Posts
Financial Sustainability
Explore dozens of articles, member resources, and On-Demand Programs on financial sustainability in museums.
At LACMA, new urgency to finish raising $650 million for the new museum building
U.S. tariffs on steel, other escalating building costs, general inflation, and a construction boom in Los Angeles all threaten to further inch up the cost of a major construction project at …
Can civic museums become catalysts for social change?
This article comments on the new report The Future of Civic Museums: A Think Piece, published by the English Civic Museums Network (ECMN), which calls on heritage organizations to support …
Grant Opportunity: Museums & Creative Aging
Aroha Philanthropies has just released a call for proposals to museums interested in participating in its new Seeding Vitality Arts in Museums initiative. The Alliance is collaborating with …
Is “Tax-exempt” Becoming a Dirty Word?
Slate magazine recently launched “Slate 90,” a critical look at tax-exempt organizations as represented by the 10 largest nonprofits in nine nonprofit sectors. Museums on Slate’s target …
Commerce vs. Curation: Lessons From Today’s Museums World
In this article, the author, Scott Reyburn examines the overlap between the financial operations of museums and their admissions alongside the role of curating permanent and special …
The mirage of riches in museums’ vaults
The article examines recent discussions about the financial implications of deaccessioning from collections. In particular, the author challenges the assumption that selling collection …
Sharing Outcomes from “Don’t Raid the Cookie Jar” – Opening remarks by Laura Lott
This post is adapted from opening remarks made by Alliance CEO Laura Lott at “Don’t Raid the Cookie Jar: Creating Early Interventions to Prevent Deaccessioning Crises,” a …
With Big Gift and Tighter Oversight, the Met Gains Solid Ground
This article shares an announcement of a recent $80 million dollar gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art from a Trustee of the museum which will be used to establish an unrestricted …
How I Rewrote the Future of the Anthropocene
The digital edition of Museum 2040 has been downloaded over 2000 times, and I’m tremendously encouraged by the feedback I’ve received from readers. As I’d hoped, museum people are using …
Building a National, Distributed Museum
It sometimes seems like every new museum with national ambitions wants to be located in DC. Near, if not on, the National Mall. This despite the difficulty of succeeding in the shadow of …
A Funder’s Take: How Museum Professionals and Citizen Artists Are Reinventing Our Cultural Institutions
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2017 issue of Museum magazine. As a funder, I know that cultural institutions are critical to the vitality of our communities. But …
Membership Isn’t the Top of the Mountain
Eric Bruce is the Head of Visitor Experience at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). This is the third article in a series we are presenting on how Mia has expanded its audience. In this …