The future of museums with Elizabeth Merritt

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Apr 30, 2026

Elizabeth Merritt, VP for Strategic Foresight at the American Alliance of Museums and founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums, discusses how museums have changed since 2008. She explores foresight methods, leadership and philanthropy pressures, the importance of public trust, and why museums matter as community infrastructure.

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INSIGHT

Center Founded To Challenge Museum Assumptions

The Center for the Future of Museums was founded in 2008 to help museums question assumptions and experiment beyond traditional practices.
Elizabeth Merritt positions the center as an agent provocateur scanning signals like social media shifts and economic crises to map plausible futures.

ADVICE

Use Foresight And Preferred Futures Daily

Teach foresight: scan news for weak signals and map a cone of plausibility to prepare for multiple futures.
Use a preferred-future exercise to make daily resource choices that steer toward that future.

INSIGHT

Nothing Is Unimaginable Anymore

The past 17 years brought cascading disruptions: financial collapse, social media, COVID, political polarization and censorship pressures.
Elizabeth Merritt argues nothing is unimaginable now and museums must expect continual transformation.

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After five years and 166 episodes with listeners in 91 countries, this is the final episode of The Art Engager - for now, at least.

For this last conversation, I wanted a guest who felt right not just for the occasion, but for the moment the whole sector is living through. Someone who has spent nearly two decades asking the questions most of us might find too uncomfortable or too speculative to sit with: what does the future hold for museums, and what do we need to do now to be ready for it?

My guest is Elizabeth Merritt, Vice President for Strategic Foresight at the American Alliance of Museums and founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums.

In this conversation we look back at how the operating environment for museums has changed since the Center began in 2008. We explore the assumptions being tested right now around leadership, philanthropy, and the stability of the nonprofit sector. And we look ahead to what museums need to build - and why, ultimately, museums matter.

Listen to find out what's in store for the future of museums; why after five years this feels like the right time to pause; and a proper thank you to everyone who has made this podcast what it is.

The Art Engager is written and presented by Claire Bown. Editing is by Matt Jacobs and Claire Bown. Music by Richard Bown. Support on Patreon

Mentioned in this episode

Episode 158: The Art Engager x NEMO: Who Cares? Museums, Wellbeing and Resilience: https://podcast.artengager.com/episode/who-cares-museums-wellbeing-and-resilience/

Episode 143: Uncertainty: Finding wonder in not knowing with Maggie Jackson: https://podcast.artengager.com/episode/uncertainty-finding-wonder-in-not-knowing/

Designing and Facilitating Slow Looking - starts June 10 2026: https://thinkingmuseum.com/designing-and-facilitating-slow-looking/

Every Single Episode of The Art Engager podcast: https://thinkingmuseum.com/every-single-episode-of-the-art-engager-podcast/

Links for Elizabeth Merritt, CFM and AAM

CFM aam-us.org/topic/center-for-the-future-of-museums/

Back catalog of TrendsWatch reports aam-us.org/trendswatch

Dispatches from the Future of Museums (a weekly roundup of recent news stories illuminating trends and events shaping society, technology, economics, the environment, and policy) aam-us.org/dispatches

2026 AAM Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo. Philadelphia, PA May 20-23 https://annualmeeting.aam-us.org/

Show Links:

Pick up a copy of my book, The Art Engager, for step-by-step guidance on creating meaningful, interactive guided experiences https://www.theartengager.com/

Buy it here on Amazon.com: https://tinyurl.com/buytheartengager

Curated newsletter: https://thinkingmuseum.com/newsletter/

Adventures in (Slow) Looking on Substack: https://adventuresinslowlooking.substack.com/