Micromuseology in Practice: A Collective Assessment of Philadelphia's African American Museum

The purpose of this paper is to improve upon the methods of collective assessment of small museums. Currently, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and American Association of State and Local History (AASLH) approach the definition of small museums through primarily numerical criteria of staff size and annual budget. While these determinants are decisive in their ability to seperate what is and is not a small museum, numerical criteria cannot speak towards the experiential circumstances that characterize small museums beyond the matter of size. Further, in 2017 the Association of African American Museums (AAAM) assessed the operational parameters of African American Museums nation-wide (regardless of size) in order to develop long-term strategies to support the African American museum community. While the needs assessment by AAAM identifies standards which all museums should strive towards, the inclusion of micromuseum characteristics can further ground collective assessments in the shared experiences of their small museum communities. It is through the collective analysis of small museum's experiential circumstances that actions to support small museums can develop on a wider scale than one-on-one consultative approaches.;In order to demonstrate the characteristic patterns of micromuseums, and the usefulness of such categorization, the researcher developed a two-part qualitative study that consisted of online surveys and observational analyses. The first part of this study included a survey instrument that reflected the 2017 National Needs Assessment for the Association of African American Museums. The second part of this study leveraged the characteristics of micromuseums from the 2016 publication Micromuseology as an observational analysis. The researcher then compared the emergent themes of each assessment and acknowledged the implications of each method of study. The study of Micromuseology is a newly founded branch of knowledge dedicated to the distinct characteristics and practices of small museums. It is through the continuous assessment of micromuseums that this field of study can develop into a multi-faceted discipline through which small museums can be further cultivated and supported.