AAM Accreditation brings national recognition to a museum for its commitment to excellence, accountability, high professional standards, and continued institutional improvement. Developed and sustained by museum professionals for 35 years, AAM’s museum accreditation program is the field’s primary vehicle for quality assurance, self-regulation, and public accountability. It strengthens the museum profession by promoting practices that enable leaders to make informed decisions, allocate resources wisely, and remain financially and ethically accountable in order to provide the best possible service to the public.
Of the nation’s nearly 17,500 museums about 774 are currently accredited. The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History is one of only 10 museums accredited in New Mexico.
Accreditation is a very rigorous but highly rewarding process that examines all aspects of a museum’s operations. To earn accreditation a museum first must conduct a year of self-study, then undergo a site visit by a team of peer reviewers. AAM’s Accreditation Commission, an independent and autonomous body of museum professionals, consider the self-study and visiting committee report to determine whether a museum should receive accreditation. While the time to complete the process varies by museum, it generally takes as much as three years.
AAM accreditation is indicative of a museum’s commitment to excellence in all that it does, from exhibitions to public programs to governance and beyond,” said AAM president Ford W. Bell. “Simply put, the people of Albuquerque can be proud that their community boasts one of the premier museums in the country.”
The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History is a division of the Cultural Services Department of the City of Albuquerque, was established in 1967, and is located in historic Old Town Albuquerque. The museum has extensive regional collections of art and history. Two galleries feature permanent art and history collections of the museum, and other galleries are used for in-house, local, regional, national and international exhibitions. The museum was recently expanded and now has a grand hall and a temporary exhibition gallery of 8,000 square feet, as well as a large sculpture garden and amphitheater for music, theater and other programs. Phase 2 of the expansion in the near future will see the addition of educational and storage spaces and revitalization of the history exhibits. Other facilities of the museum include Casa San Ysidro, an historic house and Spanish Colonial collection, and the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum. The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History is a division of the Cultural Services Department of the City of Albuquerque. The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History first received AAM accreditation in 1984. The museum went through reaccreditation in 1996 and, again, this year.