The new edition of TrendsWatch mailed out earlier this month, as the Jan/Feb issue of Museum magazine. Members can also access the digital edition, which contains embedded links to news and research that informed the text. Nonmembers can preview the current report, read one free article, and download a free PDF when it is released later this spring. (Can’t wait? Becoming a member now will unlock the digital edition!)
For those of you who are new to AAM’s forecasting report: each edition of TrendsWatch examines a few important issues that are shaping the future of society, museums, and the communities they serve. Because our focus is on trends (forces of change that will play out for years) rather than fads (transient cultural blips) the articles in the report form part of longer arcs of conversations via blog posts, webinars, and sessions at the AAM Annual Meeting and the Future of Museums Summit. Sometimes the report sparks larger initiatives, convenings, and reports (for example, our deep dives into museums and the future of K-12 education, healthy aging, and most recently repatriation, restitution, and reparations).
Often TrendsWatch enriches AAM’s existing coverage of standards and best practices with a futures-oriented exploration of key issues. For example, AAM has rich resources on recruiting and managing volunteers, including blog posts, articles, and a best-selling toolkit. This year TrendsWatch explores how shifts in demographics, culture, and values around volunteerism may affect museums and museum practice in the coming decade.
Because the issues covered in TrendsWatch are of enduring importance, the TrendsWatch library is a valuable resource for museums and museum people. Each edition includes concise briefs on key issues, explores the implications for society and for museums, and suggests how museums might respond. (At the end of this post, I’ve included a recap of some issues of continued importance addressed in previous editions of the report.)
TrendsWatch 2025 Topics
Feature articles
The Next Era of Volunteerism: How can museums create equitable, accessible, and effective volunteer programs?
By giving their time, volunteers help knit together communities and plug the gaps in government and for-profit systems of support. This generosity benefits the giver as well: volunteering provides a meaningful source of social connection and contributes to health and wellbeing. But the who, how, and why of volunteerism is increasingly being questioned both by volunteers and the organizations to which they give their time. What is the best future we can envision for volunteering in our society and in museums? How can museums address issues of equity and accessibility while valuing the work of people who donate their time, and recruiting the volunteers they need to do their work?
Stop, Look, Think: How to manage digital vulnerabilities.
The world’s first web site was published on August 6, 1991, and by 2004, 88 percent of museums reported having a site. Social media began its explosive growth in the early 2000s—fast forward two decades, and one museum alone, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, has over 13.3 million followers on the major social platforms. Now it’s hard to imagine operating a cultural nonprofit, managing collections, or interfacing with the public without digital tools and platforms. Customer relationship management (CRM) software is integral to managing communications, membership, and donor relations. Museums use artificial intelligence for business analytics, for attendance projections, and to establish variable pricing for tickets. But along with power, scale, reach, and almost magical abilities, the digital era brings new challenges. What risks are posed by our current reliance on digital storage, platforms, and tools? How can museums recognize and mitigate these vulnerabilities?
Facing the DEI Backlash: How can museums serve their communities while avoiding culture war skirmishes?
Diversity, equity, and inclusion, aka “DEI,” is the latest battleground in the current round of culture wars. At the national level, that has led to historic court decisions curbing opportunities or funding that appear to favor (or exclude) any protected class. Publicly traded companies are backing off from DEI commitments and training. Colleges and universities are searching for ways to foster diverse student bodies without using race as an admissions criterion. Museums have been targeted by protests or lawsuits related to DEI initiatives ranging from admissions programs to internships. How can museums avoid, or respond to such attacks? What can organizations do, individually and collectively, to continue to serve their communities in ways they feel are just, equitable, and appropriate?
And more!
The Short Take essay, Pulled in All Directions, looks at the internal conflicts wracking museums as leaders struggle to navigate the often conflicting demands of staff, board, donors, and community members about how the museums should respond to a range of issues.
For Your Radar suggests two terms deserving of attention: targeted universalism as an approach to DEI that seeks to be effective while minimizing backlash, and managed retreat—the proactive relocation of people and infrastructure in the face of climate change—as an issue for large portions of the US in coming decades.
This year’s Trend Alert takes the form of an IRS 990 form from the year 2035, to explore how museum practice, and finances, may change in the next decade.
Finally, the issue takes the pulse of the post-pandemic world with a roundup of statistics on key indicators, including employment and museum attendance.
How to engage in the coming year
Join me at the AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo in Los Angeles this May, where I will give a session based on this year’s report, offering updates and some new provocations.
Watch the AAM events calendar for Future Chats related to this year’s themes. In these webinars, a guest helps me pick apart a recent signal of change (it might be a news story, a research report, even a photograph) and examine its implications for our lives and our work.
Use the Future of Museums community on Museum Junction to share your experiences with these trends and seek input from peers. I use the community as a place to connect with museums and museum people doing work on this year’s issues and emerging topics of concern.
I would love to help you explore these challenges through a talk or workshop at your museum or conference. Use the form on the Alliance’s Advisory Services and Speakers Bureau page to start a conversation about such opportunities.
Use the TrendsWatch Library to Inform Your Work
I encourage you to explore the extensive collection of resources available through CFM to enrich your planning. This includes past editions of TrendsWatch, blog posts, videos, and specialized reports. Here are a few examples of resources you might want to review in the face of current challenges. The text below includes direct links to articles, as well as links to the entire copy of the related TrendsWatch (TW) report.
- Recent climate-driven disasters, including the fires devastating Los Angeles, and the damage inflicted by Hurricane Helene, emphasize the need to pay attention to changing climate risk (TW 2023), rising sea levels in particular (TW 2015), and how museums can help with emergency response in the face of disasters (TW 2022).
- Many museums are experiencing an increase in the number of unhoused people camping in their neighborhoods or on their grounds. This TrendsWatch article from 2019 explores the “wicked problem” of housing insecurity, what it means for museums, and how some museums are responding to the needs and challenges posed by homelessness.
- Revisiting CFM’s 101 introduction to blockchain, and digital currencies (TW 2019) might help you understand and assess the incoming president’s proposal to establish a US bitcoin strategic reserve.
I look forward to exploring the TrendsWatch themes and emerging issues.
Warmest regards from the future,
Elizabeth Merritt
VP Strategic Foresight and Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums
American Alliance of Museums
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