Political Trends – Page 3 – American Alliance of Museums

Scanning for Political Futures

By Elizabeth Merritt

Though I’ve worked in D.C. for over ten years, I know very little about politics. I’m a biologist by training. My colleague and partner-in-scanning, Phil Katz, is a historian. This inevitably shapes our reading, if only because we …
How Museums are Like Bellybuttons and What That Tells Us

By Elizabeth Merritt

I think it’s time to share my omphalic classification scheme for museums. I started using this metaphor while I was directing AAM’s excellence programs (MAP, Accreditation) to capture my observations about major differences about museums’ …
Advocacy Day 2027: museums fight to regain nonprofit status

By Elizabeth Merritt

I looked across the table at the poised young woman politely scanning the figures I had pulled up on the airscreen between us. “Ms. Guerrera,” I said, palms sweating, “as you can see, in the ten years since the Federal Government withdrew …
Where Might the Boston PILOT lead us?

By Elizabeth Merritt

When I leading forecasting exercises, helping people to question assumptions and imagine alternate futures, one scenario that participants repeatedly create is one in which museums no longer have nonprofit status. Why does it come up so …