For Immediate Release

Arlington, VA – The American Alliance of Museums (AAM)—representing over 35,000 individual museum professionals and volunteers, and museums of all types and sizes across the country—is outraged by the U.S. House Republican leadership and appropriators singling out museums as ineligible for Community Project Funding (also known as earmarks) in recently released guidance. Singling out museums is not only damaging to the standing and reputation of museums across the nation, it is an affront to the 96 percent of Americans who are in favor of funding support for museums.

Museum earmarks are used to serve critical needs in communities across the country including supporting K-12 education, funding energy efficient buildings to support the conservation of cultural heritage,  and increasing tourism and economic development – projects that are vital to communities’ health and vitality as they continue to emerge from the impacts of the pandemic.

Museums are economic engines, pumping more than $50 billion into the U.S. economy annually pre-pandemic, supporting over 726,000 American jobs, generating $12 billion in tax revenue, and spurring tourism from around the world. Nationally, museums spend more than $2 billion yearly on education activities, and the typical museum devotes 75% of its education budget to K-12 students. They are essential community infrastructure that have the support of 96 percent of Americans who think positively of their elected officials who take legislative action in support of museums.

This decision is devastating to communities across the country—rural to urban—who rely on the essential services museums provide and the massive educational and economic impact museums have locally and nationally.

AAM stands for the broad scope of the museum community. Museums are a robust and diverse cultural and business sector, including African American museums, aquariums, arboreta, art museums, botanic gardens, children’s museums, culturally-specific museums, historic sites, historical societies, history museums, maritime museums, military museums, natural history museums, planetariums, presidential libraries, public gardens, railway museums, science and technology centers, tribal museums, and zoos.

 

About the American Alliance of Museums

The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) is the only organization representing the entire museum field, from art and history museums to science centers and zoos. Since 1906, we have been championing museums through advocacy and providing museum professionals with the resources, knowledge, inspiration, and connections they need to move the field forward.

 

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Press Contact:

Natanya Khashan

media@aam-us.org