MUSEUM STUDIES COURSES
2022 - 2023 Academic Year
Courses
REQUIRED COURSES
Students in a Master of Arts and Advanced Certificate Program in Museum Studies must take all five courses listed below to satisfy the degree requirements. Students in Joint Degree Programs who are enrolled for Concentration in Museum Studies must take two out of five lecture and seminar courses, excluding Independent Study courses.
*Please note that due to limited space, Museum Studies courses are open to Museum Studies students first. We can only accommodate non-Museum Studies students if space is available.
History and Theory of Museums (MSMS-GA 1500)
Marisa Franz, Camille-Mary Sharp. 4 points.
Introduction to the social, cultural, and political history of museums. This course focuses on the formation of the modern museum with an emphasis on the US context. Museums of Natural History, Anthropology, Science, Technology, History, and Art will be addressed from a variety of disciplinary approaches that explore the institution and its practices with respect to governance, colonialism, nationalism, class, gender, ethnicity, and community. Weekly visits to New York museums are required, along with frequent reading response papers, an exhibition review, and a final paper.
Museum Collections and Exhibitions (MSMS-GA 1501)
Ramona Bannayan, Clare Bell. 4 points.
As an introduction to the policies and procedures of collection and exhibition management, this seminar will consider issues involved in day-to-day museum operations and the urgent challenges facing museums today. We will examine how museums approach ideas around cultural mission, ethics and interpretation while trying to balance logistical practicalities and financial strategies. This seminar combines lectures, classroom discussion and guest speakers active in the international museum world to provide an understanding of the many core functions of museum practice from museum structures, mission statements, collection policies, documentation, assessment, conservation, storage, exhibition management, working with living artists, community, timelines and budgeting. Students perform classroom team table-top exercises, condition assessments, and conduct research leading to three writing assignments and two presentations.
Museum Management (MSMS-GA 1502)
Helen Warwick. 4 points.
This core course provides an overview of the management capabilities required, and the core management tools used, in today's museums. During the course we will also review current issues in museums and have the opportunity to discuss our views on the leadership and management shown in addressing these issues.
Participants will be introduced to a range of museum professionals and be asked to complete individual and group assignments that will prepare them for understanding museum management challenges. There will be the opportunity to understand the importance of:
● understanding and responding to current issues
● determining mission and vision
● strategic planning
● budgeting and financial management
● planning a mission-aligned program and collection
● planning marketing and communications
● achieving sustainability
● creating museums that have staff and volunteer people resources, collections and infrastructures that their communities need
Collectively we will gain an understanding of the practical strategies that create and maintain well-run museums that are meaningful to their publics and the field.
Internship (MSMS-GA 3990)
Rosanna Flouty. 2 points.
M.A. and Advanced Certificate students spend a minimum of 200 hours over one or more semesters in a project-oriented internship at a museum or other suitable institution. Students nearing completion of course prerequisites (MSMS-GA 1500, MSMS-GA 1501, and MSMS-GA 1502) must schedule a planning meeting with the Program's Internship Coordinator. A daily log, evaluations, and progress report are required. Students must earn a grade of B or better to receive the M.A. or Advanced Certificate. Further information is available in the Internship Guidelines Packet.
Research Seminar (MSMS-GA 3991)
Miriam Basilio, Marisa Franz, Camille-Mary Sharp. 2 points.
This course includes candidates for both the Advanced Certificate and the M.A. in Museum Studies. The class is designed to help students identify a research question, navigate relevant primary and secondary sources, and produce a well-written, well-organized research paper at the end of the term. For those in the Advanced Certificate program, the course will focus on a final 30-page (double-spaced) Museum Studies research paper. M.A. students will focus on writing an introduction and one chapter of a master’s thesis. The research seminar provides students with a collective structure and series of deadlines as they develop individual research projects. Students will be responsible for their own research and writing, as well as thoughtful reading and comments in writing groups.
For M.A. Students:
We will assign writing groups in the Research Seminar, and we strongly encourage you to maintain these groups or form new groups as you write your thesis during the spring semester.
Students will be assigned individual thesis advisors in October. You will meet with your advisor before the end of the fall semester to establish a working plan for the winter break and spring semester. You are responsible for sending your Abstract, Annotated Bibliography, and Outline to your advisor before this meeting. You will also send the Introduction and Thesis Chapter to your advisor after completion in December.
ELECTIVES
In addition to the five required courses listed above, students in the Master of Arts Program take four electives, two of which can be taken outside of Museum Studies Program, in the area of special interest. Students in the Advanced Certificate Program and those pursuing Concentrations in Museum Studies take two electives. Below are the descriptions of some of the electives we offer:
Museums and Interactive Technologies (MSMS-GA 2225)
Flouty. 4 points.
The course will present a survey and analysis of museum use of interactive technologies. Among the topics to be discussed in detail are strategies and tools for collections management, exhibitions, educational resources and programs, website design, digitization projects, and legal issues arising from the use of these technologies. Each student will develop an interactive project in an area of special interest.
Museum Education (MSMS-GA 2224)
Vatsky. 4 points.
This seminar provides an overview of the field of Museum Education. Museum Education is considered in the context of the institution’s relationship to its multiple constituent communities, with application to a broad range of audiences. Among the topics to be considered are learning strategies, teaching from objects, program planning, and assessment, and exhibition interpretation.
Museums and Contemporary Art (MSMS-GA 3335)
Hatfield. 4 points.
