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>. > > > > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link: > https://HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1 > > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link: > https://HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1 > ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . 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