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Do You Like Podcasts about Museums? Want to Start Your Own?

By Elizabeth Merritt

One of the BEST PARTS of the virtual Future of Museums Summit is going to be the breakout sessions at the end of each day. Many of the moderators and speakers have volunteered to join attendees in virtual rooms later on the day of their …
Crushing on Our Summit Speakers

By Elizabeth Merritt

If I were a different age, I might be saying “OMG OMG!” (or possibly “squee!!!”) but being who I am I’ll just say that our speaker lineup for the virtual Future of Museums Summit is mass…
Peering Over the Next Horizon of Museum Practice

By Elizabeth Merritt

Why is it so hard to make change?! Even when we (museum people) know that parts of our work are in urgent need of reform, progress can be glacially slow. In fact, that’s natural. Humans are hardwired for caution, and it often seems …
Evidence of Things Not Seen

By Jessica O'Connor

The current edition of TrendsWatch includes a “Short Take” on how our country and our sector are beginning to grapple with how to compensate descendant communities for historic harms. Reparative practice may take the form of actions that …
Take a Deep Dive into the Future of Museums this November

By Elizabeth Merritt

Have you registered for the Future of Museums Summit? Taking place from 1-5 pm ET November 1 and 2, this virtual conference will explore four themes from the current edition of TrendsWatch: the evolution of digital practice, workplace …
Empowering Provenance Research in the Age of Big Data and (Re)Generative Artificial Intelligence

By Daniel Fonner

Six years ago, I started a project called ReMasterpieces that used some of the leading AI techniques of that time to recreate works of art that were stolen and subsequently lost or destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. My original …
Investing for Impact in Every Way

By Adam Levine

I’ve been tracking the rise of impact investing for a decade. On this blog, guest posts such as those by Laura Callanan introduced the practice, documented how museums are adopting impact investing, and explored how investing for good can …
Say Cheese! A Candid Snapshot of the Museum Sector

By Elizabeth Merritt

Last month AAM released the results of our fifth “snapshot” survey of the field. These snapshots, which started as a means of checking in on museums and museum workers during COVID shutdown, now help us track recovery and continued …
The Earnest Work of Dreaming: Chicanafuturism in Visual Art

By Jadira Gurulé

Visions of the future created by and centering the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) are essential to our collective potential to transform the world as we know it. For decades, BIPOC artists working in …
How Museums Are Helping Americans Bridge Divides

By Kate Doak-Keszler

This year’s TrendsWatch shared a few stories of museums working to bridge the partisan divide, but my research for the report left me wanting more. In today’s guest post, Kate Doak-Keszler, Partnerships and Communications Director for the …