Academic Museums in 2026: Notes From the AAMG Annual Conference
Earlier this month, Museum Exchange was proud to once again sponsor the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG) Annual Conference, the yearly convening of the foremost professional organization devoted to “a national effort to insure the best practices for academic museums, galleries and collections.”
The conference was hosted at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, home to the Stanley Museum of Art. I was fortunate to participate in several capacities: as sponsor, presenter, and attendee—a unique position that allowed me to hear from a wide range of perspectives about the issues most deeply affecting the academic museum field today.
A consistent thread across conversations was a desire to better define academic museum missions and create corresponding, sustainable steps to carry these missions into the future. This discussion, of course, was set against the uncertainties with which the museum field regularly wrestles, as many struggle to remain afloat, whether due to financial difficulties, diminishing community support, or other reasons. Colleagues shared new ways in which they were meeting these existential challenges, including cultivating a donor base that considers the lifetime costs of art stewardship and is willing to furnish endowments for the future study and care of donated artworks.
“Deaccession is Not a Dirty Word: Deaccessioning as Creative Collection Stewardship,” Association of Academic Museums and Galleries Annual Conference, Iowa City, IA, June 10, 2025. Panelists left to right: América Salomón, Associate Curator of Engagement, Museum Exchange; Dery Martínez Bonilla, Museum Registrar, Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Mary Hauser, Associate Director, Art Management, Gregg Museum of Art & Design at NC State; Alisa McCusker, Senior Curator | Curator of European and American Art, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah; Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College.
Finally, as a co-panelist in a session entitled “Deaccession is Not a Dirty Word: Deaccessioning as Creative Collection Stewardship,” I discussed the growing and necessary internal call for museums to deaccession works from their collections, joined by colleagues from the Gregg Museum of Art & Design at NC State, Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth University, Utah Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Utah, and Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
We explored what has been a controversial topic over the years, reframing the practice of collection refinement as an integral part of serving a museum’s mission. We stressed how this work can facilitate a shared goal across donors, artists, and museums alike: getting art out of storage and into new homes where it can be seen and appreciated by wider audiences. I shared how Museum Exchange is uniquely able to leverage its network of institutions to support museum-to-museum transfers, allowing museums to part with works while maintaining them in the public trust.
Installation view: Stanley Museum of Art, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.
Alongside these and other experiences at the conference, I had the opportunity to take in the vital work of the academic art museum in the example of the Stanley and to spend time with some of the amazing museum professionals who make up our community—and more, still, who might help us keep growing this community. We are always grateful to be included in events like this one, and can't wait to continue our conversations with academic museums in 2027!
