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Preview of Houston: Exploring the Future of Natural History Museums
At the AAM meeting in Houston this May, artist Tracy Hicks will create an installation on the future of natural history museums and the influence of natural history museums on the future of the earth. One of the things I love about Tracy’s … -
Museums & Wikipedia: The Future of Collaboration and Accessibility
Lori Byrd Phillips is a museum studies graduate student at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and the current Wikipedian-in-Residence at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. She recently received a full scholarship … -
Museums and Spontaneous Eruptions of Art: Yarnbombing
Over the past two weeks, we’ve had Maria Mortati share with us the foundation of the San Francisco Mobile Museum and Barbara Stauffer discussing the challenges of orchestrating a participatory design experience in an institution. To … -
Using Your Audience as Exhibit Designers
Last week, Barbara Stauffer shared with us the challenges of orchestrating a participatory design experience in an institution with well-established organizational procedures and hierarchies. For her, inviting the input of over 800 … -
Museums & the Spectrum of Control: Part I
This week’s guest post is by Barbara Stauffer, chief of temporary exhibitions at the National Museum of Natural History. This is the first in a series of posts exploring how museums are adapting to people’s desire to contribute, share, … -
An Idea for New Income and New Engagement: give your collections to as many people as possible
Got your attention with that headline, didn’t I? Calm down, I’m not talking about deaccessioning. I’m talking replication and teleportation of collections objects. Everyone has their own fav future tech. Phil’s is jetpacks: Mine is … -
Mining MyCulture: serving the community of creative consumers
The CFM report Museums & Society 2034 explored a trend we dubbed “MyCulture”—a rising generation demonstrating an extraordinarily high level of creative output and creative consumption. This week’s guest blogger, Allison Thurman, … -
The Backstory on Blobby
CFM’s recent post on natural history specimens as social media was wildly popular, attracting over 1,300 hits within one week. Given the evident fan base for Blobby (and Sue) it seems worth delving deeper into the story behind these … -
Natural History Specimens as Social Media Celebrities
The rise of social media is transforming the landscape of communication for all organizations, including museums. There are myriad new ways to connect directly with the public, and new spokespeople have stepped forth to fill these niches. … -
The Whole World a Museum?
Take a look at “Tales of Things,” an interesting website that launched this month. It’s part of the TOTeM project—“exploring social memory in the emerging Internet of Things.” This UK-based project …
Tag: Collections
Upcoming Events
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Is Social Media Still Worth It?
Event Date:Presented by: Southeastern Museums Conference -
Designing History Walking Tours Virtual Workshop
Event Date:Presented by: American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) -
AAM Affinity Communities Virtual Open House
Event Date:Presented by: AAM's Affinity Communities
Latest Stories from AAM
How Museums Can Resist Censorship
Category:
Center for the Future of Museums Blog
As the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) points out, “every generation of …
The Audience Engagement Tool Hiding in Plain Sight
Category:
Alliance Blog
Museum marketing and communications teams face a familiar challenge in a cultural …
August Advocacy Alert: Save the Date Museums Advocacy Day 2027, Take Action, Appropriations, and more
Category:
Advocacy Alert
Advocacy Alert – July 31, 2026 In this Alliance Advocacy Alert: Webinar: What It’s Like …