February 28 and March 1 marked Museum Advocacy Day, an event organized by the American Association of Museums to give people the opportunity to show their support for community museums and push for their consideration in government. The #MuseumAdvocacy hashtag became a viral venue for museum memories, so we’ve collected the best tweets here.
Events during the day in Washington DC included working lunches with state representatives and breakfast with congress members and museum leaders. In the online component of the event, superstar museum advocate @MuseumNerd helped to reach out to institutions and museum-goers alike to share their thoughts on why museums are important, and share their own personal experiences.
Here are some of our favorite #MuseumAdvocacy tweets:
Museums are economic engines! For every $1 a gov’t appropriates, an average of $7 is returned in tax dollars! That’s #ROI! #MuseumsAdvocacy
— Museum Nerd / Museo Nerd (@museumnerd) March 1, 2011
#MuseumsAdvocacy Day isn’t just on twitter. 300 (!) museum advocates are on Capitol Hill today to lobby congress thanks to @AAMers!
— Museum Nerd / Museo Nerd (@museumnerd) March 1, 2011
Museums care for things that illustrate what it means to be human. Support @AAMers #MuseumsAdvocacy @museumnerd
— Emily Lytle-Painter (@MuseumofEmily) March 1, 2011
Museums help bridge communities. They promote understanding, cooperation, and exploration #museumadvocacy
— Melissa Mannon (@archivesinfo) March 1, 2011
I took a 3yo into a docent-only exhibit, then to see fossils. He asked if I could go around the entire museum with him. #MuseumAdvocacy
— ala (@ala_away) March 1, 2011
Did you know many museums provide free resources to school teachers and home school parents? Museums ARE Education. #museumadvocacy
— POPinDC (@POPinDC) February 28, 2011
Museums = mirrors, cultural heritage centers, curiosity cabinets, dialogues, design, histories, preservation. Indispensable! #museumadvocacy
— Adriene Katz (@appleandthebee) March 2, 2011
I would not be an artist today if not for my first trip to the High Museum in Atlanta #MuseumAdvocacy
— Jonathan Harwell-Dye (@jondyeart) March 2, 2011
@museumnerd #MuseumAdvocacy The Met, the Art Institute of Chicago & the New Pinokothek are three places where I feel safe and at peace
— Christine Friedman (@christineabf) March 2, 2011
#museumadvocacy happy memories of being 7 & losing myself in Escher’s work at Gemeente Museum in The Hague
— Natasha M (@nrem_nrem) March 2, 2011
Museums show us how to say what verbal language can not. #museumadvocacy
— Michael McKee (@moydanart) March 1, 2011
For my own piece of #MuseumAdvocacy, I wouldn’t be writing about art today if it weren’t for my experiences at the Aldrich Museum’s high school ArtLab program. My time there really taught me what a contemporary art museum could be and how an art museum could interact with and provide for its community and audience. Thanks guys!
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