COVID-19 – American Alliance of Museums

The Future of Museum Labor: Exploring the Latest COVID Impact Data

By Elizabeth Merritt

Last week the Alliance released the results of our most recent snapshot of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on US museums. We launched this series of surveys in June 2020, a little over 3 months after the World Health Organization …
Forecasting 2022, Part 3: Build Your Own Adventure

By Elizabeth Merritt

When I sat down to write the third entry in CFM’s scenario set for 2022, I struggled over what kind of story would most usefully round out the collection. Scenario one (A Third Year of Waves) explores a depressing but entirely possible …
The Long-awaited Tail

By Elizabeth Merritt

“With our imagination, the future is a place where anything, or one hundred things, or everything, can be different—even things that seem impossible to change today.” –Dr. Jane McGonigal, futurist and games designer I want to start …
Forecasting 2022, Part 1: Waves Ahead

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’d hoped to be forecasting the post-COVID future by this point, but that apparently wasn’t in the cards. (Forgive me a little futurist Tarot humor.) Instead, it’s entirely possible that 2022 will become Year Three of the COVID-19 …
COVID Update—Fall 2021

By Elizabeth Merritt

I had hoped that by this fall COVID-19 would be receding in our rear view mirror, and we could turn our attention to the post-pandemic future. Unfortunately, my June update, which flagged the potential for the Delta variant of the virus to …
The next COVID scenario: Delta Force

By Elizabeth Merritt

The near term future is looking much brighter than it was in March 2020, when I published my first set of scenarios exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic might play out. While the death toll in the US has surpassed 600,000 (a grim statistic …
Serving the Needs of the Community During a Pandemic

By Elizabeth Merritt

During the COVID-19 pandemic, museums have proven themselves to be part of the essential infrastructure of our country, supporting their communities in myriad ways. Sometimes this support is grounded in mainstream museum practice—exhibits …
Invite Your Visitors and Participants To Be Seen in a National Research Portrait — Especially if Your Museum Serves BIPOC or Rural Communities

By Elizabeth Merritt

Sometimes “anyone can participate” isn’t as inclusive as it seems. There can be all sorts of invisible barriers, including who even hears the invitation to begin with. Sometimes it takes an extra effort to make sure that …
Tales from Campus: Radical Collaboration at the Nasher Museum

By Elizabeth Merritt

In today’s guest post, Wendy Hower, Director of Engagement & Marketing at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, describes how an outdoor art exhibition became a wide-reaching way to support students, faculty and the local …
Crowdsourcing a Database of Permanent Museum Closings

By Elizabeth Merritt

Due to the independent nature of the nonprofit sector in the US, there no comprehensive way to track museum openings or closings (much less arrive at a definitive head count of museums at any given time). This is of particular concern as …