AAM 2020

May 17-20 | San Francisco

The future is already here, it’s just unequally distributed–often it washes California’s shores before sweeping across the rest of America.

While some parts of the United States are struggling in the post-industrial economy, the San Francisco Bay Area has thrived, building new wealth on IT & software, social & digital media, life sciences & biotech, environmental & green technology, professional services, and international business. 

But this success comes with a cost, and the Bay Area is struggling with challenges facing many other cities: gentrification, affordable housing, adequate public transportation, and soaring wealth inequality. The government, private industry, and the nonprofit sector are working together to find ways to build a just, equitable and prosperous future for the whole community. What can San Francisco’s experiments teach us about how to create an economically strong, environmentally sustainable, socially inclusive community?

Join us in San Francisco to envision how the world will be better because of the work museums do in the coming decades. In this future, museums will ally with other sectors to address intractable social and economic problems–who will we work with, and how? The people who benefit from the work of museums will reflect the diversity of the communities museums serve. What will it take to make that aspiration come true? And on this journey through time, we will explore the challenges that will face museums along the way. Who will visit museums and what kind of experience will they expect? What financial models will museums use to sustain their work? How will philanthropy become more equitable and inclusive? 

Hindsight is 2020, so journey with us to the future to look back on the many paths museums will take to achieve success.