Guest Post – Page 3 – American Alliance of Museums

KidShare: Collecting, Presenting, and Preserving Children’s Culture

By Elizabeth Merritt

The Madison Children’s Museum is one of three participants in the current round of Innovation Lab for Museums, funded by the MetLife Foundation and presented by EmcArts in partnership with the Alliance. In today’s post, Brenda Baker, MCM’s …
Opportunities and Challenges with Reproductions

By Elizabeth Merritt

As I travel the country talking to museumers, one of the most frequently asked questions is “in the future, will people still value ‘real’ things?” People wonder, naturally enough, whether constant exposure to virtual worlds, …
Forecasting Giving to Museums in 2012 Through the Giving USA Data

By Elizabeth Merritt

Museums watch current economic trends with a combination of fear and fascination. Every major source of museum income has been undermined in recent years, including private philanthropy (which accounted for a median of 36 percent of museum …
Shhhhhh… it’s a surpise!

By Elizabeth Merritt

The National Museum of American History has been exploring the American Experience through the study of American food and foodways for the past 15 years through its Food and Wine History project. A signature object in the museum’s …
The (Authentically Fictional) Future of Education

By Elizabeth Merritt

Today’s guest post is by Ken Eklund, Writerguy, freelance game and experience designer. Ken creates “what if?” games and experiments, usually for museums, public media, or foundations. He works in what he calls “authentic fiction.” Ken’s …
The Future of Ethics: Living Collections and the “Ambassadors for Their Species” Concept

By Elizabeth Merritt

Today’s guest post is by Colleen Dilenschneider, director of digital engagement at the predictive intelligence company, IMPACTS Research. I highly recommend Know Your Own Bone, where Colleen blogs about creative online engagement and new …
Glimpses of the Ethical Future

By Elizabeth Merritt

Today’s guest post is by Sally Yerkovich, director of the Institute of Museum Ethics at Seton Hall University and instigator of the Forecast on the Future of Museum Ethics. You can catch up on previous news from the forecast here. At the …
Natural History Museums as Superman’s Crystal Palace

By Elizabeth Merritt

Today, guest blogger Henry McGhie (seen below), Head of Collections and Curator of Zoology at the Manchester Museum, shares his thoughts on how museums can empower visitors to become superheroes, and describes the museum’s unorthodox …
Museum Volunteers are Awesome!

By Elizabeth Merritt

Erin Blasco does public programs and social media at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum. You can always say hi to her on Twitter at @erinblasco. Today she shares a new initiative they’ve begun to recognize their …
Great ideas…

By Elizabeth Merritt

I am encouraged to see that my recent post, “A Rising Tide: The Changing Landscape of Risk Assessment” has been widely read and circulated—I think it’s critical that museums factor environmental trends into their long-term planning. As we …