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History of Art
October 17, 2023

In 2022, the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG), with Wilkening Consulting, conducted a comprehensive survey of academic museums and galleries in the United States. This is the first survey of its kind to specifically assess the academic museum sector. The report summarizing this data collection is now available online.

Academic Museums occupy a unique position, straddling both the academic and museum communities... To better understand the role of these museums in the communities they serve, we embarked on benchmark data collection, summarized in this report.
Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG)

The collected data represented in this new report is based on surveys submitted by 196 academic museums and galleries, and addresses topics including budget, governance, employment and staff, visitation, collections, DEIA, and more. The survey represents a range of types of museums, from art museums and natural history museums to arboretums and historic houses.

Data collection overview

In addition to quantifiable data, the report shares insights from individuals in the field, shedding light on both the unique and shared experiences of staff members working in academic museums and galleries.

Individual reflections on museum support of academic community and students

As a next step resulting from this data collection, AAMG encourages individual museums to seek out relevant Data Sheets (located at the end of the report) to find benchmark data on museums that are similar to theirs. The Data Sheets provide an overview on the data reported by institution category—such as art museums and galleries—including data snapshots pertaining to staffing, budget, visitation, student population, advancement support, and collection size.

Data Sheet for art museums and galleries

Read and download the full report from AAMG's webiste to learn more about academic museums and the communities they are apart of.

Support for AAMG's survey was provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.