Open Forum

I'm in search of information on how museums are adjusting their operations to cope with extreme heat.

This week many cities across the US, such as San Diego, Phoenix, Tuscon, Flagstaff, and Palm Springs, are facing unprecedented stretches of dangerously high temperatures. If your museum has changed your operating hours, altered staff schedules, or taken other steps to keep staff and visitors safe, or to protect living collections, I'd love to hear from you. 

By compiling and sharing these strategies I hope to assist the many museums located in areas that will experience extreme heat events in coming years. 

If you are willing to share information, reply in this thread or contact me directly at emerritt (at) aam-us.org.

Thank you for helping our field prepare for the future.

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Elizabeth Merritt
VP Strategic Foresight & Founding Director, CFM
American Alliance of Museums
Arlington VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 8/7/2025 9:16:00 AM
From: Elizabeth Merritt
Subject: How is your museum coping with extreme heat?

I'm in search of information on how museums are adjusting their operations to cope with extreme heat.

This week many cities across the US, such as San Diego, Phoenix, Tuscon, Flagstaff, and Palm Springs, are facing unprecedented stretches of dangerously high temperatures. If your museum has changed your operating hours, altered staff schedules, or taken other steps to keep staff and visitors safe, or to protect living collections, I'd love to hear from you. 

By compiling and sharing these strategies I hope to assist the many museums located in areas that will experience extreme heat events in coming years. 

If you are willing to share information, reply in this thread or contact me directly at emerritt (at) aam-us.org.

Thank you for helping our field prepare for the future.

------------------------------
Elizabeth Merritt
VP Strategic Foresight & Founding Director, CFM
American Alliance of Museums
Arlington VA
------------------------------

Ms. Merritt,

Our museum does a few things to address heat. The most basic is we advertise ourselves as a place where visitors can stop by to cool off. We also provide basic training to our staff and docents on how to spot signs of heat exhaustion and how to assist people suffering from it, and keep bottles of room temperature water and electrolyte packets on hand in case we have someone come in with heat exhaustion. We have also developed an emergency plan in collaboration with our partners at the Pima Air and Space Museum to ensure emergency services can easily access our museum (which is in the middle of the Pima Air and Space Museum's campus) in case someone is suffering from heatstroke and needs immediate medical attention.

We also shorten our hours during the summer months. For most of the year, we are open from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM. However, from June to September, we are only open from 10:00 AM to 2:30 PM. 

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Keith Cook
Associate Director of Collections and Archives
390th Memorial Museum Foundation
Tucson AZ
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-07-2025 09:15 AM
From: Elizabeth Merritt
Subject: How is your museum coping with extreme heat?

I'm in search of information on how museums are adjusting their operations to cope with extreme heat.

This week many cities across the US, such as San Diego, Phoenix, Tuscon, Flagstaff, and Palm Springs, are facing unprecedented stretches of dangerously high temperatures. If your museum has changed your operating hours, altered staff schedules, or taken other steps to keep staff and visitors safe, or to protect living collections, I'd love to hear from you. 

By compiling and sharing these strategies I hope to assist the many museums located in areas that will experience extreme heat events in coming years. 

If you are willing to share information, reply in this thread or contact me directly at emerritt (at) aam-us.org.

Thank you for helping our field prepare for the future.

------------------------------
Elizabeth Merritt
VP Strategic Foresight & Founding Director, CFM
American Alliance of Museums
Arlington VA
------------------------------