The Museum Imprint Series reflects on some of the pivotal movements that shaped the US museum field over the past four decades, driving progress, inspiring promise, and nurturing aspirations. This series was filmed during the AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo in May 2024.

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What is included

When you purchase the Imprint Series you will get access to a video recording of influential leaders from the following movements engaged in spirited conversations with the next generation of museum leaders, exploring the implications of these movements for museum practice and the work that lies ahead as we collectively chart a vision for the future. You’ll also have access to the publications and discussion guides associated with these discussions.

Museums For a New Century: 1984, Today, and Tomorrow

In 1984, AAM published Museums for a New Century, which presented the recommendations of a high-level Commission charged with studying and clarifying “the role of museums in American society, their obligations to preserve and interpret our cultural and natural heritage, and their responsibilities to an ever-broadening audience.”  In this session, Marsha L. Semmel, Ellen Hirzy, Robert MacDonald, Melanie A. Adams engage in reflection and spirited conversation with Sam Moore. Learn about the report’s recommendations and how they imprinted museum trends, needs, and social responsibilities. How far have we come since 1984? Where have we stalled? What might a new ‘museums for the next century’ report envision to advance our progress and relevancy?  

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Excellence and Equity: The Public Dimension of Museums

Excellence and Equity (E&E), published in 1992, was a bold and profound manifesto, offering a concise roadmap for asserting the educational dimension of museums and a framework to help institutions evaluate their engagement with diverse audiences. Practitioners at different stages of their careers reflect on this initiative’s influence and impact including Marian Godfrey, Bonnie Pitman, Elaine Gurian, and Nico Okoro. As we confront continuing challenges and concerns, what underlying principles of E&E endure? Looking ahead, what must we do now to ensure a future for museums that continues to reflect the institutional aspirations and vision embodied in this initiative? 

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Museums and Community

In 2001, as a direct outgrowth of Excellence and Equity, AAM convened a series of civic dialogues about how museums could build social capital and community wellbeing more intentionally. Over 700 community stakeholders participated in six locations around the US. The 2002 report and toolkit Mastering Civic Engagement: A Challenge to Museums captured the field’s struggles to be more relevant and responsive to community needs and posed questions about the challenges museums needed to address to move forward. In this session, Marjorie Schwarzer, in conversation with Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Richard West, and Mariah Berlanga-Shevchuk reflect on the founding impulse for the initiative, its accomplishments, and aspirations for the future.

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The Social Work of Museums

The Social Work of Museums, written by Lois H. Silverman and published in 2010, examines museums through the lens of the social work profession and launched a worldwide movement that emphasizes an expanding role for museums as institutions of social service. In this dynamic conversation, Ben Garcia, Lois Silverman, Patrick Lloyd, and Lisa Harper Chang talk about what factors gave rise to this vision, how do museums today best engage human needs, strengthen relationships, empower people in diverse circumstances, and contribute to health and well-being, how do the legacies and realities of unjust and oppressive museum practices inform current approaches, and what can museums learn from innovative social work in libraries and other community settings? 

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Facing Change: Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion

In recent years, the US museum field has made progress in overcoming many diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) challenges. Yet, the field has much more work to do as we emerge from the shadows of our complicated shared past on issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, and abilities. In this session, Grace Stewart leads Cecile Shellman, Dr. Tonya Mattews, and Stephanie Johnson-Cunningham through a guided discussion about AAM’s DEAI strategy and how previous AAM initiatives laid the groundwork for this important work. How we can make significant strides in a new era of openness, inclusion, equity, and social justice?