Welcome to our fresh baked new column entitled Weekly Roundup: Museums in the News. Here we’ll pick 5 stories from the week that we found relevant, intriguing, fun or all of the above. 

1. We’ll start this week’s roundup with a shout out to zoos and aquariums for reminding us of the wonders, diversity and, well, cuteness of animal life with the #CuteAnimalTweetOff. This is the way to start the weekend!

http://mashable.com/2017/01/25/cute-animal-tweet-off/#xJJ4j.EuFmql

2. The Women’s March events from last weekend, with millions of participants worldwide, have become the largest protest in U.S. history. Museums quickly stepped up to the task of preserving history in the making by collecting signs and ephemera from the events.

http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/01/museums-across-the-world-are-collecting-womens-march-signs.html

3. Many museums are grappling with how to better diversify their audiences, collections, staff, and programs to reflect their communities.  The Crystal Bridges museum is widening the scope of its diversity and inclusion efforts through collection development, a bilingual exhibition, and the hiring of staff focused on diversity and inclusion. How is your museum addressing these issues?

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/jan/22/museum-ramps-up-diversity-inclusion-201/?f=news-arkansas

4. Here’s a fun story featuring our National Monuments in starring roles — including some AAM Accredited museums. While we heard about the 2017 Oscar nominations earlier this week, let’s take some time before the awards ceremony to celebrate our beautiful historic places!

https://savingplaces.org/stories/10-iconic-movie-sets-starring-antiquities-act#.WIn8u7YrLEY

5. Wrapping up this list on a more somber note, today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. How does one recognize Holocaust Remembrance Day?  In this story from lohud, Millie Jasper, executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center in White Plains, suggests we each “become an upstander, not a bystander.”

http://www.lohud.com/story/news/2017/01/26/holocaust-remembrance-day-remembering-6-million/97041508/

Do you have a great museum story to share? Let us know in the comments!

Have a great weekend.