Elevate Your Team: Professional Development for Museums

Traditional approaches to museum professional development follow a typical pattern:

  1. Staff attend occasional conferences or workshops

  2. They absorb information out of context from their daily work

  3. They return inspired but struggle to implement new ideas

  4. The cycle repeats, with minimal lasting impact

This model, born out of 20th-century constraints, prioritizes novelty over sustained growth and lacks a coherent point of view on crucial aspects of museum practice. While it can provide valuable insights, it rarely results in lasting change.

At Museums as Progress, we’re developing an alternative designed for continuous learning and meaningful progress.

MaP Academy: Principles and Approach

Our approach isn’t about isolated learning events — it’s about fostering a culture of continuous learning and practical application.

Here’s how we’re different:

  1. Continuous Engagement: Instead of isolated events, we offer ongoing learning opportunities that integrate with your daily work.

  2. Context-Driven Learning: We encourage participants to test what they are learning in their workplace, then bring resulting challenges back to the community so we can help address barriers to application and implementation.

  3. Collaborative Community: Learn alongside peers from other institutions, sharing insights and solutions in a supportive environment.

  4. Progress-Focused Methodology: We teach skills that help you understand and support your community’s goals, not just your institution’s outputs.

Traditional PDMaP Academy
Learning FormatPrimarily conferences and workshopsBlend of courses, workshops, and ongoing community engagement
FrequencyOccasional (often annual or semi-annual)Continuous, with regular touchpoints
ContextRemoved from participants’ workplacePersistent, virtual connection
ApplicationLeft to individual after eventGuided application through projects, events, and discussion
SupportLimited post-event support (if any)Ongoing community and expert guidance
FocusBroad industry trendsTailored, progress-focused skill development
CollaborationLimited to event durationOngoing peer learning and problem-solving
Outcome MeasurementOften based on attendance or satisfaction surveysFocused on practical application and institutional impact

Increase audience engagement by prioritizing community progress.

Speaking Engagements

Challenge conventional museum practices with MaP’s thought-provoking presentations on progress-focused methodologies, community engagement, and innovative approaches to cultural sector challenges.

The Integration Lab

Participate in sector-wide research initiatives to identify how museums can better support their staff and ensure a healthy future for cultural institutions everywhere.

Courses, Workshops, and Live Practice

Develop new skills to go beyond optimizing existing offerings at your museum and drive innovation grounded in the goals of the people your institution supports.

The Integration Lab

The Integration Lab

Supporting Future Leaders

The Future Leaders study was inspired by the book Time to Listen and focused on how museum leaders support future leaders. Nine leaders participated in listening sessions, with community members summarizing their thoughts and guiding principles. The research aims to offer valuable insights into cultivating future museum leaders and includes a mental model diagram developed by participants.

Status: Complete

The Value Realization Collaborative

This year-long program combines MaP's Progress-Space Research methodology with Dr. Falk's Value Realization Process to help museums develop goal-oriented strategies for community understanding and engagement.

To follow project insights from The Integration Lab, register your museum.

Indi Young

Courses & Workshops

Courses & Workshops

Listening Deeply in Museums

Gain a deeper understanding of the goals of the people your museum supports using Indi Young’s method. Access 11 hours of video lessons and materials and attend live practice sessions with other museum professionals.

Indi Young

Data Synthesis Part 1: Concepts & Summaries

Indi Young shows you how to identify the most valuable elements from listening sessions so that you can cultivate cognitive empathy with the people your museum wishes to support.

Indi Young

Data Synthesis Part 2: Cultivating Patterns

Learn how to use the data from listening sessions to identify gaps in support for your museum’s visitors and members. Following Indi Young’s method helps make more inclusive and intentional decisions.

Visitor Heatmapping

Erin Milbeck Wilcox helps you begin building a body of knowledge about key spaces in your museum, which will allow you to measure the impact of your decisions on visitor behavior.

Wardley Mapping in Museums

Instructor Ben Mosior teaches how to create and use Wardley Maps as a strategic planning framework that helps museums understand their environment, make better decisions, and uncover opportunities.

Live Practice

Course participants are invited to participate in live practice sessions in the MaP Community. Ask questions and practice what you’re learning with our instructors and certified members.

Speaking Engagements

Speaking Engagements

The Road to Relevance Is Paved With Goals: How Museums Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Progress Space

A clear-eyed examination of why museums fail when they prioritize engagement over progress. We'll explore the three types of goals people actually pursue and how museums can focus their resources on supporting genuine community progress rather than chasing abstract relevance.

Visitor Typologies and the Damage Done

This session examines how visitor typologies can undermine museums’ efforts to support communities, reinforce stereotypes, and extinguish curiosity. We explore an alternative that centers people’s goals and fuels creative talent within museums.

Progress Over Programs

What if your next exhibition or program wasn't the answer? We'll explore how leading museums are shifting from asking "What should we offer?" to "What progress can we support?" — and why this change transforms their community impact.

Fees for in-person engagements start at $3,000 and include travel and accommodations. Pricing depends on factors such as your organization’s budget, event type, and location.

Have a question about bringing MaP’s professional development to your museum?