Center for the Future of Museums Blog

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Monday Musing: Managed Retreat

By Elizabeth Merritt

Did you know that over a third (34.6 percent) of US museums sit are within 100 kilometers of the coast? A quarter of those are in areas that score very high on the Coastal Vulnerability Index, meaning they face high risk from rising sea …
Explore How Museums Can Rebuild Public Trust

By Elizabeth Merritt

Would you like to explore how museums can use their superpower of trust? This new video and discussion guide about “Truth, Trust, and Fake News”—the first chapter in CFM’s TrendsWatch 2019—is designed for use by museum studies programs, …
Opportunities for Museums to Lead for the Future of Learning

By Katherine Prince

When the Alliance launched the Center of the Future of Museums a decade ago, museum people told us loud and clear that they wanted us to explore the future of education as part of our work. Over the years we’ve created an extensive …
Building a Future of Social Justice

By Ann Burroughs

In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, I came across a picture (above) of a futurist installation by LA street artist Plastic Jesus. This bit of immersive fiction warned of a future in which America might repeat one of the most …
Museums and Equity: Volunteers

By Elizabeth Merritt

42% male 22% African American, Asian, or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity 66% under the age of 55 49% with less than a college degree That’s the demographic profile of volunteers in the US*. Does it describe your museum’s volunteers? For many …
Autism in Museums: a revolution in the making

By Claire Madge

As we work to increase diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility among museum audiences and in the workplace, we need to attend to the needs of neurodiverse visitors and employees. In today’s post, Claire Madge, founder of the …
Investing in the Creative Economy for Good and Profit

By Laura Callanan

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

By Elizabeth Merritt

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

By Dr. Sarah Leavitt

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

By Elizabeth Merritt

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 …