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  • Benchmarking Inclusivity

    As the Alliance’s designated futurist, I’m often asked by journalists to comment on how this or that museum practice has changed over time. I’m often embarrassed (and frustrated) to admit I don’t know. It’s hard to track trends in museum …
  • IRIS+ Part One: Designing + Coding a Museum AI

    Museu do Amanhã in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is one of a very small cadre of museums experimenting with chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI). (Well, that seems appropriate. They are the Museum of Tomorrow, after all!) Curator …
  • Futurist Friday: Sustainable Civilization

    Astrophysicist Adam Frank, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester, is part of a group of researchers who are looking at climate change from an “astrobiological perspective.” Frank’s work is …
  • Grant Opportunity: Museums & Creative Aging

    Aroha Philanthropies has just released a call for proposals to museums interested in participating in its new Seeding Vitality Arts in Museums initiative. The Alliance is collaborating with Aroha and Lifetime Arts to usher a museum cohort …
  • Futurist Friday: a World Without Books

    Nothing cheers me up like a bit of distopic future fiction, so to brighten your Friday I share “The Inksect,” by Mexican filmmaker Pablo Calvillo. This short (9 min) animation asks “what would happen if the human race …
  • Is “Tax-exempt” Becoming a Dirty Word?

    Slate magazine recently launched “Slate 90,” a critical look at tax-exempt organizations as represented by the 10 largest nonprofits in nine nonprofit sectors. Museums on Slate’s target list include the Smithsonian Institution, the …
  • Taking Museums to Where the People Are

    Today’s guest post is by Charles Philipp, co-founder of MICRO, a nonprofit that creates free standing “mini museums” for public places. MICRO caught my attention for several reasons. Their installations are a great example of pop-up …
  • Museums for an Equitable Future

    The museum sector often thinks about equity in terms of access to exhibits and educational programs. There is also a robust and growing movement to make museums’ digital assets, including documentation and images of collections, open and …
  • Exploring the Future Through the Museum of Banned Objects

    One way futurists expand our thinking is through the creation of immersive scenarios: physical embodiments of possible futures. In one of my favorite examples, futurist Jake Dunagan installed “Mayor’s Office, 2061” in a former garage to …

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