The AAMC, a 501(c)(6) membership organization, grew out of the Forum of Curators and Conservators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a recognized, non-union body of more than 100 members.
Over the course of two and a half years, curators at the Metropolitan Museum - including Katharine Baetjer, Stefano Carboni, Colta Ives, Peter Kenny and Gary Tinterow - drafted the mission statement and by-laws of the proposed organization.
In April 2001, they held a meeting in New York, attended by representatives from a dozen American art museums, during which they voted the organization into existence.
In Spring 2001, Mr. de Montebello announced the formation of the AAMC in his keynote address at a colloquium sponsored by the American Federation of Arts, and in July of that year, James Cuno, then president of the AAMD, wrote an official letter of endorsement.
In 2006, the AAMC had a board of 18 trustees from 14 museums who comprise some of the most distinguished figures in the field; more than 500 members in the United States and Canada; and a paid administrator working in offices in New York City generously provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.