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USC Fisher Museum Announces Re-accreditation by AAM

Los Angeles- USC Fisher Museum of Art is pleased to announce its re-Accreditation by the American Association of Museums (AAM).

Of the many art museums in the CITY OF Los Angeles, Fisher Museum of Art is one of ONLY four accredited by the AAM. The other accredited museums are the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA), and the J. Paul Getty Museum.

A rigorous self-study process followed by a two day site-visit by outside museum professionals, showed the Fisher Museum to have reached museum industry standards of excellence in its operations, including service to the public and USC’s students, staff and faculty. The Fisher Museum has been deemed to fulfill its mission as a place of intellectual inquiry as well as being a place of aesthetic enjoyment. Selma Holo, Director of the Fisher Museum, noting the importance of accreditation, points out that “the status it endows allows Fisher to work at the highest levels in the world of university museum, especially those that seek to serve their own university’s special strategic mission”.

About USC Fisher Museum of Art
The USC Fisher Museum of Art, formerly Fisher Gallery – established in 1939 – is the accredited art museum of the University of Southern California. It functions as a center of intellectual inquiry and aesthetic enjoyment in support of USC’s goals of research, teaching, artistic creation, and service to society. The Fisher Museum bears special responsibility to link the art in its permanent collections and the art it presents in its temporary exhibitions to all of USC’s present and future audiences: to its students, faculty, staff alumni, and surrounding communities. Fisher Museum offers an array of programming, including lectures, artist’s talks, Yoga in the Galleries, film screenings, concerts, and poetry readings to enhance and support its exhibitions.

http://fisher.usc.edu
Of noted excellence in the Fisher museum’s activities is its sponsorship of the Art in the Village Outreach Program. With a grant from the Good Neighbors Campaign, GNC, a branch of the university’s Government and Community relations department, the museum donates art supplies to elementary schools in the surrounding communities and holds juried exhibitions of children’s artwork throughout the school year. The GNC is currently celebrating its fifteenth year of community outreach programming.

The International Museum Institute, IMI, was well-received by the visiting committee for its contribution to the study of museums and their place in society. The IMI, as a think tank of museum professionals, utilizes the Fisher Museum as its working laboratory. With her new book “Beyond the Turnstile: Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values”, Holo, also the Director of the IMI and the USC Fisher Museum, has outlined key values that can sustain museums in an uncertain economic environment. It argues for museums being indispensable to society and disputes that head-count should be the final measure of a museum’s success.

Accreditation recognizes a museum’s commitment to excellence and professional standards of operation. Accreditation is “especially valued by university-affiliated institutions”, said AAM president Ford W. Bell. “Thus AAM accreditation and the demonstrated excellence by the USC Fisher Museum of Art, in all its operations is particularly significant. In a city of great museums, the USC community can take pride in the fact that, in their midst, is one of America’s finest museums.”

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