How Museums Are Helping Americans Bridge Divides
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 …
Taking a Stand: A Q&A with Micah Parzen, CEO of the Museum of Us
While for some museums the pandemic was a wake-up call to reimagine how they engaged and served their communities, for others it was an opportunity to go deeper. One of those museums, the Museum of Us, had been on a trajectory for several …
Empathy Interviews: A Tool for Museums to Understand the Feelings and Experiences of Others
Imagine sitting down with local community members and hearing stories about the places they feel they can show up as their most authentic selves, or where and how they have learned something interesting in the past, or what drives them to …
Mission Made: How Museum Stores Are Embracing Sustainability and Inclusivity
When most people think of museum stores, they likely envision shelves filled with postcards, magnets, and keychains featuring famous artworks or other exhibits. In recent years, however, many have been making an effort through their …
3 Trauma-Informed Practices for Museums to Follow
Earlier this year, I presented at MuseumNext’s Museums, Health, and Wellbeing Summit about what we risk by not integrating trauma-informed practices and values into our work. In my talk, I chose to use reflective prompts and storytelling …
Point of View: Inspiring Reflection in Museums
Why and how the perspective and purpose of museums should …
From the President and CEO: Getting Out of the Box
For generations, much of the American public has put museums in a box, seeing them as nice places to visit on occasions like annual school field trips but not community anchors essential to a thrivi…
From Cultural Appropriation to Cultural Appreciation at the Center for Design and Material Culture
Lessons from the Center for Design and Material Culture at the University of Wiscons…
Love in the Time of Climate Crisis at the Denver Botanic Gardens
The case for using emotion and metaphor in exhibit…
An Afrofuturist School Program Empowers Children to Envision the Future
Futurism is a powerful tool to share with kids—equipping them to think about the world they want to live in when they grow up, challenging them to make it better. Today on the blog, Executive Director Nina Woodruff-Walker tells us how the …
