Open Forum

Dear Ellen

As an emerging museum professional I hope so. I don't want history or anything else to be sanitized or censored. 

Thanks,

Rachel 

Hi Ellen,

Thank you for raising this and your commitment to the field. I deeply share your concerns. Museums are built on scholarship, evidence, and public trust, and it's painful and disturbing to see those principles challenged.

It is also an issue bigger than the Smithsonian alone. While the Smithsonian is a national treasure with over 20 museums, there are more than 22,000 museums nationwide, and many are experiencing growing pressure around content, interpretation, and intellectual freedom. We need to stand up for the integrity of the entire field.

Earlier this year, AAM issued a statement on the growing threats of censorship against U.S. museums, affirming that museums' credibility depends on independent scholarship, research, and open inquiry, not dictated narratives. This will also be an ongoing focus at our Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo later this year, with multiple sessions addressing resistance, disinformation, and inclusive historical narratives.

We have also been taking action in multiple ways: engaging legislators on Capitol Hill, supporting amicus briefs in legal actions, establishing a Congressional Museum Caucus, and empowering museum professionals to advocate directly with the people in Washington who can meaningfully push back. Through these collective efforts, more than 90,000 letters have been sent to Congress and thousands of grants reinstated. We are also working closely with an ecosystem of partners, including AASLH, ACM, ASTC, and AAAM, each of whom brings essential leadership to this work. If there are examples of efforts others are leading that deserve more visibility, we welcome the opportunity to help elevate them.

Advocacy takes many forms and it takes all of us. I hope you might be able to join Museums Advocacy Day in February, where museum professionals and supporters from across the country come together to make key asks of legislators, including that museums must remain free to reflect their communities, uphold intellectual freedom, and carry out their missions with integrity.

In partnership,

Natanya

------------------------------
Natanya Khashan
AVP, Marketing & Digital Experience
American Alliance of Museums
Arlington VA
------------------------------