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When Museum Social Media Works: Joining the Cultural Conversation

By Haydn Corrodus

Spend enough time with arts marketers and cultural leadership teams, and you’ll hear the same question again and again: Is social media still worth it? Whether it’s fluctuating organic reach, ever-changing algorithms, or the understandable …
Reputation on Display: Eight Simple Rules for Public Relations

By Steve Lott

I’m guessing you’ve felt it too: museums are more visible, more scrutinized, and more politicized than ever. That scrutiny doesn’t always land where we’d like it to. It can jump from an exhibition to an institution, from an object to an …
The Visitor is for Keeps: Engaging Audiences with the Nurturing Model

By John Connolly

Does admission pricing limit access to museums? At the Harvard Art Museums, we stress-tested this question by launching free admission in 2023. The beautiful entrance piazza transformed into the bustling town square it was conceived to be. …
Building Brand Equity: How Strategic PR Boosts Long-Term Sustainability

By Addison Dover

In recent years, museums have begun to recognize that public perception plays a critical role in long-term sustainability. Audiences, businesses, and philanthropic partners increasingly look to support institutions that demonstrate clear …
From Social Night to Strategic Asset: Rethinking Adult Programming

By Katye Brought and Beth Stricker

Cocktails & Culture, an after-hours, adult event series at the Witte Museum, reached its peak in 2018. A regional natural history museum serving 350,000 visitors annually, the Witte had just completed a yearslong $120 million …
Force Multipliers: Forging Purposeful Partnerships and Cross-Sector Campaigns

By Kaziah I. Searles

Most museums are working with small teams and tight budgets, while expectations for accessibility and community engagement continue to grow. This creates a challenge: how can museums increase impact without increasing resources? One …
From the President: Getting Strategic About Telling Our Story

By Marilyn Jackson

This issue of the magazine focuses on a part of the field especially close to my heart: public relations and marketing, where I began my own museum career in Chicago as director of marketing at what is now the Griffin Museum of Science and …
School’s in Session…in the Museum: A Four-Day Immersion in Museum-Based Learning

By Leslie Hayes

The New York Historical offers New York City sixth graders four full days of museum-based learning. If you visit my place of work between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on a weekday, you are likely to hear some remarkable sounds: restrained …
Achieving the Unforgettable: Engaging the Senses with Whole-Body Learning

By Tedi Asher, Matthew McNerney, and Sarah Cole

“Hey!! They just made the ruler larger!” It had been more than a month since my (Matthew McNerney’s) 5-year-old son visited the Field Museum’s iconic “Underground Adventure,” a worm’s-eye journey into the soil where children meet the …
Meeting the Moment: Creative Aging Programs for Older Adults

By Marjorie Schwarzer

“It’s promising and comforting to know that the very things in our lives that we find so pleasurable, like the arts, also have short- and long-term benefits for health.” —Daisy Fancourt, author of Art Cure: The Science of How …