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Books & Chapters : Books and chapters by Adam Rozan on museum experiences, including his work on the International Audience Engagement guides and a chapter on empathy.
Contact : Connect with Adam Rozan on LinkedIn, or send a message using the contact form.
My Story : Adam Reed Rozan is a Washington, D.C. museum professional, educator and writer who builds audiences and civic connection at the Smithsonian.
News : Current updates and past features from Adam Rozan's museum and civic engagement work, including the Wish Wall Coach bot and a Texas keynote.
Organizations : The organizations Adam Rozan is involved in, including the International Audience Engagement Network, The Comuseum, The Museum Glossary and Made By Us.
Projects : Adam Rozan's projects include The Closed Museum Project, which tracks closed museums, and Don't Touch, a collection of museum signs from around the world.
Q&A Series : Since 2017 Adam Rozan has interviewed museum leaders and creatives worldwide. This is the directory of his Q&A series, sorted by year.
Talks & Keynotes : Keynotes and conference talks given by Adam Rozan in the United States and abroad, including MuseumNext and The CoMuseum in Athens.
Awards & Recognition : Adam Rozan has been named a Blooloop Museum Influencer and won the Smithsonian's Education Achievement Award for his Staff Learning Series work.
From Experiences to Transformations: A Conversation with Joe Pine : Adam Rozan interviews Joe Pine, author of The Experience Economy, on experiences, transformations, and what museums can learn from the experience economy.
From Museums to Memoir: A Q&A with Stephanie Weaver : Adam Rozan talks with Stephanie Weaver, author of Creating Great Visitor Experiences, about her memoir Bitter, Sweet and moving on from museums.
José Antonio Gordillo Martorell on Why Every Museum Should Be a Children's Museum : Cultural Inquiry founder José Antonio Gordillo Martorell tells Adam Rozan why every museum should work like a children's museum and include children.
Museum-Based Artwork & Projects : Adam Rozan's museum-based artworks and projects, including MEOW, Security and Nude Drawing in the Galleries, exploring participation and authority.
Noel Wiggins of Areaware on Areaware’s 22 Years and its Closing : Noel Wiggins looks back with Adam Rozan on Areaware's 22 years, its objects and artists, its place in museum stores, and the decision to close.
Now : Adam Rozan's now page covers his Smithsonian work, recent writing on museums and AI, his international roles, and life in Washington, D.C.
Print Maker Ana Inciardi and the Civic Season e-Prints : Adam Rozan talks with print maker Ana Inciardi about the e-prints she made for Civic Season 26 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Q&A with Author and Former Museum-er Nina Simon : Adam Rozan talks with author and former museum leader Nina Simon about her second novel, My Sister Is Going to Kill Me, and her move from museums to fiction.
Q&A with Cory Garfin: Making Sense of AI : Adam Rozan talks with Cory Garfin, an audience research expert now helping nonprofits make sense of AI: what it can do, what it can't, and where it helps.
Q&A with Michigan State University’s Broad Art Museum Director Philip Bahar : Adam Rozan talks with MSU Broad Art Museum director Philip Bahar about leading with an audience mindset, student curators, and museums built for community.
Q&A with Nick Gray: Personal Websites and Friends : Adam Rozan catches up with Nick Gray on PersonalWebsites.org and SlashFriends.org, why owning your identity online matters, and what a /friends page is.
Q&A with the New Bedford Whaling Museum and its One-Star Aquarium Rating : Annelise Conway on how a real one-star Google review became the New Bedford Whaling Museum's Worst Aquarium Ever merchandise line and a viral sensation.
Reflecting on the 6th Civic Season: Q&A with Made By Us director Caroline Klibanoff : Adam Rozan talks with Made By Us director Caroline Klibanoff about the sixth Civic Season, Wish Walls, and putting Gen Z at the center of civic life.
René de Guzman on museums, artists, and the importance of space : Adam Rozan talks with arts consultant René de Guzman, a former OMCA senior curator, about museum work, artists, and why space matters for museums.
What do a public library and a regional newspaper have in common? A Q&A with Eli Neiburger, Director of Ann Arbor District Library. : Adam Rozan asks Ann Arbor District Library Director Eli Neiburger how a public library could become the new home of a local newspaper.
What Does It Mean to Truly Experience an Art Museum? A Q&A with Johan Idema : Johan Idema joins Adam Rozan to discuss the updated edition of How to Visit an Art Museum and how the art museum has changed since 2014.
Why Museums Need to Stop Taking Themselves So Seriously: Q&A with Jeff Martin : Jeff Martin talks with Adam Rozan about 17 years at Philbrook Museum of Art, creative museum marketing, and his move to the Seattle Art Museum.

Best Posts

Start here to get to know Adam Rozan. These few pieces show his work in museum audience and civic engagement, the Closed Museum Project he founded, and how he connects museums to everyday life.

