This week on the CFM blog, Elizabeth Merritt forecasts the future of AI by asking the question, “What’s the best that could happen?”

Is DEI Dead? Not According To New Catalyst Data On Workplace Inclusion
from Forbes, 6-16-26 [Trends]

Most employers have not succumbed to the Trump Administration’s pressure to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Despite the hostile political and regulatory climate, 80% of employees and business leaders still say their organizations remain committed to DEI and continue to support workplace inclusion efforts.

This finding was released in a May 2026 joint report by the global nonprofit Catalyst and the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law. In the past three years, more companies have expanded than have reduced their DEI efforts. Among companies that are not federal contractors, 52% have increased their inclusion practices, while only 20% have decreased their efforts on workplace inclusion. The survey found a growing disconnect between external messaging and internal practices on DEI. While external pressures have pushed 55% of all organizations to publicly signal a retreat from DEI, only 34% have actually decreased their inclusion efforts. DEI. Business leaders and employees continue to see positive organizational impacts from their inclusion efforts, including enhanced reputation, sales and talent recruiting.

Judge blocks Trump’s pause on her order to restore Black history content at parks
from AlterNet, 6-18-26 [Trends]

Last week, a federal judge ruled against President Donald Trump’s administration, which has tried to remove historic content featured at national parks. Trump’s administration then demanded that her order be stayed, but on Thursday that too was denied. She ordered the administration to restore all historic materials that were either altered or previously removed. Much of that included references to things like slavery, the Civil Rights movement and Black history as well as references to climate change impacts on the land. Judge Kelley referenced the pride of all Americans in celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. Historians have argued against sanitizing history, and instead embrace remembering where the country was, where the country is today and the work left to be done to create what the Founding Fathers called “a more perfect nation.” National parks preserve the “good, the bad, and the ugly” of American history, said Kelley in the decision last week.

New Law Would Give Artists Sweeping Protections Against AI Stealing Their Work
from Futurism, 6-21-26 [Tools for the Future]

Earlier this month, a group of bipartisan lawmakers in Congress introduced the CREATOR Act, which would give visual artists the legal power to crack down on AI being used to replicate their style. Under the CREATOR Act, artists could sue people who use AI to deliberately imitate their style and profit off it without permission. Going a step further, it would also allow artists to sue the AI platforms that allow this to happen. As encouraging as artists might find the legal framework to be, experts find it dangerously vague and say it’ll face significant challenges. “Style” is a somewhat nebulous concept, and how it would accommodate copyright law’s fair use exceptions is also unclear. It’s also worth noting that the bill is being supported by the multibillion dollar software giant Adobe, which has been extremely bullish on AI and whose reputation has soured among artists over the years as it’s ruthlessly monetized its products while sounding more and more out of touch with actual creators.

This week on the CFM blog, Elizabeth Merritt gives insight into what proposed government funding regulations could mean for museums.

Gen-Z Has Reached an AI Overuse Uh-Oh Moment. The Data Is a Warning Sign for Managers
from Inc., 6-9-26 [Research]

Half of the employees [surveyed for the “Pulse of Work 2026” report] said they feel like they rely too much on AI, and just under a third said they “feel they can’t function without it.” Worse still, at least from a psychology of work point of view, nearly two in five workers (39 percent) admit they think relying on AI is “making them less intelligent.” 62 percent of Gen-Z workers say they rely on AI too much and 40 percent feel they couldn’t survive at work without it. The new report highlights that relying on AI too much is actually harming their skills, which backs up some research that Microsoft carried out last year. Beyond mere skill erosion, which could impact a worker’s long-term plans, the problem is also “making them question their value at work,” [the] report notes. This kind of negative sentiment may actually harm teamwork that has nothing to do with AI use, as well as damage interpersonal relations among colleagues and between team members and their managers.

HARPP Releases Report on Trump Administration’s Campaign to Reshape American History
from Organization of American Historians, 6-11-26 [Trends]

The History, Archives, and Records Preservation Project (HARPP) has released “The Federal Assault on History: A Record of Executive Actions,” the first comprehensive report documenting and analyzing the Trump administration’s sweeping, coordinated effort since January 2025 to reshape how the American past is recorded, preserved, and shared with the public. Organized by federal agency and category of action, such as the censorship and erasure, attacks on public institutions, and the promotion of “patriotic” history, the 70-plus-page report functions as an accessible reference guide for journalists, policymakers, and the public seeking to track specific initiatives by the White House targeting evidence-based and accurate history. The report identifies three interlocking strategies originating at the highest levels of the executive branch: the censorship and erasure of histories disfavored by the Trump administration; the weakening of archives, museums, universities, and grant programs that sustain historical work; and the imposition of a state-directed “patriotic” narrative lacking professional historical standards.

