emergency response – American Alliance of Museums

Introducing the 2022 Edition of TrendsWatch

By Elizabeth Merritt

As a child, I fell in love with museums for the good they did for me: providing a place of wonder, exploration, refuge, and, as I aged into teen-dom, an opportunity for meaningful work as a volunteer. As an adult, I fell in love with …
FIRE! Providing Comfort in a Moment of Crisis

By ZeeAnn Mason, Museum of the American Revolution

Museums make their communities better, stronger, and more resilient in myriad ways. Some of these are directly related to their missions: enriching local education, improving health and well-being via arts engagement, providing context …
Museum Staff as Disaster Service Workers

By Elizabeth Merritt

Last month I put out a call on Museum Junction for examples of museums helping their communities plan for and respond to disasters. Among the many exceptional stories submitted by respondents, one stood out by virtue of framing the issue …
Thinking about the Unthinkable: Disaster preparedness and emergency response plans for small museums

By Donald P. Zuris

Since 1981, the Museum Assessment Program (MAP) has been assisting small and mid-sized museums in their quest to achieve best practices and national standards. The process begins with an application to AAM for one of the assessments, …
Collaborating with Emergency Responders to Protect Cultural Heritage

By Donia Conn

Protecting cultural heritage collections is crucial to preserving our nation’s history, sustaining the economy, and fostering resilience so that communities can respond to and recover from disasters of all shapes and sizes. Most cultural …

Latest Stories from AAM

Demographics of US Museum-Goers: 2025 Update

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

September Monthly Advocacy Alert: Federal Funding, IMLS, and Advocacy Webinar

Advocacy Alert – September 12, 2025 In this Alliance Advocacy Alert: Updates and …

Ask the Expert: Collections Insurance

Join Cecelia Walls, Assistant Director, Learning Content & …

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.