About AAM

Ransom note from the future Courtesy Sarah Sutton

About AAM

The American Alliance of Museums’ mission is to champion museums and nurture excellence in partnership with our members and allies.

From art museums to science centers, arboretums to zoos, members of the diverse museum community share something in common—strong support, standards of excellence, knowledge sharing, and professional networks provided by the American Alliance of Museums.

Since 1906 the Alliance has been a leader in developing best practices and advocating for museums, as well as providing a host of opportunities to museum staff and volunteers. More than 35,000 individual museum professionals and volunteers, institutions, and corporate partners benefit from the work of the Alliance.

Strategic Priorities

AAM’s 2016-2020 strategic plan is the result of an 18-month effort of our staff and board of directors. During that process, we gathered input from more than 500 AAM members and non-members via 30 formal listening sessions.

This plan commits the Alliance to pursuing goals that advance our mission:

Access: deliver relevant content and superior user experience
Thought Leadership: influence and inspire action
Global Thinking: connect US museums to the international community
Advocacy: champion museums
Excellence: build and celebrate a stronger museum field

As we pursue our goals, we will focus on topics that our membership strongly believes are vital to the future viability, relevance and sustainability of museums, including:

Diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion in all aspects of museum structure and programming
Museums’ expanding role in an evolving ecosystem of P-12 education
Changing business models for museums’ financial sustainability