Strengthening the Future of Museums: How NEMPN’s Mission Aligns with AAM’s Museum Summit

On October 15–16, 2025, the American Alliance of Museums will host The Museum Summit, a global virtual event exploring urgent questions surrounding this year’s themes—Mission, Values, and the Politics of Pressure and The Next Era of Volunteerism—speak directly to the challenges museums face in the current political climate. The virtual event brings together hundreds of museum professionals from across the field and around the world to address the challenges of staying relevant to diverse audiences, remaining resilient amid political and financial pressures, and becoming more deeply rooted in the communities they serve.

For the National Emerging Museum Professionals Network (NEMPN), the Museum Summit’s themes resonate deeply with our mission. Since 2015, NEMPN has built supportive communities of practice for emerging museum professionals and advocated for forward-thinking, ethical museum work at all levels. Over the past decade, NEMPN has engaged in initiatives such as working with museum associations to support the adoption of salary transparency policies on their job boards; compiling and vetting a comprehensive list of museum studies programs in the United States; actively participating in social media engagement; and surveying the EMP community to capture critical insights into who EMPs are and what barriers they face in entering the field.

AAM’s The Museum Summit will be held virtually on October 15-16, 2025.

Furthermore, NEMPN has created professional development programs offering everything from career skills workshops to networking opportunities throughout the museum field. NEMPN uniquely offers a safe space where museum workers can openly discuss the issues that matter most to them through a program called “Bubbles for Your Troubles” that allows EMPs to vent, seek advice, commiserate, discuss the struggle of work-life balance, and receive support from peers in a relaxed, judgment-free environment.

Most aligned with the Museum Summit’s mission is NEMPN’s annual Museum Workers Advocacy Day (MWAD). Through panels, workshops, and creative advocacy, the event empowers museum professionals at all stages of their careers to claim their space in shaping the future of the field. Held this past March, MWAD 2025 explored the theme “Claiming Your Space” and focused on breaking down systemic barriers while amplifying the voices of those too often marginalized in the museum field. Through sessions on LGBTQ+ inclusion, salary transparency, disability visibility, BIPOC community-building, and navigating online abuse, MWAD created a space where museum workers could come together, build community, and strategize for change.

The upcoming summit’s first theme asks: How can museums stay rooted in their mission when external pressures—from politics to funding—demand compromise? NEMPN’s work, as a whole, complements this conversation by shifting the lens inward, to the experiences of the workers who carry out that mission every day. The summit also considers the future of volunteerism in an era when fewer people can afford to give unpaid time. NEMPN echoes this concern, surfacing the inequities that shape access to opportunities in the field. By addressing systemic barriers—like the financial realities that limit who can volunteer, intern, or advance—NEMPN pushes museums to imagine more inclusive models of contribution. As mentioned, NEMPN was instrumental to many museums and similar cultural institutions now having to list their salaries on job postings.

I first became involved with NEMPN in 2021 as a member of the Advocacy Committee. In 2024, I stepped into the board role of Director of Advocacy and now serve as Vice President. My commitment to museum advocacy has been shaped by movements like Museums Are Not Neutral, launched in 2017 by La Tanya S. Autry and Mike Murawski. Their work reminds us that museums are never truly neutral; they actively shape culture, often in ways that reinforce colonialism and white supremacy. 

Personally, as an emerging professional, I have experienced the gap between museums’ stated commitments to inclusion and equity and the reality faced by many workers. For instance, many workers struggle with low wages—often below minimum wage—and receive little to no benefits, while senior staff earn significantly higher salaries. Many museum positions also require candidates to have completed numerous unpaid internships, earned advanced degrees, and sacrificed weekends, all for minimal compensation. How can a museum support a community when it is harming their own? Too often, it’s frontline staff and emerging professionals who build relationships with the public, yet their voices are missing when it comes to decisions that affect those communities.

So how could I be part of the solution? Joining NEMPN’s leadership has been my way of fighting for museum workers’ rights—advocating for a future where all museum professionals, regardless of their position, have a voice in shaping the field. This commitment to equity and empowerment is not mine alone but is woven into NEMPN’s core values of advocacy, empathy, inclusion, integrity, and transparency. These values also reflect the conversations at the heart of this year’s summit. Like AAM, NEMPN emphasizes that the longevity of museums depends not only on the strength of their mission but also on empowering the staff, volunteers, and leaders who bring that mission to life.

We encourage our members to attend the American Alliance of Museums’ The Museum Summit on October 15–16, 2025. For more information and registration, visit https://summit.aam-us.org/.