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  • Shaping the Future of Museum Ethics

     Today the Alliance is launching a survey asking for input on what museum professionals think should be included in the definition of direct care. Sally Yerkovich, Chair of the AAM Direct Care Task Force, explains why this is a pressing …
  • Museums and Online Learning: a student’s perspective

    Early 19th Century Gallery atCrystal Bridges Last December I visited Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, to brainstorm with their staff about museums and distance education. As Michael Edson has pointed out …
  • More on Trust: The Malleable Past

    In my study at home is a beautiful wooden couch handcrafted by my uncle Bob. It cleverly converts into a (narrow, hard) sleeper sofa when you lift the woven back. I was very happy to inherit this piece of family memorabilia, and always …
  • Monday Musing: Quantifying the Sacrifice Measure

    I’ve been sitting on this figure for awhile. Steven Lubar (@lubar) from Brown University lobbed the associated NPR story at me on Twitter in response to one of my posts on museum economics and professional salaries. NPR staff had …
  • Futurist Friday: Building the City of the Future

    Eugène Hénard, ‘The Cities of The Future’, published in American City, January 1911. I just downloaded a report that looks like a fascinating futurist read. “A Visual History of the Future” looks at how past …
  • Throwback Thursday: Revisiting Trust

    In  this Tuesday’s post on trust–who trusts museums, and why–I mentioned a post I wrote almost exactly two years ago that touched on that issue. Choosing Roles: Facilitator or Advocate?” explored two options, either …
  • Trust Me, I’m a Museum

    Back in 2001 AAM sponsored a survey which showed that 87% of respondents viewed museums as “one of the most trustworthy sources of objective information.” We cited that figure a lot in the following decade. commissioned by the …
  • Starting with the Future in Mind

    The start of a new calendar year is also the time when we as Museum Administrators are thinking in a more focused way about our organization’s future. It is a time of planning and reflection as we begin new tax or fiscal years, launch new …
  • The Multi-dimensional Museum

    I was delighted to hear this story over the weekend on NPR, on how the Pacific Science Center opens early, one Saturday each month, to provide an environment tailored to the needs of visitors with autism. For this time, they turn down the …
  • Scouting SOTUs

    Someday I hope to hear a president of the U.S. stand up in the chamber of the House of Representatives in the Capitol and give a great big shout out to America’s museums. (Perhaps citing them as critical infrastructure–on a par with …

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