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!

Museum Apprenticeships as Entry Points for Future Leaders

By Margaret Koch, Samantha Garza, and Minsu Kwon

Earlier this year, the National Council of Nonprofits released a report documenting that workforce shortages continue to be a major problem for US nonprofits. The report also identified strategies being successfully deployed to recruit and …
Join Me for a New Series to Chat About the Future

By Elizabeth Merritt

Starting in August, AAM is piloting Future Chats, a series of short dives into some of the latest news. These one hour, online sessions will be dedicated to informal, interactive conversations about trends and events that are changing our …
Mental Health for All

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is an excerpt from TrendsWatch: Museums as Community Infrastructure. The full report is available as a free PDF download. “What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.” — Glenn Close, …
Livable Communities for Our Elders

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is an excerpt from TrendsWatch: Museums as Community Infrastructure. The full report is available as a free PDF download. “Ageism is a prejudice against our own future selves and takes root in denial of the fact that we’re going to …
Education for Our Children

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is an excerpt from TrendsWatch: Museums as Community Infrastructure. The full report is available as a free PDF download. “Given the challenges we face, education doesn’t need to be reformed—it needs to be transformed.” —Sir Ken …
Right-Sizing the World

By Elizabeth Merritt

This excerpt is adapted from TrendsWatch: Museums as Community Infrastructure. The full report is available as a free PDF download. “I don’t know why people feel unhappy when the curve of a graph fails to keep going up, but they do. Even …
Help Pioneer Better Measures of Museum Performance

By Elizabeth Merritt

What’s the best way to measure a museum’s success? And by “best,” I mean meaningful and sustainable. “Meaningful” in the form of metrics that will make a community feel it has been well served by the museum and demonstrate to funders and …
Emergency Response in the Face of Disasters

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is an excerpt from TrendsWatch: Museums as Community Infrastructure. The full report is available as a free PDF download. “There’s nothing like a jolly good disaster to get people to start doing something.” —Prince Charles America’s …
TrendsWatch: this year’s report as a free, accessible PDF with copious links

By Elizabeth Merritt

Heads up! The 2024 edition of CFM’s annual forecasting report is now available as a free PDF download. TrendsWatch: Navigating a Volatile Future explores how museums can adapt to the astounding pace of change in culture, climate, and …
Museums with a Future: Prioritizing Climate Resilience to Respond to a Changing World

By Stephanie Shapiro

This year’s TrendsWatch report spotlights the urgent need for humanity to curb our carbon emissions if we are to stave off the worst extremes of climate change. The term “existential threat” is, IMHO, overused, but in …