From Keepers to Catalysts: Museums as Engines of Equitable Tourism

From Venice to New Orleans, museums sit at the center of heritage tourism economies where stark racial income disparities and chronic underinvestment in cultural infrastructure persist. Today, museums are leveraging their authority to actively re-engineer tourism as an equitable, local community benefiting force.

Join us during AAM 2026 in Philadelphia, for a conversation with international museum leaders and cultural visionaries, including confirmed speakers:

• Joy Bailey-Bryant — President & Managing Partner, Lord Cultural Resources
• Daniel Hammer — ICOM Board member, President & CEO, The Historic New Orleans Collection
• Arthur Affleck — Co-Chair, ICOM-US; President & CEO, Association of Children’s Museums
• Kate Quinn — Co-Chair, ICOM-US
• Valerie Gay — Chief Cultural Officer, City of Philadelphia
• Lauren Swartz — President & CEO World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
• Angela Val — President & CEO of Visit Philadelphia

Attendees will explore how museums can expand public value and act as engines of equitable heritage tourism, particularly at the neighborhood and city scale.

Attendees will leave with strategies to:

• Advance equitable, sustainable models of heritage tourism
• Incentivize public and private investment in museums as social infrastructure
• Reimagine museums as co-creators of healthy, inclusive, and resilient communities

Hosted at the Fabric Workshop & Museum, an institution internationally recognized for artist-led experimentation and collaborative making, the setting reflects the conversation itself — museums as active spaces for innovation, dialogue, and public value.