Posts
Small Museums
Leveraging MAP for Capacity Building: The Sierra Mono Museum experience
The Sierra Mono Museum and Cultural Center—a small, rural, nonprofit museum set in the California foothills just south of Yosemite National Park—is today undergoing a one-million-dollar …
The Advantages of Being a Small Museum
Despite visiting only rarely, I have a strong affinity for New Orleans, the “big sister” of my own hometown: Savannah, Georgia. Both were historically port cities, sites for the global …
Confronting a Painful History: How a museum partnered with its Native community to educate the public about an offensive place name
The Black Rock Historical Society (BRHS) is a volunteer organization on the west side of Buffalo, NY, formed in 2013 around the two-hundredth anniversary of the War of 1812 and chartered …
2019 Award Winner for Innovation in Museum Education: Wa kuk wa jimor (“Canoe of One Community”)
The EdCom Award for Innovation in Museum Education recognizes, encourages, and celebrates new, creative ways of engaging with audiences. The Shiloh Museum of Ozark History’s approach …
Enslaved People Lived Here. These Museums Want You to Know.
The New York Times reports on the growing movement at Southern historic house museums to emphasize the experiences of enslaved people. Instead of focusing only on the dazzling beauty of the …
Seeing Paris—and the World—through Small Museums
A few months ago, a museum exhibition sparked a thought in my mind that I haven’t stopped thinking about ever since. I was walking aimlessly around Paris and had just wandered into Le Musée …
A Tibetan Collection Fights a Battle That Small Museums Often Face
Small museums have limited resources and yet must still meet the standards set by the museum field. How do they do it? Ingenuity, determination, and nimbleness. “I think what the big …
How One Small Museum Approached Accreditation
Accreditation helps museums focus their purpose, refine their practices, and build their futures. But some museums, particularly those with small staffs and budgets, might consider it …
Thinking about the Unthinkable: Disaster preparedness and emergency response plans for small museums
Since 1981, the Museum Assessment Program (MAP) has been assisting small and mid-sized museums in their quest to achieve best practices and national standards. The process begins with an …
Making Professional Development Work for Small Museums
“We had been talking about going to different conferences for years, usually in a joking, musing way, so it is awesome to be able to do it.” When I asked my colleague Mark Riccetti, our …
Reflections on the Historic House Summit from Scholarship Attendee Abigail Winslow
On February 3-5, 2019, AAM’s Historic Houses and Sites and Environment and Climate networks hosted a rare convening of experts at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida, for …
Collecting Girlhood: Why the new activist museum is virtual
The assumption that museums must be permanent buildings with physical collections is no longer sustainable. With decreased funding, increased competition, and the burden of care, museums …