
American Alliance of Museums
70 FOLLOWERS
Museum magazine is our bi-monthly, award-winning magazine addressing the issues and challenges facing museums today. The American Alliance of Museums' mission is to champion museums and nurture excellence in partnership with our members and allies.
American Alliance of Museums
3w ago
“People always think that history proceeds in a straight line. It doesn’t. Social attitudes don’t change in a straight line. There’s always a backlash against progressive ideas.” –feminist author Erica Jong This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s January/February 2025 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. How can museums serve their communities while avoiding culture war skirmishes? Diversity, equity, and ..read more
American Alliance of Museums
3w ago
This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s January/February 2025 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. The COVID-19 pandemic was the defining global disruption of the 21st century to date. While the virus still poses a serious risk, especially to older adults and people with compromised immune systems, cases leading to hospitalization and death are orders of magnitude lower than ..read more
American Alliance of Museums
3w ago
Digital information is inherently far more ephemeral than paper. —Natalie Ceeny, CEO, National Archives (UK) This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s January/February 2025 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. The world’s first website was published on August 6, 1991, and by 2004, 88 percent of museums reported having a site. Social media began its explosive growth in the early ..read more
American Alliance of Museums
3w ago
This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s January/February 2025 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. Picture this: your museum is blessed with such high attendance that the line of people purchasing tickets snakes out the door and around the block. So you embark on an ambitious capital project to build a huge entry hall where they can queue behind ..read more
American Alliance of Museums
3w ago
A brief guide to terms that may be popping up in your newsfeeds. This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s January/February 2025 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. Managed retreat: the proactive relocation of people and infrastructure in the face of climate change. Between 1989 and 2019, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency funded managed retreat in over 1,100 counties ..read more
American Alliance of Museums
3w ago
Volunteering creates a national character in which the community and the nation take on a spirit of compassion, comradeship, and confidence. — Brian O’Connell, past President, Independent Sector This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s January/February 2025 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. How can museums create equitable, accessible, and effective volunteer programs? By giving their time, volunteers help ..read more
American Alliance of Museums
3w ago
This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s January/February 2025 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. Numbers can tell stories just as effectively as (and sometimes more honestly than) words. A museum’s mission statement articulates aspirations—its financial statement shows those priorities in action, or illuminates disconnects. The Internal Revenue Service serves as a de facto StoryCorp for these numerical narratives ..read more
American Alliance of Museums
3w ago
“Social media enables the viral spread of outrage, to the point where sentiment often outpaces an organization’s ability to respond in a thoughtful and measured way.” This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s January/February 2025 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. In the past few years, the US has been wracked by conflicts over myriad values, actions, and causes. Everybody ..read more
American Alliance of Museums
3M ago
This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s November/December 2024 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. If there’s one thing I believe, after my years of working in this field, it’s that there is a museum for everyone. Whether your interests lie in art, animals, automobiles, history, military, nature, science, or sports (to name only a few), there’s a museum ..read more
American Alliance of Museums
3M ago
Hawai’i’s Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design took a community-focused approach with its “8×8” exhibition. This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s November/December 2024 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. The Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design—a center of the Doris Duke Foundation in Honolulu, Hawai´i—is located within the ‘ili (subdivision) of Kapahulu in ..read more