Sometimes we go to AAM…
David, Ashley and Marcos at AAM Conference 2011
…and sometimes AAM comes to us…
Marcos, Ford, Ashley, and David at the Rubin Museum
Today we had the unique pleasure of hosting Ford Bell, President of the American Association of Museums for a talk about our role in advocacy for museums. I’ve been really inspired by an AAM Conference Session I attended a few weeks ago that has me really thinking about what it means to advocate for the role of museums in society. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have museums play a major role in my life: I’ve worked in museums for 16 + years, teach a class at Eugene Lang College about museums, and my dissertation research is focused on the role Art Museum Educators play in the larger picture of urban education and arts policy. The session I went to examined the role of advocacy for education within and outside of museums, and also promoted a terrific book, Speak Up for Museums: The AAM Guide to Advocacy by Gail Ravnitzky Silberglied. Dr. Bell mentioned that one of the major issues facing museums is the lack of recognition museums have with government agencies in the field of education. One startling statistics that he mentioned was that collaboratively, in the United States, museums spend close to $2 billion on education. That’s a major number that government agencies should be aware of. We do great work, and we need to do a better job of speaking up for ourselves!
To learn more about advocating for museums, AAM has created a page with helpful hints including links to previous Museum Advocacy Days in Washington D.C.