Robin,
I understand your dilema. I too will be finishing my undergraduate work this
year, and want to pursue a career in the museum field.  However, I stumbled
across an absolutely amazing course, which has completely set me up for my
career.  It's a post-graduate diploma program in Museum Management and
Curatorship. Typically people enter this 12 month program after completing
university, but as the College that offers this program is in the same city
as my university, I was able to get in a program which allowed me to
concurrently complete both an Honours Ba in History, and this program.  The
program is incredibly intensive, but is all hands-on, practical
applications.  We didn't just learn theory, we actually applied it, with
projects such as developing and building exhibits, creating education
programs, caring for artifacts,and writing Policies for local groups. All of
our classes were held in a museum, working closely with museum
professionals.  I am now in the final semester of the program, which is a
full time internship at a museum.  At graduation, I will be fully qualified,
and experienced, to begin work in museums.  In fact, I have been informed by
many people that they would hire a graduate from my program before a Museum
Studies Masters graduate.  This course is very competitive to get into -
only around 20 people are accepted each year, but if you would like more
information, please contact me.  I would be happy to give you all of the
details.  Good luck.

Heather MacDonald
[log in to unmask]
The Canadian Canoe Museum
www.canoemuseum.net

>From: Robin <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: museum experience
>Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 20:16:48 -0400
>
>I will be graduating college with a B.A. in history in 2 months time. I
>would like to pursue a career in museum work. Graduate school is of course
>planned for the future, not the immediate future, but sometime within the
>next 3 years. I was looking through a museum newsletter and became very
>frustrated when all of the jobs in museum work that I was interested in
>requested that the applicant have 3 to 5 years of experience. The is a
>double edged sword here folks. How am I supposed to get that many years of
>experience when I can't get a job because I haven't had a job to gain that
>many years of experience? I am a huge fan of volunteerism, but I certainly
>can't volunteer in a museum for the next 3 years. I am currently doing a 6
>week internship at a locan railroaders museum, getting introduced to all
>aspects of museum work. However, 6 weeks isn't 3 years. There are people,
>me being one of them,who would want to be able to take over caring for
>historical artifacts and want to learn the proper techniques for doing so,
>but run into problems because we are unable to find people or programs that
>are willing to do on the job training. Remember, if you (as in museum
>professionals) are worried about who will take care of artifacts and other
>historical aspects, rest assure there are people out there who are more
>than willing to learn the craft, just teach us.
>
>Any advice and/or comments would be wonderful and most appreciated.
>
>Thank you
>Robin F.
>
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