Playgrounds, Papers, and Missed Opportunities : Adam Rozan asks what playgrounds, from a children's space at Logan Airport to a New York Times story, can teach museums about creativity and public space.
School Groups, GDP, and Our Community Interdependence : Adam Rozan explores how school group visits and museum field trips tie museums to GDP, the economy and the wider community they serve.
Crowdsourcing a Database of Permanent Museum Closings : Adam Rozan invites the museum field to help build a crowdsourced database of permanent museum closings, a project he began in 2016.
Super Museums: Being mindful of every opportunity to delight audiences : Adam Rozan and colleagues Allison Agsten, Hanna Cho and Aimee Chang argue that super museums look for every chance to delight their audiences.

Writing about civic engagement, museums, and public life. I believe museums have a real role to play in how communities participate in democracy. "What's your wish for U.S.?" is about Civic Season, an annual ritual catalyzed by hundreds of museums nationwide that host events and share resources to help people learn and grow as citizens. That piece explores how history museums can become spaces for imagining the future.

What’s your wish for U.S.? turns history museums into future-imagining incubators : Adam Rozan describes the What's Your Wish For U.S. Wish Walls, where museum visitors imagine the nation's future as part of Civic Season 2025.
School Groups, GDP, and Our Community Interdependence : Adam Rozan explores how school group visits and museum field trips tie museums to GDP, the economy and the wider community they serve.
How Museums are Helping Communities Beat the Heat : Adam Rozan looks at how museums from New York City to Kentucky serve as cooling centers and offer water during extreme summer heat.
Six Ideas to Celebrate Civic Season from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History : Adam Rozan shares six ways the National Museum of American History celebrates Civic Season, from a staff lounge to a pizza party.
Father of 'Third Place,' Ray Oldenburg, Passed Away. : Adam Rozan remembers sociologist Ray Oldenburg, the father of the third place, and why the idea still matters for museums and communities.

General

Posts that span my different interests, from museum thinking to failure to the economics of public institutions. If it does not fit in another category, it lands here. "Success, the Museum of Failures, and Basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo" connects a post-game interview with the Museum of Failure to make a point about how progress is not linear. Sometimes the best lessons come from unexpected places.

John Martin: Visionary of the Everyday : Adam Rozan profiles Creative Growth artist John Martin, whose layered Oakland studio work turns everyday objects and people into symbols.

Museum Audiences

Writing about who visits museums, who does not, and what that tells us about how these institutions connect with the public. "Super Museums: Being mindful of every opportunity to delight audiences" was originally published on the Museum iD website. It is about paying attention to every touchpoint, not just the exhibitions.

Playgrounds, Papers, and Missed Opportunities : Adam Rozan asks what playgrounds, from a children's space at Logan Airport to a New York Times story, can teach museums about creativity and public space.
Super Museums: Being mindful of every opportunity to delight audiences : Adam Rozan and colleagues Allison Agsten, Hanna Cho and Aimee Chang argue that super museums look for every chance to delight their audiences.
On Jason Polan : Adam Rozan writes about artist Jason Polan, from a Levi's portrait stunt in San Francisco to his New York Times series Things I Saw.
The Mythological Museum Visitor – The Young Cosmopolitan : Adam Rozan revisits the Targeting Young Cosmopolitans in Museums study of 170 museums and the social, creative young adults they hope to reach.

Museum Closings

Why museums close and what we can learn from it. This is a topic most people in the museum world do not want to discuss, which is exactly why I write about it. "Top 5 Reasons Why Museums Close" is based on a conversation between Susana Bautista and me, originally published on the American Association for State and Local History website. We identified the patterns that keep repeating.

Top 5 Reasons Why Museums Close: Highlights from a conversation between Susana Bautista and Adam Rozan : Susana Bautista and Adam Rozan name five root causes of museum closures, drawing on her book How to Close a Museum and the Closed Museums tracker.
Crowdsourcing a Database of Permanent Museum Closings : Adam Rozan invites the museum field to help build a crowdsourced database of permanent museum closings, a project he began in 2016.

Museum Trends

Where museums are headed. AI, social media, technology, and the forces reshaping how these institutions operate and stay relevant. "Museum AI Pledge: Keeping Human Expertise at the Center" was co-written with Marion Carru00e9. We argued that as museums adopt AI, human knowledge and judgment need to stay at the core.

Museum AI Pledge: Keeping Human Expertise at the Center : Marion Carré and Adam Rozan make the case for a Museum AI Pledge that keeps human expertise at the center as museums bring AI into their work.
Success, the Museum of Failures, and Basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo : Adam Rozan uses a Giannis Antetokounmpo interview and the Museum of Failure to reflect on why progress is not linear and every step counts.
First, Last, or Most: Let’s Celebrate Being Last : Adam Rozan challenges museums to stop chasing being the first or the biggest and to find the meaning in being the last.
What Can Pokémon Go Mean for Museums : Adam Rozan considers what a Pokémon GO Fest crowd in Alexandria suggests for museums trying to reach new audiences as attendance declines.
Being Social: What Museums Need to Understand for the Future : Adam Rozan reshares his 2014 Museum-ID article on how museums can welcome young adults who want to gather, make things and be social.
Museums At 2040: Hello, and Welcome to The Future : Adam Rozan forecasts how museums may shift from iconic institutions to community hubs by 2040, in a piece for the AAM Trends Report.