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AAM announces release of TrendsWatch 2022

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The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) has announced the publication of the Center for the Future of Museums’ annual TrendsWatch forecasting report. This year’s report is entitled Trendswatch: Museums as Community Infrastructure and is available to download for free by clicking here.

During the pandemic, museums worked hard to support their communities through the crisis, even while their buildings were closed. As a result, there was a rising awareness amongst members of the public of the need to support these institutions, with more people seeing museums as an essential way of providing community support.

Five pillars of community strength and resilience

This year, the report argues that museums are vital public infrastructure, due to their contributions to five pillars of community strength and resilience. The report is intended to inspire, to help shape conversations within museums and with museum stakeholders, and to help the industry to look outward as the sector works to encourage more public support of museums.

The five pillars explored in this year’s report are:

  • Education for our children
  • Livable communities for our elders
  • Mental health
  • Emergency response in the face of disasters
  • A human-centred culture of sustainability

The report aims to be practical and actionable. For each of these pillars, it will introduce the issue, suggest critical questions, describe the challenge, summarise how society, and museums, are responding and present a framework for action. It also looks at examples of museums tackling these issues, as well as providing additional resources.

“My goal for this year’s report is to show how museums are big bundles of assets that make their communities better, stronger, and more resilient through how they choose to operate. Remember, you have the power to make the case for support commensurate with the good you do,” says Elizabeth Merritt, vice president of strategic foresight and founding director, Center for the Future of Museums.

AAM also recently announced speakers for its upcoming 2022 Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo in May. The Boston event will feature four keynote speakers with decades of experience in the museum and gallery sector, each focusing on a specific area of interest for museum owners, managers and operators.

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charlotte coates

Charlotte Coates

Charlotte Coates is blooloop's editor. She is from Brighton, UK and previously worked as a librarian. She has a strong interest in arts, culture and information and graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Literature. Charlotte can usually be found either with her head in a book or planning her next travel adventure.

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