meeting in New Orleans on Tuesday, May 21 from 2:00 – 2:30 in the Alliance Resource Center in MuseumExpo. Join me for a brief tutorial on collecting, breeding and trading digital …
Futurist Friday: Fractional Art

By Elizabeth Merritt

Here’s William Gibson, writing in 1986, offering an off-hand glimpse of art collecting in the year 2042: “He led her across the room and through a doorway. A graying, heavyset Frenchman in a rumpled corduroy suit was speaking into the …
Crowdsourcing the Peabody Museum’s Future

By Jaan Elias

I’m often asked which topics featured in CFM’s TrendsWatch report proved to be of enduring importance, and which fizzle. I’m happy to say that so far, all the trends we’ve identified have continued to be significant for our field. Case in …
For Your New Orleans Itinerary

By Haitham Eid

As a climate conscious traveler, I try to make my carbon miles count. When I do go on the road, I pack as much value as I can into each trip—visiting museums, connecting with colleagues, and finding opportunities to learn and share. In …
TrendsWatch 2019: Give Me Shelter: Everyone deserves a place to live

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is one of the five trends from the 2019 TrendsWatch. Click here to read more about the full report. “You call this progress, because you have motor cars and telephones and flying machines and a thousand potions to make you smell …
TrendsWatch 2019: Confronting the Past: The long, hard work of decolonization

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is one of the five trends from the 2019 TrendsWatch. Click here to read more about the full report. “Colonialism and imperialism have not settled their debt to us once they have withdrawn their flag and their police force from our …
TrendsWatch 2019: Ledger de Main: How blockchain is transforming transactions

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is one of the five trends from the 2019 TrendsWatch. Click here to read more about the full report. “The first generation of the digital revolution brought us the Internet of information. The second generation—powered by blockchain …
TrendsWatch 2019: Truth, Trust, and Fake News

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is one of the five trends from the 2019 TrendsWatch. Click here to read more about the full report. “Trust is the foundation of society. Where there is no truth, there can be no trust, and where there is no trust, there can be no …
The Self-Care Ritual of Retreats

By Michelle Dezember

One reason I love museum people is that they work so hard to make the world a better place. But all too often, I see colleagues burn out and leave our field because they did not make time to care for themselves. Hence my recent dive into …
Handing the Mic to People Experiencing Homelessness

By Terence Lester

For me, the most exciting part of publishing TrendsWatch is making new connections with people doing great work around each issues’ themes. One of the topics we address in TrendsWatch 2019 is homeless and housing insecurity. In a happy …