Richard Perry's cri de coeur about the relevence/irrelevence of scholarly
museum studies strikes chords in my heart too!
 
Richard's comment, plus Eric Segal's (and others, forgive me, names are
slipping) hone in on the point that REALLY, there mayn't be any formal need
for museum studies training at all.  To some degree, good, smart people get
into the trade because they're interesting, interested.  But lots of people
become museum professionals more by accident than anything else - well,
that's my case.  I don't regret it, in fact, it was the luckiest, happiest
break and I'm very grateful to fate.
 
And now, after 13 years in the trade, mainly as a curator, I find myself
teaching it.  And teaching it from scratch, ie without an established
program to follow.  Wow, did that make me think about the nature and
purposes of museums.  It took me five years to develop courses, know the
literature, understand students.  I'm about to begin my sixth year of
teaching, and for the first time, I feel pleasure, rather than the  guilt
of inadequacy, in the approach of first semester.  (Yes, I'm a masochistic
perfectionist).
 
At the same time, I realise that I'm slipping away from being a museum
professional - I'm turning into a teacher.  Some of the anecdotes and
examples I talk about from my own museum practice are getting long in the
tooth, and though I maintain a high level of gossip with working mates in
order to keep up with fresh material,  I begin to think that for the good
of students, for the good of vibrant professional teaching, it's time I
returned to the trade and someone else came in.
 
Teaching museum studies has been a marvellous education for me.  (A shame
that the first few years were at the expense of some good students...)  I'm
much wiser about museums; I believe now that we really do have a discipline
that's worth scholarly attention.
 
Mind you, I'm not sure how easy it's going to be to find a job back in the
swim.  It's already occurred that I've been dismissed as 'an academic'.
(Political put-down).  Yet it's true that I've changed; I'm no longer a
specialist curator (though maybe I could get back into practice).  I hope
there's a museum job there for me still, but I wonder what it is.
 
 
Linda Young
Cultural Heritage Management
University of Canberra
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