Fort Ticonderoga has achieved reaccreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the highest national recognition awarded to national museums. Accreditation signifies excellence to the museum community, to governments, funders, outside agencies, and to the museum-going public. Fort Ticonderoga was one of the first accredited museums in America dating to 1971. Accredited museums must undergo a reaccreditation review at least every 10 years to maintain accredited status.
There are only 1,095 museums accredited out of the total 33,000 in America. There are 65 accredited in New York State including Fort Ticonderoga.
“Fort Ticonderoga is exceedingly proud to be part of an elite group of museums who have attained accreditation. It is a clear indicator of our commitment to excellence and best practice in our field,” said Beth L. Hill, Fort Ticonderoga President and CEO. “The process of accreditation was intense, thorough, and valuable. Fort Ticonderoga museum staff deserve tremendous credit for their hard work and remarkable capacity as leaders in preservation, education, and public stewardship of our museum collections.”
Alliance Accreditation brings national recognition to a museum for its commitment to excellence, accountability, high professional standards and continued institutional improvement. Developed and sustained by museum professionals for 50 years, the Alliance’s museum accreditation program is the field’s primary vehicle for quality assurance, self-regulation and public accountability. It strengthens the museum profession by promoting practices that enable leaders to make informed decisions, allocate resources wisely, and remain financially and ethically accountable in order to provide the best possible service to the public.
Accreditation is a very rigorous but highly rewarding process that examines all aspects of a museum’s operations. To earn accreditation, a museum first must conduct a year of self-study, and then undergo a site visit by a team of peer reviewers. AAM’s Accreditation Commission, an independent and autonomous body of museum professionals, considers the self-study and visiting committee report to determine whether a museum should receive accreditation.
“Accredited museums are a community of institutions that have chosen to hold themselves publicly accountable to excellence,” said Laura L. Lott, Alliance President and CEO. “Accreditation is clearly a significant achievement, of which both the institutions and the communities they serve can be extremely proud.”
Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga preserves North America’s largest 18th-century artillery collection, 2,000 acres of historic landscape on Lake Champlain, the Carillon Battlefield, and the largest series of untouched Revolutionary War era earthworks surviving in America. As a multi-day destination and the premier place to learn more about our nation’s earliest years and America’s military heritage, Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 75,000 visitors each year with an economic impact of more than $12 million annually and offers programs, historic interpretation, boat cruises, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year, and is open for daily visitation May through October. Tickets are buy-one-day get the next day FREE. Fort Ticonderoga is supported in part through generous donations and with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts. © The Fort Ticonderoga Association. 2022 All Rights Reserved. For more information, visit www.fortticonderoga.org.
About the American Alliance of Museums
The American Alliance of Museums has been bringing museums together since 1906, helping to develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and providing advocacy on issues of concern to the entire museum community. Representing more than 35,000 individual museum professionals and volunteers, institutions, and corporate partners serving the museum field, the Alliance stands for the broad scope of the museum community. For more information, visit www.aam-us.org.