Ah yes...
At the University I attended (where I got both an MA in Museum Studies and another in Anthropology) the relationship between Art History and Museum Studies was very curious. The director of the art museum on campus sits on the Museum Studies board and makes recommendations about who should be accepted. However, the art history department doesn't recommend or allow art history students to take any of these courses for credit. Indeed the program (and incidentally the students) were basically snubbed. ( I remember getting more than one very degrading tour from a member of the art history/ museum department). It didn't matter that I was setting the curve in some of those art history classes-- I was clearly from the wrong side of the tracks!
Be careful about your choice... As an undergraduate at a small, liberal arts college, I moved easily between courses in art history and anthropology. At the University/graduate level, however, I became very aware of exactly which doors would be open to me according to the path I chose.
I love art too, but didn't love the attitude! I took what I wanted (in the way of courses) from the art history department and left the rest behind.
I don't mean this to be offensive to all art historians or art museums, just saying this was what my experience was (for what that's worth).
As for theory (which is important), most museums are writing for an audience with a particular reading level or education. This could be high school or even 5th grade. In my opinion, museums have a responsibility to serve the general pulbic. Research that can't be used in exhibits can be published in journals or shared at forums like conferences.
Jill Brush
Jill Brush
Curator
Kansas State Historical Society
6425 SW 6th Avenue
Topeka, Kansas 66615-1099
Phone: 785.272.8681 x 425
Fax: 785.272.8682
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>>> Kathy Mancuso <[log in to unmask]> 12/28/00 02:42PM >>>
I have had similar problems. I have been told I need a PhD, yet nobody
working around here has one. I have also been told to steer clear of
museum studies programs--that I really need at least an MA in the field of
the museum I want to work in. I am only in art history because I want to
work in museums and I started working in an art museum while I was in high
school. I am strongly thinking about switching to anthropology or history
because I am encountering an attitude (and this is not a personal
reflection on the professors or students in the art history division, who
are mostly wonderful--it's something that somehow happens when we become a
collective) that the role of the art history department is to train
students (at least undergraduates--graduates have a Museum Studies
certificate option) to be Art Historians in the academy rather than
anything else; there is sort of an inertia functioning against applied
courses. I feel sort of caught between the Art Studio people, who are more
practice oriented, and the Art History people, who are very historically
oriented. I also feel that the art history department emphasizes periods
and schools and great canons over critical theory and tools to approach a
particular object (well, except for the methodologies course); I feel that
that's stuff one can look up given the tools to research. My prime passion
is for visual/material culture theory and practice and for ethnography of
the museum-community relationship. Also, I don't feel like many of the
people at the museum often have nearly as much interest in theory as I do.
Does anyone else feel any of these competing pressures?
For those interested in museum careers, I would strongly recommend the
course that people have recommended I follow: joining AAM and
local/state/regional museum organizations as an intern/volunteer. If you
are a student with a serious interest in working in a museum and you aren't
an intern/volunteer or already an employee--what are you waiting for? Most
museums are crying out for help! And i have also found that many employees
at our museum joined as security guards, events staff, or education
volunteers and worked their way up. Peruse the job listings in AVISO,
looking at their requirements. And use your AAM card to visit lots of
different museums when you travel, and ask any staff you see questions
about their jobs and education--I have been doing this for a while and have
never gotten a negative response. I even got the Director of the Museum of
African Art's card this way! Call your local curators and interview them--
remember that they are busy people, but most of them will be glad to sit
down for an hour and talk when they don't have a show going up.
Kathy Mancuso (an undergraduate working it as hard as she can)
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