I don't remember who said this, but I quote:

"They teach us asinine details about esoteric artists when..."

As an art historian and a curator, I am unbelievably offended at the
suggestion that art history classes are useless to art museum professionals,
and that art history programs should be teaching finance, development,
grant-writing, and other professional skills.   If you want those skills, go
get an MBA or a non-profit management degree.  If you want to be an art
museum professional, well, maybe you shouldn't if you think knowing
something about art and artists is 'asinine'.

Another poster suggested that art history/museum training programs teach how
to "play the game".  Why should anyone get credit for learning how to
network?  Is it even possible to teach that?  Why should an art history or
museum studies department be teaching interpersonal business skills?
Another wants his or her program to get them a job.  I'm sorry, jobs are
hard to come by.  Art history professors are not career counselors.  Go to
your university's job placement service for that help.  YES, your professors
can help you out if they want to, but I don't think they are obligated to do
so.  If I were still teaching there would be no way I could teach 3 classes
a semester, do committee work, publish, AND, on top of all that, serve as a
job placement service for every single art history major, regardless of
their quality as a student or job candidate.  It's asking way too much.
It's unreasonable.

I agree that certain business-oriented skills are necessary in the museum
world, but I think some students are expecting too much to be spoon-fed to
them.  EVERYBODY, from art historians to lawyers to welders, has to learn
the interpersonal networking skills necessary to his or her profession, on
their own.  Don't ask your art history professors, who have spent their
lives learning asinine details about esoteric artists, to also serve as
management and finance professors as well.

Whew.  End of rant.

To add to this thread:

I wish I had taken a statistics course.  I think everyone needs to
understand basic statistics.

I wish I hadn't taken...hmmm... can't think of much.  Had a not-very-good
education course called "Schooling in America" which was mainly a forum for
Prof. Big Ego to tell us how wonderful and brilliant he was.  Ugh.  Again,
the problem was the professor, not the content.

Jill R. Chancey, Curator
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
Laurel, MS
(phone) 601-649-6374
(fax) 601-649-6379

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