The Alliance Announces Three Newly Accredited Museums and Ten Museums Re-Accredited

Posted on Mar 14, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 14, 2016

ARLINGTON, VA, March 14, 2016 – The American Alliance of Museums has announced that three museums were newly accredited and 10 museums earned re-accreditation at the February 8-9, 2016 meeting of the Accreditation Commission. These museums are among the first classes to have completed the new streamlined version of the accreditation process that was launched in 2014.

Through a rigorous process of self-assessment and review by their peers, these museums have demonstrated they meet National Standards and Best Practices and shown themselves to be core educational entities that are good stewards of the resources they hold in the public trust.

As the ultimate mark of distinction in the museum field, accreditation signifies excellence and credibility to the entire museum community, to governments and outside agencies and to the museum-going public. Developed and sustained by museum professionals for 45 years, the museum accreditation program is the field’s primary vehicle for quality assurance, self-regulation and public accountability. Accreditation helps to ensure the integrity and accessibility of museum collections, reinforce the education and public service roles of museums and promote good governance practices and ethical behavior.

“Accredited museums are a community of institutions that have chosen to hold themselves publicly accountable to excellence,” said Laura L. Lott, Alliance president and CEO. “Accreditation is clearly a significant achievement, of which both the institutions and the communities they serve can be extremely proud.”

This group of accredited museums is representative of the diversity of America’s museums, from small private non-profit regional art and science museums, to university-based natural history museums, to the sprawling California estate of William Randolph Hearst operated under a state park system.

The following museums were awarded accreditation. First-time awards are indicated with an asterisk:

MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX
Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, MS
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM
Herrett Center For Arts and Science and Faulkner Planetarium, Twin Falls, ID
James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Cambridge, MA
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument, San Simeon, CA
Gadsden Arts Center, Quincy, FL*
Museum of Natural & Cultural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR*
Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, MT*

Of the nation’s estimated 35,000 museums, 1,049 are currently accredited. To earn accreditation a museum first must conduct a self-study, and then undergo a site visit by a two-person team of peers. The Accreditation Commission then considers these results to determine whether a museum should receive accreditation.

For more information about the Alliance and the Accreditation Program, including statistics and a list of accredited museums, please visit www.aam-us.org.

About the American Alliance of Museums

The American Alliance of Museums has been bringing museums together since 1906, helping to develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and providing advocacy on issues of concern to the entire museum community. Representing more than 30,000 individual museum professionals and volunteers, institutions and corporate partners serving the museum field, the Alliance is the only organization representing the entire scope of the broad museum community. For more information, visit www.aam-us.org.

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