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Your Guide to the Future at AAM 2025
AAM’s annual meeting is a gigantic buffet of content, and I know from experience that navigating the offerings can be somewhat overwhelming. In this post I offer one specialized menu of sessions related to issues I’m watching with a … -
TrendsWatch: Download, share, and go deeper
The 2025 edition of TrendsWatch, AAM’s annual forecasting report, is now available as a free PDF download! In this post I’ll tell you how to snag your copy and preview some opportunities to delve more deeply into this year’s topics, … -
Special Screening of Repatriation Documentary at AAM 2025
I’m excited to announce that AAM has arranged a special showing of the 2024 documentary Dahomey at the upcoming AAM Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Dahomey, directed by French Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, explores the repatriation of 26 … -
Against Efficiency
On occasion, I use this space to comment on norms and practices that I feel do active harm to our sector and our peers. (See, for example, my short rant on “quiet quitting” and the pernicious effects of workplace heroism.) Today I’m going … -
Living in a Wild Future
In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world for Americans and American museums, my job shifted from focusing on the far future to the immediate present. As museum leaders struggled with urgent decisions about keeping people … -
How to Face the Future, Cultivate Optimism, and Defy Dystopia
Over the past month I’ve been immersed in conversations with directors, staff, independent professionals, funders, and association staff, all trying to find a way forward in the face of the massive uncertainty created by the new … -
Strengthen Your Museum with Data
The past few weeks have many of us feeling uncertain about the future. I’m writing to remind you of an opportunity to reduce some of that uncertainty with cold, hard facts. Since 2020, AAM has partnered with Wilkening Consulting to provide … -
Responding to Rapid Change by Assessing Risk and Asking Questions
In recent weeks, museum leaders have often been forced to make decisions on the fly, in advance of crafting a comprehensive (or even a tentative) plan for coping with the current tsunami of change. That being so, I’m working on a series of … -
Ctrl+Alt+Preserve: Why Museums Must Invest in Digital Resilience
One major theme of this year’s TrendsWatch report is the inherent fragility of digital records, tools, and services, and the need to plan for the long-term costs of keeping these assets stable, functional, and accessible. (Read the … -
Three First Steps You Can Take in a Time of Rapid Change
The executive orders issued over the past week are having profound effects on people, communities, and organizations. While we can’t yet quantify the impact on our field, it’s clear that many museums and museum workers are tracking the …
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