Editor’s note: New rules proposed by the Office of Management and Budget and released after the HARPP report was compiled, would expand the power of the federal government to use grant funding as a mechanism to control historical content. Read about the regulations and their potential impact on museums on the CFM blog.

New analysis warns FEMA overhaul would make disaster aid harder to access, shifting costs to survivors
from CBS News, 6-9-26 [Projections]

A new analysis warns that a proposed overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency would limit access to federal disaster aid for survivors, shifting the burden to state and local governments amid hurricane season. The proposed overhaul, much of which requires congressional approval, came after President Trump suggested trying to “wean” states off of FEMA or eliminating the agency altogether. A report penned by Sabotaging Our Safety argues the FEMA Review Council’s plan would first make federal disaster aid harder to unlock, raising the threshold to declare a major natural disaster so high, it would have excluded nearly one-third of declarations spanning from 2012 to 2025. The group argues that FEMA’s rebrand would replace FEMA Public Assistance grants — which totaled approximately $180 billion over the past five years — with formula-based block grants that may not reflect the actual cost of rebuilding roads, schools, hospitals and other damaged infrastructure.

Museums might: Stress test their disaster recovery plans and reserve funds in case these overhauls are enacted.

This week on the CFM blog, Elizabeth Merritt gives a foresight take on proposed government funding regulations.

White House Seeks to Impose Political Test on Billions in Federal Grants
from The New York Times, 6-2-26 [Trends]

The White House is seeking to exert more control over billions of dollars in annual government grants, aiming to restrict a vast swath of funding — in health, housing, science and transportation — so that it primarily serves the purposes and organizations politically aligned with President Trump. A roughly 400-page blueprint that was released to little fanfare on [May 29] would [if finalized] require all federal grants to be approved by the president’s political appointees, who must ensure that the money would “demonstrably advance the president’s policy priorities.” The rules would further limit the ability of grant recipients to engage in some “issue advocacy.” Those that are funded would be scrutinized for their compliance with “religious liberty laws” and their “memberships and affiliations” with outside groups. And they could face the outright termination of their grants if the Trump administration someday determines that their actions are not in the “public interest.”

Take action: The latest AAM Advocacy Alert encourages museum people to submit comments on the proposed rule, and provides tips on making your input as effective as possible. 

Engaging with arts and culture can slow biological aging as much as exercise, study suggests
from CNN Health, 5-14-26 [Research]

When it comes to slowing down our biological aging, engaging with arts and culture is as beneficial as physical activity, a new study suggests. Researchers from University College London (UCL) analyzed data from seven different aging clocks — which measure the accumulation of different biomarkers to determine a person’s biological age — of more than 3,500 people from the United Kingdom, according to a study published in the journal Innovation in Ageing. The study found that both the frequency with which people engage with the arts, as well as the number of different ways in which they do so, can slow the aging process. The results didn’t come as a big surprise to the researchers, as previous studies have demonstrated links between cultural engagement and better health outcomes in areas such as cognition, depression and mortality, but this is the first one to examine biological aging.

Radical change can lead to a fairer and greener world, says new report
from Positive News, 6-4-26 [Projections]

For years, the climate debate has often been framed as a choice between two unappealing futures. Either the world carries on consuming and emitting until the planet becomes increasingly unstable, or it cuts back so sharply that ordinary people feel they are being asked to accept less. A major new report from the World Inequality Lab offers a very different possibility. It argues that humanity could raise living standards for the vast majority of people, reduce extreme inequality and still keep global heating below 2C by the end of the century. At its heart is the simple idea that people do not need endless material consumption to live well. Instead, the report argues for “sufficiency” – a shift towards shorter working hours, better health and education, cleaner energy, changed diets, reduced pressure on land and a much narrower gap between the very rich and everyone else.

Go deeper: Too much pessimism about the future, however well-grounded, can lead to apathy and paralysis. This post on the CFM blog about cultivating optimism shares three additional uplifting signals of hope.

This week on the CFM blog, Elizabeth Merritt gives insight into how to make sense of the news, including potential conversation starters to bring to your institution around Dispatches stories.

