climate change – Page 3 – American Alliance of Museums

The Limits of Neutrality: A Message From The Natural History Museum

By Elizabeth Merritt

Today’s guest post, from the team at The Natural History Museum (including director Beka Economopoulos), illustrates one of the trends I discuss in TrendsWatch 2015, and touches upon another. In the chapter on “Ethical Everything,” on the …
What Do Ethical Consumers Expect of Museums?

By Elizabeth Merritt

An open letter released today calls on natural history and science museums to “cut all ties with the fossil fuel industry and funders of climate change obfuscation.” The letter, signed by scientists and by one former museum trustee & …
Museums in a Dangerous Time

By Elizabeth Merritt

The Alliance has announced that the theme of our 2015 Annual Meeting will be The Social Value of Museums: Inspiring Change. Believing, as I do that Museums Can Change the World (CFM’s motto), I look forward to the year leading up to the …
Inspiring a New Generation

By Elizabeth Merritt

Author Neal Stephenson recently launched the Hieroglyph project, to rally writers to reintroduce optimism into science fiction. That is pretty ironic, considering some of the dystopian visions he has painted of our future. But, as he …
Choosing Roles: Can we advance action AND enhance experience?

By Elizabeth Merritt

In the course of my ongoing quest for stories of how museums make the world a better place, I met Douglas Meyer, a consultant who’s worked with a variety of nonprofits in the U.S. and internationally. For example, teaming with the firm of …
Monday Musings: What Could Disappear?

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’ve blogged beforeabout the importance of factoring climate trends into long term planning and risk assessment. Continued news of museums in New York and New Jersey coping with the aftermath of Frankenstorm Sandy, and the UK suffering …
The Future of the Campus Art Museum: Join the Conversation

By Elizabeth Merritt

The Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago just released “Campus Art Museums in the 21st Century: a Conversation.” If you work at or with campus art museums, or art museums, or non-art campus museums, you should read it. Oh …
One from each Category: Part 2

By Elizabeth Merritt

Time for a brain stretch. This is part two of a quick review of recent scanning hits in five STEEP categories of forecasting—this one covers economic, environmental and political developments. (You can read part one, on social and …
A Rising Tide: The Changing Landscape of Risk Assessment

By Elizabeth Merritt

In my time heading the Excellence Programs at AAM (including MAP and Accreditation) it was always a challenge to coax, cajole or even gently bully museums into producing well-tailored risk management plans. AAM staff tried disseminating …
Choosing Roles: Facilitator or Advocate?

By Elizabeth Merritt

Would you rather be loved, or would you rather save the world? You can’t necessarily have both. I pondered this choice, as it applies to museums, yesterday morning at the last half day of the 21st Century Learning in Natural History …