Dear All,

Danielle Bronon writes: "
*If so, what's the value in [advanced] degrees if they do not necessarily
advance careers?"*
A good question, in response to which -- as somebody who came to the Museum
world (and my current job) with a PhD in history and a 20+ career in
academia behind me, and as the parent of a newly minted post-graduate with
MAs in Museum Studies and Modern History -- I'd offer two observations

   - Advanced degrees in Museum Studies, Library & Information Science,
   etc, confer a broader, deeper, more up-to-date grounding in professional
   practice than any practical on-the-job-training (OJT) scheme can likely
   match.  I'm a librarian/archivist whose professional skills *in that
   field *are all derived from OJT. They're *good enough *to meet the
   institution's needs in the absence of a trained, MLIS-carrying archivist,
   but someone with a proper credential and the training that lies behind it
   could do more things (and do them faster and at a higher level of
   sophistication) than I -- even *with *7 years of intense experience --
   can.

   - Advanced degrees in subject-matter fields (like my PhD in history at
   my history-centric institution, or an art-history MA or PhD at an art
   museum) confer professional-grade research skills *and* deep awareness
   of the cultural/intellectual landscape from which collection objects
   emerged, and the historical context within which they are created and have
   previously been interpreted.  Short of a mentorship whose depth and
   intensity rivals that of an Oxbridge tutorial, it is (in my
experience), *extremely
   *difficult to get that kind of training outside of a graduate program.

Does *everyone *working in a museum need a graduate degree?  Not at all. Is
practical knowledge, accumulated through volunteer experience or by working
closely with experienced professionals, valuable?  Of course. As someone
wrote, up-thread: Grab every chance you get to expand your experience.

But many of the things that Museums do -- including classifying,
cataloging, describing, and building webs of meaning between collection
items in increasingly sophisticated ways *and *imbedding collection items
ever more deeply and richly in their (multiple)
social-cultural-political-intellectual context(s) -- are enhanced (and,
past a certain point, only *possible*) with the skills that come from
graduate-level study.

Best wishes,

A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Research Librarian
Martha's Vineyard Museum
151 Lagoon Pond Rd
Vineyard Haven, MA 02568
508-627-4441 x115


On Mon, Aug 23, 2021 at 12:01 PM Danielle Bronson <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi Jenna & all,
>
> Jenna — thank you for asking this question! I've been visited with similar
> fears; I'm also a recent graduate. This summer, I've been studying the GRE
> and trying to quell the anxiety of the end goals of my education.
>
> My questions for the email list are in a similar manner: is there a
> preference for degrees (MFA vs MA vs PhD) made in hiring decisions at art
> museums? Or is it as Michelle and others have echoed, moreso a competitive
> market for those with work experience? If so, what's the value in these
> degrees if they do not necessarily advance careers?
>
> With care,
>
> Danielle
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Aug 23, 2021, at 06:09, Michelle Zupan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> 
> Hi Jenna,
>
> I would echo 100% what Marc says about the over saturation of the market
> with "museum studies" Master's degrees.  As someone who hires interns
> annually, I would much rather have an employee with less education and more
> work/life experience than one who has an overabundance of book learning and
> not one iota of work experience.  I can teach someone to care for museum
> collections, I can teach someone how to create wonderful programs, I cannot
> teach someone with an MA or PhD. how to give a flip about a job, nor am I
> interested in teaching someone with an MA or a PhD. to have a work ethic
> and be willing to literally do the "scut work" that is the reality of
> museum work (cleaning clogged downspouts in a deluge, burying dead
> chickens, whatever).
>
> Embrace your BA. If you have to volunteer at museums as a side hustle to
> get your face out there, do it. Get all of the work experience in dealing
> with people and responsibility that you can. And sell yourself to the
> museums with that VALUABLE experience.
>
> Best,
>
> --
> *Michelle Zupan*
> Curator
> Hickory Hill & the Tom Watson Birthplace
> 502 Hickory Hill Drive
> Thomson, GA  30824
> 706-595-7777
> FAX: 706-595-7177
>
> Visit us at www.hickory-hill.org or on Facebook
> <https://www.facebook.com/hickoryhillmuseum>.
> Follow us on Twitter: HHEducation
>
> Historic homes of the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc
> <http://www.watson-brown.org>.
>
>
>
>
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