The Formula for Relevance
I love finding examples of museums that use their resources to boost the fortunes of makers, craftspeople and local businesses. The California Indian Museum and Cultural Center fostering Native-led food start-ups, the Empowerment Hub at …
Museum Ethics in a New Gilded Age
Readers of this blog may remember Erik Ledbetter, who served as the Director of International Programs and Ethics at AAM from 2003-2010. I am sorry to share the news that Erik passed away last week while on the job as assistant manager at …
EO Impact: Is There an Existential Threat to Nonprofit Status?
Charitable giving may fluctuate year to year, tourism ebbs and flows, your museum’s endowment will perform better some years than others. That’s normal and expected, and nonprofits have traditionally cobbled together a diverse set of …
EO Impacts and the Next Era of Museum Funding Part 3: Charitable Contributions and Investment Income
Welcome to part three of my exploration of the current and potential future impacts of presidential orders and actions on museums’ income streams and business models. If you’re joining midstream, you may want to pause and read the first …
What’s your wish for U.S.? turns history museums into future-imagining incubators
In 2021, history museums across the nation, working in collaboration with one another and with Gen Z-ers through Made By Us, generated an idea to link together Juneteenth and the Fourth of July in a new tradition – Civic Season. Civic …
EO Impacts and the Next Era of Museum Funding Part 2: Earned Income
This is the second installment in a series of essays exploring the impact of executive orders and actions on museum income streams. It summarizes what we know about the immediate, accumulating effect of these actions, as well as offering …
Staying True to Mission: Why JANM Spoke Out
As my colleagues and I catalogue the damage being done to our sector, we take heart from a small but growing cadre of museums taking principled positions in the face of attacks on their institutions and the communities they serve. In 2019, …
EO Impacts and the Next Era of Museum Funding: Part One
Earlier this month I gave a talk at the AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo on the impact presidential executive orders are having on our sector, and the implications for museum business models. Short version: not pretty, some bright …
Sharing Snippets from AAM 2025
It was lovely to see over 4,000 of you in Los Angeles last week! I hope those of you who did attend share what you learned through conversation, social media, blog posts, presentations to colleagues, etc. etc. You can search #AAM2025 on …
Join Us, LIVE FROM LA!
The recent wave of grant cancellations and other funding disruptions mean that some museum people have had to cancel their plans to attend the AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo this week. And I know that, even in the best in the best of …
