core documents – American Alliance of Museums

Should There Be a Core Document for Education?: An Update on the EdCom Task Force

By Megan Wood and Tony Pennay

As a prerequisite to accreditation, museums must submit five Core Documents for verification, a set of plans and policies considered fundamental to professional museum operations, values, and practices. As of now, this includes documents …
What to Expect from the Core Documents Verification Process

By Luanne Kanzawa

In 2018, the Japanese Friendship Garden Society of San Diego (JFG) decided to embark on museum accreditation, taking the key step of participating in the Core Documents Verification program. The Japanese Friendship Garden is an institution …
Double Duty: How a historic botanical garden reached a balance in managing its plant and art collections

By Jordyn Melino and Julianna Razryadov

All museums face many challenges maintaining and displaying their collections. But these challenges are exacerbated when collections of vastly different needs and care protocols share the same display space. At Phipps Conservatory and …

Latest Stories from AAM

October Monthly Advocacy Alert: Government Shutdown, Save the Date for Museums Advocacy Day, and more

Advocacy Alert – October 17, 2025 In this Alliance Advocacy Alert: Government …

K-12 STEM Education, Museums, and Perceived Curricular Gaps: A 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers Data Story

This visual Data Story is based on findings from the 2025 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers, …

Measuring What Matters: Vital Signs for Museums

More numbers don’t equal more insight. If your dashboard feels more like a data dump than …

AAM Members get exclusive access to premium digital content including:

Featured articles from Museum magazine
Access to more than 1,500 resource listings from the Resource Center
Tools, reports, and templates for equipping your work in museums

Your current membership level does not allow you to access this content.

Upgrade Your Membership

Subscribe to Field Notes!

Packed with stories and insights for museum people, Field Notes is delivered to your inbox every Monday. Once you've completed the form below, confirm your subscription in the email sent to you.

If you are a current AAM member, please sign-up using the email address associated with your account.

Are you a museum professional? Yes No

Are you a current AAM member? Yes No

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription, and please add communications@aam-us.org to your safe sender list.