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!

Future Fiction Friday

By Elizabeth Merritt

Hi, this is Sylvea. I wanted to share a story from our Future Fiction Challenge…this one, by Sarah Jesse, is entitled “World Museum and Library Database.” Check out the other entries here and submit your story! If you would like tips from …
Kentucky’s Jefferson Davis Dilemma

By Elizabeth Merritt

In a post last June I began to track how museums are invoked by protesters calling for the removal of monuments and symbols celebrating the Confederacy in particular, and America’s slave-holding past more generally. In the ensuing …
One Graduate’s Job Search Story…Consider Casting a Wider Net

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’m frequently asked to give advice about job searches, which puts me in an uncomfortable position: I want to be helpful, but I’m hesitant to offer advice based on my own initial forays into the field, which took place in a …
Launching the Search for our Ford Fellow

By Elizabeth Merritt

Last spring I gave you an unofficial preview of the next CFM fellowship: The Ford W. Bell Fellow for Museums and P-12 Education.* This week, after almost a year of laying the groundwork for finding and supporting our fellow, we’ve launched …
How to Enter the CFM Education Future Fiction Challenge: It’s Open!!!

By Elizabeth Merritt

Hi—Sylvea here. I’m excited to announce the launch of CFM’s “Future Fiction” project, a national challenge in which we invite museum professionals, educators, futurists and community members to share their stories of an educational future …
Let’s Be Proactive about Museum Ethics

By Elizabeth Merritt

We asked Sally Yerkovich, Director of the Institute of Museum Ethics at Seton Hall University and the chair of AAM’s Task Force on the Direct Care of Collections, to write about current conversations in museum ethics and her recent …
Museum Magazine and The Future of Diversity

By Elizabeth Merritt

Since CFM launched in 2008, I’ve been aware of the danger of our work being the proverbial mile wide and an inch deep. That is why the CFM Fellow program, now in its infancy, is so critical: fellows will give us the capacity to take a …
Futurist Friday: Marie Kondo, meet Brad the Toaster

By Elizabeth Merritt

I just listened to an NPR interview with Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo, talking about her new book “Spark Joy.” Her approach to simplifying and organizing life has taken the US by storm. (How popular is she? Her video …
How to Write the Future

By Elizabeth Merritt

On January 19th we will launch our Future Fiction Challenge—I hope you plan to enter, and look forward to reading your story of an educational future in which “museums play a starring role.” Why did we opt for stories, rather than …
Preparing for Future Weather Change

By Elizabeth Merritt

When I was a collections manager, I learned the risk management mantra “avoid, share, transfer, mitigate, accept.” As guardians of heritage, museums quite rightly emphasize avoiding and mitigating risk. For the hazards that remain, …