Syracuse University Art Museum is part of the 2025-26 cohort of cultural organizations being considered for accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).
The highest national recognition afforded to museums in the U.S., accreditation signifies excellence to the museum community, governments, funders, outside agencies and the museum-going public. Just over 1,000 of an estimated 33,000 museums in the U.S. are accredited; of those, only 16% are university museums.
To prepare for the accreditation process, museum staff members, with support from University partners and advisory board members, have spent the last five years closely examining museum operations, activities and policies and creating five “core documents” required for accreditation. This has resulted in strengthened operations, adherence to best practices and strategic future-planning.
Museum staff also completed two Museum Assessment Programs (MAP): one in Collections Stewardship (2021) and the other in Community and Audience Engagement (2024). Offered through a cooperative agreement between AAM and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, MAP is widely considered the first step toward becoming a fully accredited cultural institution.
“Over the past five years, our team has been diligent in our path towards accreditation and already witnessed that this process is both vigorous and complex, yet highly rewarding,” museum director Emily Dittman says. “We could not have arrived at the final step in that process without the hard work of everyone on our talented team, and we are looking forward to the next year as we work towards securing AAM accreditation for the very first time.”
The accreditation process begins immediately with six-to-eight months of self-study, followed by a site visit by a team of peer reviewers in Spring 2026.
