About TAM

TAM MISSION STATEMENT

The Texas Association of Museums strengthens the Texas museum community through collaborations, connections, professional development, and advocacy.

TAM VISION STATEMENT

TAM serves our museum community by nurturing and training museum leaders, developing and celebrating the field, and voicing the public worth of museums.

TAM CORE VALUES

  • We educate our members as to best practices in the field.
  • We provide opportunities for our members to connect and learn from each other.
  • We empower our members to become leaders in the field.
  • We strengthen Texas Museums.
  • We recognize excellence.
  • We advocate for the important role of museums.
  • We stand in solidarity against racism, white supremacy, marginalization, and oppression against communities of color.

TEXAS MUSEUMS AGAINST RACISM

#TMAR #TexasMuseumsAgainstRacism

Texas Association of Museums (TAM), as a professional organization, stands in solidarity against systemic racism, white supremacy, marginalization and oppression against communities of color. Black Lives Matter. 

In recent weeks amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has witnessed pandemonium due to the violent murders of Black men and women at the hands of racists. Most notably and recently, the story of George Floyd: father, son, brother, friend, and human being, has created a sense of urgency in taking a stand and spreading a message of anti-racism. 

Racism is not a new issue but technology and social media has made this problem more visible. It is our duty and obligation to ensure that we as an organization create a clear plan of action to assist in efforts to eradicate racism and spread a message of anti-racism. 

TAM is fully committed to using our platform to ignite systemic and substantial change.

TAM is committed to: 

  1. Create programming that supports anti-racist efforts
  2. Invest in internal training of staff and leadership on racial equity, inclusivity and implicit bias
  3. Prioritize Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion in our strategic planning 
  4. Appoint Council Member to uphold and report on long-term equity and inclusivity integration
  5. Partner and collaborate with cultural organizations, associations, and government agencies to provide models and share resources
  6. Practice inclusion in council, staff, committees, board, affinity groups and membership

We look forward to prioritizing these issues with our community today and in the future. If you do not share this commitment at this time, please start with Talk About Race from The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture.

In late 2019, the ground-breaking study DEAI Practices in Museums was launched to better understand the current state of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) practices in the museum field in the United States. This is the first field-wide study focusing on DEAI approaches in museums of all disciplines. Conducted by the Garibay Group on behalf of CCLI (Cultural Competence Learning Institute), the study was designed to illustrate the current landscape of DEAI practices across the museum field and, in turn, establish a set of metrics that museums can use to measure the progress of their equity and inclusion work. Learn more about this study here.

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