This article was published in Museum News July/August 2006.

To paraphrase the poet, no museum is an island. Partnerships can stretch limited funds, augment a mission, increase visibility, bring in a new audience, fill gaps in staff knowledge and develop community ties. But just as important, museums that make the leap in developing creative partnerships can learn new and valuable things about themselves, such as how they view the world and how the world views them.

The related articles are about different types of partnerships:

• the Field Museum works with local institutions for cultural exchanges
• the Nassau County Museum of Art tapped neighboring organizations to achieve accessibility and
• museums and libraries nationwide team up to bridge the gap between young and old

What these three cases have in common is that the institutions reached out to others in order to grow.