REQUIRED COURSES

History and Theory of Museums
G49.1500  Stampe, Trask. 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 U.S. context. Museums of natural history, anthropology, science, technology, history, and art are 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. Frequent visits to New York museums are required, along with weekly writing assignments, and a final paper.

Museum Collections and Exhibitions
G49.1501  Gear. 4 points.
Introduction to the care and management of objects and collections and to the process of organizing a temporary exhibition. Assignments consist of individual reports and working in small teams to prepare and present proposals on specific functions of collection management and to make an exhibition proposal. Museum professionals (registrars, conservators, curators) speak on issues specific to their practice. Museum visits are scheduled as part of regular classroom meetings. As far as possible, the course covers museums of all disciplines.

Museum Management
G49.1502  Siegel, Thomas. 4 points.
Overview of management, finance, and administration for those aspiring to managerial and supervisory positions in museums. Topics covered include organizational structure and the roles and relationships of museum departments; operational issues, including security and disaster planning; museum accounting and finance, including operating and capital expense budgeting; leadership and strategic planning; and legal and ethical issues facing museums.

Internship
G49.3990  Required of all M.A. and advanced certificate candidates. Stampe. 2 points.
Students nearing completion of their master’s in museum studies, or their certificate and their academic degree, must apply in writing to the program internship coordinator. Placements are made on an individual basis and are project oriented. For one or more semesters, a minimum of 300 hours is spent as an intern at a museum or other suitable institution. A daily log, diary, and progress report are required. Students must earn a grade of B or better to receive the M.A. or advanced certificate.

Research Seminar
G49.3991  Required of all M.A. and advanced certificate candidates. Altshuler and staff. 2 points.
Students conduct research combining their academic and professional interests, using appropriate methodology. They formulate a topic, prepare an annotated bibliography, and write the qualifying paper based on their research. M.A. students also develop their thesis proposal. .

ELECTIVES

Topics in Museum Studies
G49.3330  4 points.
Current issues in the museum profession and the interdisciplinary study of museums. Outside museum scholars, specialists, and university faculty offer in-depth examination of topics. Practicums with hands-on components are also offered periodically under this course number. Some examples are listed below. (Refer to the current course schedule for particular seminars offered in each academic year.)

Topics in Museum Studies: Museums and Contemporary Art
G49.3330  Altshuler. 4 points.
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, biennialism, the art market, conservation issues, artworks that take the museum as subject, public and relational art, and conflicts of interest that arise for museum staff and trustees. A familiarity with international contemporary art is required. Assignments include two short essays, class presentations, and a final paper.

Topics in Museum Studies: Collecting and Exhibiting Latin American Art in the United States, 1931-Present
G49.3330  Basilio. 4 points.
Closely examines selected museum and private collections as well as exhibitions held in U.S. museums that have shaped the definition of “Latin American art.” Is the transnational category “Latin American art” a product of survey exhibitions and museum collecting? If so, how does this affect the way in which artists’ works and the history of art in individual countries are regarded? Why does “Latin American art” get “rediscovered” periodically, and what political and economic developments affect patronage and exhibitions? How has the Museum of Modern Art in particular played a pivotal role in defining Latin American art since it began exhibiting and collecting in the 1930s?

Topics in Museum Studies: Anthropology in and of Museums
G49.3330  Geismar. 4 points.
This course examines the history, structure, and social life of anthropology museums and the study of museums by anthropologists, focusing on a broad range of examples from the mid-19th century to the present. The course examines the relationships between anthropology and museums in two different ways. First, it traces the genealogy of anthropology in museums, looking at how museum principles of classification, practices of collection and exhibition, media, technology, and archiving have influenced the ways in which knowledge of human beings has been formed, presented, and represented. Second, the course looks at what taking a specifically anthropological or ethnographic perspective can do for our understanding of any kind of museum from art to zoology.

Topics include the place of anthropology in science museums; how museums embody and represent anthro- pological knowledge; how important objects are to anthropology; how museums mediate the politics of cultural representation; the contemporary role of indigenous peoples in museums; and the intersection of anthropology and museum technologies, including photography and digitization projects. Class workshops are held at the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Annex of the Museum of the American Indian, and the Metropolitan Museum, and we also have a number of guest speakers working either as anthropologists in museums or as anthropologists of museums.

Topics in Museum Studies: Heritage and Memory
G49.3330  Staff. 4 points.
Examines the controversial subject of museums that represent heritage, history, and memory. Considering cases as diverse as Colonial Williamsburg, Mexican American heritage museums, slavery museums in Africa, Holocaust museums, and museums of Native American history, seeks out common themes and problems that define museum representations of the past. Topics covered include authenticity, race, cultural property, cultural brokers, nationalism, interpretation, multivocality, photography, contact zones, context, multiculturalism, and community outreach. The objective is to examine the connections and distinctions between the theory and practice of exhibiting history and to understand how material culture, social process, and historical events converge in the social production of collections and institutions. The focus is on museums not merely as containers of history, but as social arenas that influence and determine the politics, value, and experience of the past. Accordingly, students are expected to develop a theoretical toolkit for contextualizing and addressing controversies in the heritage industry.

