While new directors learn how to manage and lead museums as part of their professional training and career development, the skills and knowledge required to work with boards—which are instrumental to a museum director’s work—must somehow be acquired on the job as one’s career progresses. What Every Museum Director Should Know about Working with Boards is designed to empower new and aspiring museum directors by equipping them with the skills and knowledge to work with boards. What Every Museum Director Should Know about Working with Boards uses museum-based vignettes of all-too-true situations encountered by new museum directors to illustrate what museum directors need to understand about their work with museum boards, so that they have the skills and knowledge to identify, assess, and successfully navigate the common issues they will inevitably encounter as a director. Following the vignette, analysis of the situation and strategic guidance are offered. A new director’s understanding of how boards are structured and operate, how they will interact with the board, and what areas they will work on with the board are all critical to a new museum leader’s success. However, busy new directors often do not have time to access the many widely dispersed resources about working with boards or to ascertain what parts of board operations will most affect their daily work. Consequently, What Every Museum Director Should Know about Working with Boards outlines how boards are organized, discusses the common points of contact between the director and the museum’s board, and examines the kinds of challenges museum directors will likely encounter in working with their boards. Given the importance of museum boards to the success of museums and a director’s understanding of boards to their own career development, What Every Museum Director Should Know about Working with Boards is an essential resource for new and aspiring museum directors.

First published in 2013, this revision of Leadership Matters features nine new profiles and a new chapter of emerging museum leader voices, proving that leadership is as much about individuals as institutions. Using personal insights from the history museum field’s most engaging, innovative and entrepreneurial leaders, these profiles focus not only on museum directors and CEOs, but also on the “leaders within”—deputies, department heads and team leaders -- and those demanding change from the community. Baldwin and Ackerson weave together the voices of 21st-century museum leadership at its best, creating a resource for graduate students, mid-career professionals, institutions, and boards of trustees to move from the status quo to being agile and influential, fostering leadership that will make a difference. Too many museums and heritage organizations still consider leadership development a ‘nice-to-have’, but not a necessary component for a successful executive director or department head. The field struggles to address a new round of cultural warfare fueled by widespread societal division and the overwhelming lack of diversity and equity in museum leadership at all levels, including boards of trustees. Additionally, the field continues to ignore the gender pay gap despite a workforce hovering at 50-percent female and with the potential to grow significantly over the next decade. More than ever, successful museum leadership isn’t the result of longevity, scholarship or curatorial achievement. In fact, today’s successful museum leaders bring myriad skills to the table, creating a style that works both personally and professionally. This snapshot of museum leadership focuses on history and cultural heritage organizations to help readers understand the power of individual leadership and its relationship to organizational strength. This book features: • 36 interviews – nine of them brand new to this edition -- with leaders in the field from a range of positions and institutions • 10 myths of museum leadership and why they’re wrong • 10 simple truths of museum leadership • A leadership “agenda” with criteria and goals for individual and organizational development

Written by a museum professional and based on a course taught for many years, The Anatomy of a Museum is an engaging and accessible volume that provides a unique insider’s guide to what museums are and how they operate. An insider’s view of the rarefied world of the museum that provides a refreshing and unique account of the reality of the workings of museum life The material has been successfully tested in a course that the author has taught for 14 years Miller has extensive experience at all levels of museum work, from painting walls for exhibitions to museum directorship Clearly and engagingly written, the book covers all the component parts and various disciplines of museum operations, and opinions and perspectives are drawn from a deep knowledge of the field Includes useful pedagogical material, including questions, discussion topics, and a range of anecdotes

For the type of museums discussed in this paper, the nonprofit organization type, the board of directors is the governing body. The board approves the policies that guide the staff in administering the museum. The relationship between the board and the staff should be one of respect and cooperation; but often the relationship is fraught with controversy and antagonism. The purpose of this study is to examine the duties and the relationships between the staffs and the boards of small history museums in Oregon. A comparison will be made between the ideal duties and responsibilities of boards of directors of a museum as set forth in the professional literature and how those duties and responsibilities are perceived and performed in actual practice as revealed by information gathered from a questionnaire distributed to selected small history museums in Oregon with a staff of six or less. The hypothesis that the board of trustees is a deterrent to the smooth operation of a museum was not entirely borne out by the study. A more democratic view, as discovered in conducting the research for this study, is that boards and staff may be insufficiently trained to understand their respective roles in the organization. To that end, guidelines to sue in development of an orientation meeting and manual are included in Appendix B.

A leading activist museum director explains why museums are at the center of a political storm In an age of protest, cultural institutions have come under fire. Protestors have mobilized against sources of museum funding, as happened at the Metropolitan Museum, and against board appointments, forcing tear gas manufacturer Warren Kanders to resign at the Whitney. That is to say nothing of demonstrations against exhibitions and artworks. Protests have roiled institutions across the world, from the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim to the Akron Art Museum. A popular expectation has grown that galleries and museums should work for social change. As Director of the Queens Museum, Laura Raicovich helped turn that New York muni- cipal institution into a public commons for art and activism, organizing high-powered exhibitions that doubled as political protests. Then in January 2018, she resigned, after a dispute with the Queens Museum board and city officials. This public controversy followed the museum’s responses to Donald Trump’s election, including her objections to the Israeli government using the museum for an event featuring Vice President Mike Pence. In this lucid and accessible book, Raicovich examines some of the key museum flashpoints and provides historical context for the current controversies. She shows how art museums arose as colonial institutions bearing an ideology of neutrality that masks their role in upholding conservative, capitalist values. And she suggests ways museums can be reinvented to serve better, public ends.

"Women in the Museum explores the professional lives of the sector's female workforce."--Provided by publisher.

Museum Administration is the handbook for students, new professionals, and anyone who needs to know what goes into running a museum. The authors cover everything from basic organization to human resource management, with case studies and exercises to help reinforce the text. Includes an extensive bibliography and appendices. Visit our website for sample chapters!