Guest Post – Page 2 – American Alliance of Museums

Coming Soon—the Smithsonian Learning Lab

By Elizabeth Merritt

Many museums are retooling their digital resources to create more meaningful experiences for visitors—both local as well as virtual. Earlier this year we highlighted one example—the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh’s Innovation Studio. …
A Modern, Morbid, Cabinet of Wonder

By Elizabeth Merritt

Post-2008, it is difficult to make the books balance for even the most well-established museum. Which makes me particularly interested in those hardy souls who brave the odds to start a new museum. What niches do these new museums fill? …
The Entrepreneurial Museum: Down on the Farm

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’m collecting examples of entrepreneurial museum projects—mission-related initiatives that contribute to the financial bottom line. Last month I profiled the Spark!Lab National Network, an initiative of the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center. …
Access: No Longer About Unlocking the Front Door

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’ve blogged about my brief experience with Google Glass at the Tech@LEAD conference. Turns out @nealstimler loaned that same pair of specs to Nik Honeysett, head of administration at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Today Nik shares his …
Choosing Roles: Can we advance action AND enhance experience?

By Elizabeth Merritt

In the course of my ongoing quest for stories of how museums make the world a better place, I met Douglas Meyer, a consultant who’s worked with a variety of nonprofits in the U.S. and internationally. For example, teaming with the firm of …
What Movie is your Museum?

By Elizabeth Merritt

Everyone wants to know the secret to running a successful museum. Anne Bergeron and Beth Tuttle tackled that question in a new book from the AAM Press Magnetic: The Art and Science of Engagement. Bergeron is associate director for external …
What if an Historic House was about Art, and Storytelling, and Change?

By Elizabeth Merritt

Many, many people are struggling with how to reinvent and reinvigorate the historic house. (Including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, whose “Re-imagining History House Museums” is one of the current projects in the …
Make Art, Meet Strangers

By Elizabeth Merritt

Here’s a story that demonstrates the power of social media to create community: I met Jeff Greenspan via Twitter after I retweeted Michelle DelCarlo (@popupmuseum) when she wrote “Creating communal rather than ‘in tandem’ …
2014 TrendsWatch Contenders

By Elizabeth Merritt

With TrendsWatch 2013 hot off the digital presses, Phil and I are already scanning for early signals of the trends we will feature next year. When it comes to scanning, more eyes = better results! We are fortunate to have a growing cadre …
Museo-Mindfulness

By Elizabeth Merritt

CFM’s newly released TrendsWatch 2013 highlights the growing desire of people to disconnect from our perpetual tether to technology in general and the Internet in particular. This led to a Twitter exchange with Andrea Michelbach, a Masters …