If you’re like many people who work in a history organization, you’re responsible for more than one task or discipline.
AASLH Online Courses can help you expand your set of skills so you can advance your career and your site. Topics include archives, collections, exhibitions, finances, leadership, museum education, and project management. Our courses are led by knowledgeable and experienced instructors who guide you through the course material.
AASLH is introducing two new courses and one expanded course, both of which are available in our Fall session.
Registration for Fall Online Courses is open through August 21. Don’t delay. Class sizes are limited and courses typically fill before the registration deadline. The Project Management course is already full. Members receive a discount on all Online Course registrations.
NEW: Best Practices for Inclusive Workspaces
This course takes a deep dive into the background and needs for inclusivity through diversity and equity efforts, a road map for business development, and implementation strategies. This course will also discuss the corporate benefits and advantages of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and initiate and assist with benchmark development for success metrics.
If you’d like to learn more about this topic, or would prefer to learn about it in a self-paced course, see our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for History Organizations Arcus course. Register Here.
NEW: Introduction to Museum Endowments
The establishment and management of endowment funds is a key source of institutional income and donor engagement for many museums. Many history and museum professionals and trustees are less than confident in their understanding of the components of endowment funds, and how best to effectively manage such funds for internal and external purposes. This course is designed to introduce you to the structure, benefits, and challenges of endowment fund management, from basic terms and definitions to topics such as impact investing and best practices.
The instructor is Rebekah Beaulieu, Ph.D., the Louise Taft Semple President & CEO of the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio. Becky is Treasurer of AASLH and chair of our Finance Committee. She is the author of two AASLH Book Series titles: Financial Fundamentals for Historic House Museums (2017) and Endowment Essentials for Museums (2022). Register Here.
EXPANDED: Collections Management
We’ve expanded our Collections Management course and divided it into two sections—Collections Management 100: Collection Development and Collections Management 200: Stewardship and Public Access.
Collections Management 100 is available during the Fall session. In this course, you will learn about the general principles underlying the idea of being a “collecting organization,” and how collections support the mission of a museum or history organization. You’ll explore the purpose of a Collection Management Policy and how it relates to other core museum documents, create a Foundational Statements and Collection Development section of a Collections Management Policy, and operationalize those components using example objects. Register Here.
