From the Field

Museums and Communities News is our roundup of stories demonstrating the many ways AAMD member museums serve their communities. Click here to subscribe to receive this newsletter in your inbox once a month!

Photo of the month (above):  In 2019, the Missoula Art Museum piloted a free distance-learning platform called “Museum as Megaphone,” with the goal of reaching rural and Tribal populations across Montana. The onset of the pandemic in early 2020 accelerated the growth of this nascent platform helps ensure Montana youth are exposed to contemporary art, all for free! Learn more in the February 2022 edition of Museums and Communities News. (Image of the exterior of Missoula Art Museum, courtesy of the museum)

2022

Click here to read Museums and Communities News - February 2022

• Rural Montana Museum Expands Free Educational Programs
• New Orleans Museum of Art Announces Inaugural Creative Assembly Cohort (pictured above - photo courtesy of NOMA)
• Puerto Rico Museums Launch Historic Collaboration

2021

Click here to read Museums and Communities News - December 2021

• Telfair Museums offer art program at Chatham County Jail; features inmates’ art in exhibition
• Mississippi Museum of Art's CAPE Toolkit shares equity lessons learned with art museum field
• Portland Museum of Art’s Tidal Shift will award young artists from New England addressing climate change (pictured)

Click here to read Museums and Communities News - October 2021

• High School Portfolio Day at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (video above)
• Hammer Museum’s Hammer Channel provides broad access to public programs through streaming
• Treaty One Nation and Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq Sign Memorandum of Understanding

Vermont's Shelburne Museum will be fully powered by renewable energy by the end of 2021 due to two solar arrays on museum property. Image courtesy of Shelburne Museum

Click here to read Museums and Communities News - Summer 2021

• The Morgan Book Project connects NYC students with medieval manuscripts
• Shelburne Museum goes solar, welcomes pollinators
• The Wexner's WorldView connects students to artists and each other

Nic Nicosia’s "bighands" created opportunities for kinetic learning and a discussion of how hands can be a means to experience the world for those without sight. Image courtesy Nasher Sculpture Center

Click here to read Museums and Communities News - June 2021

• Museo de Arte de Ponce awarded IMLS medal
• Nasher Sculpture Center connects virtually with vision-impaired learners
• Nevada Museum of Art offers free memberships to K-12 educators

Cincinnati Art Museum patrons view Deborah Butterfield’s sculpture "Horse No. 1," August 2020. Photograph by Erin Geideman

Click here to read Museums and Communities News - May 2021

• Walker Art Center convenes Peer Learning Community on Teen Art Councils
• IMLS Medals Nominee Spotlight: Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH (above)
• Dallas Museum of Art, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille offer museum resources for neurodiverse audiences

The Birmingham Museum of Art, image courtesy of the museum

Click here to read Museums and Communities News - April 2021

• Alabama's Birmingham Museum of Art is now a certified sensory inclusive venue (above)
• IMLS Medals Nominee Spotlight: Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Offers Free Virtual Field Trips (Bentonville, AR)

A grocery distribution at the Museum of Latin American Art, image courtesy of the museum

Museums and Communities News - March 2021

• Museum of Latin American Art hosts twice-montly food drives for community (Long Beach, CA)
• Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College partners to provide art access for K-6 students on and offline (Winter Park, FL)
• Free summer lunches for kids in Utica, NY, thanks to partnership with Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute

From the Henry Art Gallery's Set in Motion exhibition: Genevieve Gaignard, "Frontline (Nothing to Hide)," 2017. Image courtesy of the artist/Sound Transit.

Museums and Communities News - February 2021

• Henry Art Gallery's Set in Motion brings art to public buses in Seattle
• Toledo Museum of Art  partners with Ability Center to improve museum accessibility at all levels
• The Block Museum at Northwestern University announces student docent cohort for 2020-21

Photo: The Perception, https://theperception.com/

Museums and Communities News - January 2021

• The Newark Museum of Art distributes free masks to city residents
• Lowe Art Museum’s new digital platform invites audience response and engagement
• Public Art for Public Health with Carrie Mae Weems and Portland Art Museum

2020

One of the Currier Museum of Art's art therapy programs for veterans, active duty service members, and their families; image courtesy of the museum

Museums and Communities News - December 2020

• Currier Museum expands veteran art therapy programs with help from CARES Act grant
• AGO Virtual School Programs reach thousands of students in Canada and beyond
• Exhibition commemorates ten years of Frye programs for people with dementia

At the start of the pandemic, Corning Museum of Glass staff  found many ways to help their communities, including using 3D printers to create face shields and other PPE. Here, John van Otterloo of the Chemung County Library Distric and Ryan Langile, Corning Museum of Glass, pose with some of these 3D printed face shields. Photo by Sarah Langille, courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass.

Museums and Communities News - COVID relief edition (April 2020)

• Art museums are making masks and face shields
• Art museums are feeding their communities
• Museums donate PPE to hospitals and healthcare workers (revised list from March 2020)
• Art museums are supporting healthcare workers and COVID relief efforts
• Art museums are bridging the digital divide
• Art museums supporting artists

The Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY was one of dozens to donate gloves and masks to local medical facilities at the start of the COVID pandemic.

Museums and Communities News - March 2020

• Museums donate PPE to hospitals and healthcare workers
• Virtual Museum Education Resources from AAMD museums

Jenny Bevill, Missoula Art Museum educator and outreach specialist, conducting a Museum as Megaphone pilot session.  Photo courtesy of Missoula Art Museum

Museums and Communities News - February 2020

• Missoula Art Museum launches remote access platform to reach more Montana students
• Just Us at the National Gallery of Art provides respite for memory loss patients and caregivers
• Through technology, students around the world learn from Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collections

The Dali Museum’s Innovation Lab uses the strategies of visual innovation to generate resilience and empower individuals to reimagine their lives and then to step into that new world. The Dali uses this museum-based model of creative problem solving to help women living with domestic violence, or recovering from substance abuse or confinement, to reenter the work force. Photo courtesy of the Dali Museum

Museums and Communities News - January 2020

• Women's Empowerment Project at the Dali Museum
• The Columbus Museum expands programs for art, outreach in local housing communities
• The Anchorage Museum’s creative and critical response to climate change