Museum Visions: A Blog Space

Sometimes I wish I were a fantastic note taker. To my regret, my notes are scrappy from the Association of Art Museum Interpretation (AAMI) convening on June 6 and 7 in Chicago. My notes neither describe the exact words said, nor make clear attributions of who said what. But the spirit of the ideas from the last panel of the … Read More

How often do you think a Supreme Court Justice volunteers to participate in a museum program? Probably not very often. But when a museum offers an important program for an important constituency that is under threat, a justice might just take notice. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg saw an article in the New York Times about the New-York Historical … Read More

With members spread across the country (the globe, actually!), the Museum Education Roundtable (MER) board conducts most of its work via email and monthly conference calls. It’s an efficient way to do things, but we all look forward to the few times each year when we get together for face-to-face meetings and a little fun too. We gather each August … Read More

This year marks a first for the Museum Education Roundtable, as we kick off the inaugural edition of our new annual Awards for Writing Excellence for the Journal of Museum Education. Funded cooperatively between MER and our publishers, Taylor & Francis, these prizes will be awarded each year to one or more authors and editors in recognition of the high … Read More

As a middle management museum educator, I had no clue what it took to serve on a board, let alone what a board actually did. My experience with boards at that point in my life was entirely on the periphery. To be on a Board of Directors seemed like an elite club to be mysteriously invited into. What I did … Read More

I titled my introduction to the December 2017 issue of the Journal of Museum Education (JME) “An Invitation to Write.” The piece shares the process and outcomes of the JME’s spring 2017 open call for articles, our invitation to practitioners to formally share their work in the pages of the journal. The 2017 call resulted in an overwhelming 48 article … Read More

The topic of the current and future status of museum docent and guide programs (volunteer and paid) is a frequent conversation among colleagues in U. S. museums. How can we have a corps of educators that are representative of our country’s demographics with our current volunteer-based models? How are we ensuring learner-centered teaching and dialogue in museum tours? How can … Read More

As everyone begins to put their final touches on their holiday wish lists, consider adding some books that will help inspire, recharge, and re-imagine your museum work in the new year. The Museum Education Roundtable Board of Directors have shared some of the books that they have found valuable and wish list worthy, including: Bone Rooms: from Scientific Racism to … Read More