Organization is at forefront in protecting college and university collections
May 24, 2010
EVANSTON, Ill. — The Association of College and University Museums and Galleries (ACUMG) has changed its name and strengthened its mission to better reflect its role as the leading educational and professional organization for museums and galleries affiliated with academic institutions.
ACUMG, to be now known as the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG), has been in the forefront of the movement to safeguard college and university collections, advocating against the sale of donated art works and the closure of art museums by institutions of higher education.
“Academic museums play central roles in the teaching, learning and scholarly enterprise of our nation’s colleges and universities,” said David Alan Robertson, AAMG president and the Ellen Philips Katz Director of Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art. “They are vital centers for interdisciplinary learning and also the training grounds for the country’s next generation of museum leaders.”
The formal name change, which more closely links the AAMG to its affiliate organization, the American Association of Museums (AAM), took place at AAMG’s annual business meeting in Los Angeles on May 24. At the same meeting AAMG revised its by-laws and invigorated its mission as a resource for college and university museums of all disciplines, including art, history, anthropology, natural history and science.
Organized in 1980, the association has a growing membership of more than 400 of the nation’s estimated 1,150 academic museums and galleries. AAMG addresses such issues as governance, ethics, collections management, educational outreach, exhibitions, strategic planning and financial management.
AAMG’s 16-member volunteer board is comprised of directors of museums and galleries of varying disciplines and sizes. The board compiles and shares a select bibliography of articles and books relevant to the profession and operations of academic museums. It also moderates AAMG_L, a listserv on Yahoo for discussion, resources and announcements with more than 2,500 individual subscribers.
The association sponsors national conferences at prominent academic museums in conjunction with annual AAM meetings. Its May 22, 2010 conference took place at the Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles.
News and other information about AAMG can be found at www.aamg-us.org.
See more at: http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/05/aamg.html#sthash.sA7MXBOd.dpuf
Categories: AAMG Press Release