This course investigates historical, theoretical, and practical aspects of the collecting and exhibiting of contemporary art in museums. Topics include curatorial strategies for exhibition and collection development, conservation issues, museums and social activism, and conflicts of interest that arise for museum staff and trustees.
Museums and Community (MSMS-GA 2228)
Yasha. 4 points.
We have witnessed a rise in civic engagement and social justice programming in museums today. Community, history, and fine arts museums now include civic activism, community participation, and community organizing in their mission and core activities. A movement toward civic engagement and social justice manifests in all aspects of museum practice, including exhibition, education, and collections care. In this seminar, we investigate the theoretical underpinnings of these programs along with their practical implementation and evaluation. We assess museum activism in the context of inequality and racism within the museum itself and community resistance against museums. Students build an understanding of community programming in the context of current literature on the museum in the public sphere, the museum as contact zone, placemaking, and museum ethics. Guest speakers address community-based programming, including the logistics of program development, program evaluation, and program website design. The seminar combines project-based learning with reading, discussion, and writing about theory that motivates and critiques community-based museum programming. Students choose their own final projects. Options include assessing an existing community-based museum program, designing a new museum-based program and developing its website, and writing a seminar paper.
Development, Fund-raising, and Grantsmanship: Funding the 21 st Century Museum (MSMS-GA 2221)
Warwick, 4 points.
In the 21st century museums worldwide need creative fundraising to survive. This course provides a comprehensive overview of museum fundraising practices and an introduction to the skills and processes necessary for effective fundraising. Focusing in particular on the funding environment in the USA – but referencing other international models – topics covered include an overview of sources of funding and types of fundraising (capital campaign; planned giving, benefit events etc.) and a survey of procedures for identifying available funds. Invited guests from a range of museum environments will discuss examples of successful fundraising. Students will complete various examples of fundraising approach (individual solicitations and grant requests, for example) and a comprehensive fundraising strategy for a museum project of their choice.
Museum and the Law (MSMS-GA 2220-001)
Gleason, 4 points.
Legal issues pervade so many aspects of the world of museums. The law can both constrain and enable the behavior of museum staff, administration, and others who work with these cultural organizations. Therefore, it is difficult to work in, for and with museums without some training in or familiarity with the law. In this course, we will examine how museums are affected by a variety of legal regulations, including cultural heritage legislation, intellectual property issues, such as copyright, trademark and moral rights, first amendment and censorship claims, work-place hazards, contracts, and nonprofit and tax laws, such as valuation, charitable transfers, payments in lieu of taxes and the unrelated business income tax. Readings will consist of case law and secondary sources detailing the most pressing legal issues facing different types of museums, and group discussions will be supplemented by mock case studies and negotiation exercises.
Conservation and Collections Management (MSMS-GA 2222-001)
Godfrey & Bruno. 4 points.
As an introduction to museum conservation and collections management, this seminar combines readings, discussions, research, field trips, and practical exercises to provide an understanding of the material concerns and underlying values that drive collections care decisions. It is designed to give students the tools to think critically about collections management and conservation processes. The seminar covers many core functions of museum practice, from acquisition, exhibition, and storage to emergency planning and response. It includes topics in conservation such as examination, conservation science and technical art history as well as preventive conservation measures to manage the museum environment. The seminar also addresses legal and ethical considerations in museum stewardship. Course readings cover the historical and philosophical values that shape the field of conservation, and technical information needed to make conservation and collections management decisions. Students perform readings, discussion, practical and theoretical exercises, short writing assignments and conduct research leading to a term paper.
Museums and Political Conflict (MSMS-GA 2226-001)
Feldman, 4 points.
In contemporary Museum Studies, it is often said that museums are inherently political institutions. But how do politics actually happen in museums? What has "politics" meant for key exhibitions and collections and what avenues of political theory emerge from the museum in general? In this seminar, we will move beyond the general to examine how specific political concepts took shape in historic exhibitions and museum practices from the 1930s to the present. As such, our challenge will be twofold. On the one hand, we will consider how political movements have used the museums as an implement for advancing power and influence. On the other hand, we will consider how museum practices have "taken up" various kinds of politics: how museum objects and officials have engaged and advocated the agendas and outcomes of political parties, governments, policies, revolutions, and elections. Case studies will include: Degenerate Art (1937), Paris World Exhibition (1937), Rivera's "Man at the Crossroads" (1934), The Guggenheim Museum (1959), Yad Vashem (1965), Harlem on my Mind (1969), The Perfect Moment (1990), The Last Act (1994), The Jewish Museum of Bologna (1998), Sensation (1999), The Apartheid Museum (2001), Holocaust Cartoons (2006), among others. Through these case studies, students will examine the museum's role in the public sphere and the process whereby exhibitions contribute to-- or undermined--key aspects of deliberative democracy.
Topics in Museum Studies: Museum Activism (MSMS-GA 3330-004)
Sharp, 4 points.
“Museum Activism” explores the relation between museums and activism by positioning cultural institutions as sites of constant change, negotiation, and struggle. Recognizing that museum practice emerges out of distinct social and political contexts, this course follows critical social movements – such as labor and racial and climate justice – as they relate to museums and ultimately shape museum practice. Focusing on various cases of advocacy, protest, and museum reform since the early twentieth century, the course demonstrates that critical and socially engaged practice is not new, but foundational to the modern museum. We will pursue such questions as: what is “museum activism” and what forms (grassroots, institutional, academic) can it take? How have communities used museums and their practices to push for social change? And how have artists, activists, and cultural workers disrupted cultural institutions and their processes?