Museum Magazine

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Make No Little Plans and Other Bad Advice

By Nick Nelson

The Springfield Art Museum is in the middle of a major renovation. It’s been complicated. One of the best pieces of advice I received early in the Springfield Art Museum’s construction project was to get my own hard hat. Bring it on …
Small Space, Big Impact

By Katie Lee-Koven

The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art has invested in high impact design of its space to enable 21st -century learning. The museum experience of 40 years ago is easy to imagine—a friendly front desk, a map of current exhibitions, and …
Right-Sized Futures

By Casey Gallagher

An architect offers advice for museums of all sizes on master planning. As an architect and planner who has spent many years working with museums of all types and sizes, I’ve heard it all when it comes to master planning. “We’ve done …
Surviving Your Museum Renovation

By Cameron L. Saffell

The Museum at Texas Tech underwent a major renovation and an addition and lived to tell the tale. Construction and renovation are not things most museum professionals normally deal with. Odds are most of us will not be constructing a new …
Historic Walls, Modern Vision

By Deborah Farrar Starker

The Museum of Early Trades & Crafts built a roadmap for restoration, expansion,and community impact. What makes a museum a museum? Is it the collection, the educational impact, or the relationship it cultivates with its community? …
Sustainability by Design

By Leslie Tom & Jeff Anderson

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is developing a museum-led model for people, planet, prosperity, and programs. At The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (The Wright), our mission is to “open minds …
From the President: Why Design Matters

By Marilyn Jackson

I spent several formative years at the Chicago Architecture Center, helping create programs, exhibitions, and tours that inspired people to better understand and care for the built environment around them. We often returned to a line from …
Welcome to TrendsWatch: Questioning Assumptions

By Elizabeth Merritt

“The problem with assumptions is that we believe they are the truth.” — Miguel Angel Ruiz, Mexican author and spiritual guide Hello and welcome to the 2026 edition of TrendsWatch, AAM’s forecasting report, which we publish as the first …
From the President: A Better Tomorrow

By Marilyn Jackson

For 14 years, Elizabeth Merritt has authored the annual TrendsWatch report, identifying emerging signals that could reshape museums in the years ahead. During her leadership of the Center for the Future of Museums, one thing has become …
Short Take: Cultivating Compassion

By Elizabeth Merritt

“Compassion is a bridge, helping us move forward by finding common ground and understanding across divides. Our collective decision to act with compassion is the antidote to division, polarization, and hate.” …