Observations from the American Association of Museums annual meeting   As usual, the meetings were packed with excellent sessions, friendly and knowledgeable colleagues ready and willing to share, superb keynote speakers and visits to marvelous museums.  

THEMES   Three stood out, all connected with attracting the next generation of museum goers given the changing demographics of the United States.  
1. Technology—Use it or lose young audiences   Use technology to enhance exhibits, as an economic method of sharing museum treasures, to appeal to youth, to increase membership and inform people about museum offerings.  
A number of sessions focused on video and using social media including Facebook.  One museum found that their Facebook site not only provided a means of informing people about their exhibits and events, but also served as a means of obtaining feedback from visitors and a way for them to easily pass on information to their own Facebook friends.  It also provided a means of fast damage control for problematic rumors or press coverage.   
Warning: before you start make sure your goals are clear, you have staff with the appropriate technical expertise and time to monitor the site and respond to comments, have a clear policy regarding decision making on what can be said and who must approve postings. Otherwise you may find that you selected a technological savvy intern who inadvertently posts inaccurate or inappropriate information. 

 2. Diversity   The theme of the conference was the global community. Approximately 500 participants attended from outside the U.S. including China, the site of next fall’s General Conference of the International Council of Museums. A report from the Center for the Future of Museums, Demographic Transformation and the Future of Museums (available on the AAM web site) pointed out the disparity between current museum goers, older and white, and the future demographics of the U.S.  A number of sessions dealt with reaching out to new audiences including one on “Reaching Latino Audiences: Successful Marketing and Communications Strategies.”  
3. Community outreach   One way of reaching more diverse audiences is through community outreach.  Lessons?  Create partnerships with schools and other organizations.  People suggested using technology to substitute for field trips which are now often beyond the capacity of schools strapped for funds for busses.  The AAM Press has just published An Alliance of Spirit: Museum and School Partnerships by Kim Fortney and Beverly Sheppard.  It highlights the need to develop long-term relationships with mutual understanding of the needs of both the museum and school staffs and organizational responsibilities.  It provides instructive case studies on how museums and schools can better understand each other’s goals as they work together. Includes special “Putting It Into Practice” sections of practical advice for teachers and museum educators   “Every museum needs a community organizer.”  The Queens Museum of Art has developed a series of outreach programs.  In 2009 an exhibit Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center explored how society pays for housing, how the system has broken down and the arguments over fixing it.  The work included video conversations with mortgage investors and other key players in the housing industry.  A floor map of the area highlighting the foreclosure and red lined areas provided a startling view of the crisis. Partners included the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, housing and fair lending advocates, elected officials, neighborhood groups and service providers.  In another effort, the museum developed a cookbook with contributions from local restaurants, public officials and community leaders with distinct community photography and an oral history component and a neighborhood portrait.  Since local residents have high rates of heart disease and diabetes, the museum invited an Elmhurst Hospital nutritionist to suggest changes to the recipes to reduce fat and sugar content and provide information on proper portion size.  The book has put the area on the culinary map of New York, and is a cornerstone of a local heart health educate program. 
 The Chance to Visit L.A. Museums  
The Audry Museum of the American West hosted one of the best exhibits I have ever seen. The exhibit of baskets incorporated both excellent display principles and use of technology.  The highlight for me was seeing baskets by a particular artist while holding a personal audio visual guide with a video of the artist describing her work. Since many of the artists are elderly, this documentation will be valuable for future years.  (The museum used an opus click from acoustiguide.com)  The museum used 13 contemporary basket makers as consultants for the project.   The exhibit also contained an electronic display where visitors could glance at all the baskets, highlighting individual ones for further data, maps of the areas where different types of baskets had been produced, displays of materials used.  The written materials were excellent and large enough and placed well enough to enable visitors to read them without blocking views of the baskets.  Although some videos played on an ongoing basis, the volume level was low enough not to interfere with quiet contemplation of the baskets.  The overall experience created displayed quiet respect for the grasses and other materials and the landscapes where they grew, the slow passing on of ancient traditions and knowledge, and the variety of design and expression created both by different tribes and individual weavers.  My only caveat would be that there was no announcement at the front desk or on the materials indicating that the personal audio visual guide was available.  Many of the visitors that day only found out about it when my sister, a basket maker, told them.   Books and Exhibits As usual, the bookstore and exhibitors provided additional expertise.  For example, Hollister Creative, whose materials have just won honors from the national Association of Educational Publishers, displayed examples of their publications. On a personal note, I was pleased to discover that my AAM book, Partnerships for Prosperity: Museums and Economic Development is still selling.