White House seeks federal spending data on dozens of nonprofit organizations
from Federal News Network, 5-22-26 [Trends]

The White House is seeking detailed spending information on federal dollars going toward dozens of nonprofit organizations, according to a memo obtained by Federal News Network. The memo, which the Office of Management and Budget circulated to executive branch agencies on May 13, calls on all federal departments and agencies to submit agency-level spending data related to a targeted list of 49 nonprofit organizations. The organizations named in the memo, reviewed by Federal News Network, do advocacy work supporting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); the LGBTQ+ community; immigrants and refugees; civil rights and legal aid; environmentalism; and international and humanitarian aid. The list contains nonprofit groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, National Urban League and U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. It is not clear what OMB will do with the spending information. But the memo said the budget reports “will be used to better understand the scope of funding to these organizations.”

Go deeper: This is the most recent administrative action attacking specific nonprofit entities. Revisit the CFM briefing that makes the case that these actions, cumulatively, may point to a broader threat to the nonprofit sector. 

Axios C-Suite: Everything converges in 2028
from Axios, 5-25-26 [Projections]

Several forces will converge by [2028] — toxic political fragmentation, superintelligent AI and a platform shift bigger than social media — hitting simultaneously, not sequentially. CEOs who aren’t stress-testing their strategy against this collision right now might get upended by it. [This projection includes] Politics: Two wide-open, bitterly contested presidential primaries are nearly certain as both parties reimagine their platforms in real time. Old issues (jobs, inflation, the economy) will fuse with new ones (AI, growing anti-Israeli sentiment, drones). AI: Almost every serious researcher assumes AI is exponentially more capable by 2028 and fully embedded in every job across every industry. Inequality surges: By 2028, the top 10% will likely drive more than half of all U.S. consumer spending. The rich will get dramatically richer off AI. Debt: Based on government projections, we’re staring at roughly $43 trillion in total gross national debt. Nearly 15% of all tax revenue will service debt.

Common Ground: Dark Tourism
from Attractions Management, 5-25-26 [Research]

Visits to dark heritage attractions are shaped less by exhibits, and more by interactions with other visitors, according to the research project Talking about prisons: making sense of difficult heritage at Peterhead Prison Museum, in Scotland, UK. The findings challenge the idea that some heritage sites are inherently darker than others, arguing that the perceived darkness of an attraction is constantly shifting according to the dynamics of a particular visit, who is experiencing it and their relationship to the other visitors, as well as their cultural understanding of the subject matter. One of the most surprising findings was how deeply social dark tourism is. We might assume that visitors process difficult heritage materials and artefacts individually, through personal reflection. Instead, people rely heavily on companions – and even strangers – to interpret what they’re seeing. Humour is often used by visitors, and while sometimes this did appear to dismiss the severity of an exhibit, on other occasions it instigated some deeply human moments, helping people to connect and negotiate difficult topics.

The Center for the Future of Museums Blog shares musings on the future of museums and society, where you’ll read posts authored by CFM director Elizabeth Merritt and guest author posts. If you have a story to share, email us at futureofmuseums [at] aam-us [dot] org.

Explore more resources from the Center for the Future of Museums in the AAM Resource Library.

The new annual TrendsWatch report has been released as the January/February 2026 issue of Museum magazine for AAM members and subscribers. Get a free preview here. It will be available as a free PDF report later this spring.

Dispatches shares summaries of recent news stories illuminating trends and events shaping society, technology, economics, the environment, and policy today. Fuel your museum’s strategic foresight by thinking about the implications of these “signals,” and the kinds of future they might create.

The most frequent categories that you’ll see articles filed under include: Tools for the Future, Museum Innovations, Projects, Trends, and Research.

The Dispatches roundup published as a webpage began in January 2026 and will contain the most recent 5 weeks of news roundups.

In February, we made available an archive of contents older than 5 weeks (from January 2026 onward).

From October 2009 through December 2025, Dispatches was sent as a weekly newsletter from our Center for the Future of Museums. In that time, it grew to be an invaluable resource for over 40,000 subscribers!

In recent years, AAM has also sent other in-depth weekly newsletters: Aviso with news and opportunities to AAM members, and Field Notes, a newsletter we began several years ago with stories and insights for museum people which was free to subscribe.

Readers told us they wanted to receive fewer weekly newsletters from AAM. By consolidating content and moving Dispatches stories to the web, we can ensure that just one weekly newsletter hits your inbox.

Join Museum Junction’s Center for the Future of Museums Community, where you can join in the conversation about Dispatches and other future of museums topics!

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