Topics in Museum Studies: Sacred on Display: Museums, Religion, and Society
G49.3330  Feldman. 4 points.
This course examines the relationship between religion and museums. Beginning with the premise that one culture’s exhibits are another culture’s sacred objects, the course explores the various ways that religious practice makes use of the museum, as well as the ways that museums have involved themselves with religion. Topics to be covered include relics, sacred sites, ritual, clergy, and syncretism. In addition, the course considers key moral and ethical questions that religion poses to museum practice in the modern world, and vice versa. How have museums catalyzed innovations in religious practice? How have the needs of religion influenced or determined museum practice? With the goal of moving beyond a theoretical discussion, this course aims to generate a critical discussion useful to understanding the place of the museum in a contemporary global environment increasingly marked by religious innovation, expansion, and conflict. Accordingly, while readings draw from a wide variety of religious and museum practices, the syllabus focuses mainly on the world religious movements (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism) and the key issues they frame for museum studies.

Topics in Museum Studies: Cultural Property, Rights, and Museums
G49.3330  Geismar. 4 points.
What does it mean to own or have a culture? Are all cultures the same? Is owning your culture a basic human right? This course investigates the growing discussions about cultural property rights that have emerged in the context of museum practices, from collection and display to conservation and archiving. A general analysis of concepts of culture, property, and rights related to these material and social domains is offset by sessions that examine how different understanding of entitlements may be negotiated within museum spaces and how museum objects (broadly defined) may be understood as cultural resources. Special focus is on legislation, political events such as war, indigenous rights movements, international conceptions of intellectual and cultural property, and the commodity transaction and the marketplace, and their impact on museum practice.

Research in Museum Studies
G49.3915  1-4 points.
Independent research on a topic determined in consultation with the program director.

Development, Fund-Raising, and Grantsmanship
G49.2221  Lineker. 4 points.
Overview of organizational development principles as they relate to the fund-raising and grantsmanship process. Topics include sources of funding, current trends, and fund-raising techniques; earned income; public relations; volunteers; and membership. Includes a practicum in proposal writing and work experience with an arts organization in program development and fund-raising.

Museum Conservation and Contemporary Culture
G49.2222  Wharton. 4 points.
An introduction to museum conservation combining classroom discussion with museum laboratory visits to provide an understanding of how conservation functions in the context of contemporary culture. This seminar is divided into three broad topics: museum collections care, the history and philosophy of Western conservation, and the conservation of modern and contemporary art. It provides technical information about how artifacts age in the museum environment while examining conflicts that arise between professional and nonprofessional stakeholders. The seminar addresses concerns of living artists as well as indigenous groups and others with claims to the disposition and care of cultural materials.

Local Museums, Historic Houses, and Sites
G49.2223  Long, Trask. 4 points.
This course examines the cultural politics that influence reuse of historic spaces for museums and other public purposes. Through course readings, site visits, and individual archival research, students explore sites ranging from historic houses and period rooms presented as museum installations to restored villages and communities to dramatic reuse of historic space for cultural tourism. Examining case studies of various interpretations of historic space, students pay particular attention to the social and political context in which both original use and reuse took place by analyzing primary documents that illustrate both motivations and strategy for interpreting historic space.

Museum Education
G49.2224  Barsky. 4 points.
This seminar provides an overview of the field of museum education in the context of the institution’s relationship with constituent communities and with application to a broad range of audiences. Among the topics considered are teaching from objects, learning strategies, working with docents and volunteers, program planning, and the educational use of interactive technologies.

Museums and Interactive Technologies
G49.2225  Staff. 4 points.
This course presents a survey and analysis of museum use of interactive technologies. Among the topics discussed in detail are strategies and tools for collections management, exhibitions, educational resources and programs, Web site design, digitization projects, and legal issues arising from the use of these technologies. Each student develops an interactive project in an area of special interest.

Exhibition Planning and Design
G49.3332  Gallagher. 4 points.
This course focuses on the planning, development, and design of exhibitions, permanent, temporary, and traveling. It is a participatory class where students learn basic exhibition design techniques, including spatial layouts and the use of graphics, audiovisual aids, lighting, colors, materials, and fabrication methods. Students gain insight into exhibition planning and development and the roles played by various museum professionals. There are visits to designers to discuss their work and to museums and other venues to analyze exhibition design techniques. Individual student projects provide hands-on experience.

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