Cultural Trends – American Alliance of Museums

A Growing Backlash to DEI

By Elizabeth Merritt

Do you remember seeing this picture attempting to illustrate the difference between equality and equity? Now it also illustrates the latest battleground in the new culture wars. While a whopping 91 percent of Americans agree on the …
What’s in a Name? A Resource for Difficult Conversations

By Elizabeth Merritt

Yale recently released a Report of the Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming. I’m using this post as an addendum to TrendsWatch 2016, adding the renaming report to TrendsWatch’s list of resources museums can use to navigate …
Futurist Friday: Curating the Hereafter

By Elizabeth Merritt

I have a special place in my heart for museums that help their audiences explore the future. The latest addition to my collection: the Hereafter Institute, a fictitious company created by Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, recipient of a 201 LACMA …
Monday Musing: Solving Social Problems

By Elizabeth Merritt

Today’s brief “musing” looks at a story from Pew Research Center I featured in Dispatches from the Future of Museums last week: Are churches key to solving social problems? Fewer Americans now think so.Summary of the …
Capture the Flag: the struggle over identity and representation

By Elizabeth Merritt

#TrendsWatch 2016, artist @GynoStar @BreeNewsome #TakeDownTheFlag Follow the link in the photo caption to the associated story. You can find more glimpses of the future (and links) on CFM’s Pintere…
So this museum geek walks into an academic research meeting…

By Elizabeth Merritt

Earlier this month I was in London, participating in the Diversity, (In)equality and Differences workshop organized by the Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities. As I shared in an earlier post, I was one of about …
Where do museums fit in the new landscape of science engagement?

By Elizabeth Merritt

Early on in our acquaintance, founding CFM Council member Peter Linett detonated a “brain grenade” with a question he has also posed on his firm’s blog: why aren’t museums more often “heartfelt, honest, gripping, funny and…deeply moving”? …
You Go First

By Elizabeth Merritt

“We’re right on the edge but we need a little push Dancing on the tightrope wearing it thin Instead of closing our eyes and jumping in” –Jessica Andrews Sometime change is painful. Very painful. Giving up …
Museums & Wikipedia—a Two Year Update

By Elizabeth Merritt

I recently read a post on the New York Times blogs about a wiki edit-athon at Smithsonian American Art Museum here in D.C. That prompted me to ping Lori Byrd Phillips, digital marketing coordinator at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. …
Museums are the Future of Education

By Elizabeth Merritt

Earlier this year, I shared some thoughts regarding the future of education with face-to-face and on-line attendees at Museums Advocacy Day. My thesis, which I’ve advanced on this blog before, is that we are on the cusp of transformative …