Posts tagged museum studies
Routledge Museum Studies Publication Catalogue online
Looks like there will be some interesting new museum books this year! I’m especially excited about “Museums Equality and Social Justice” and “Post Critical Museology”.
Anyone know of any other good reading lists like this online? I could always add a tab on the home page like the free resources one, along the lines of “required reading”.
What would you say?
Museum World Book Collection: Chapters
I know, I know. I am still not posting as much as I would like to, but I’m still rushed off my feet! Sorry!
But, readers and subscribers, I saw this and thought of you:
We’re currently updating this list with all the chapters and authors that appear in the Museum World Book Collection. There are lots so it may take a little time!
You can also gain exclusive free access to one chapter from each book in the series - so you can try before you buy.
Museum Studies day at British Museum
Museum studies student day
Thursday 24 February 2011, 11.00–15.30 Tickets £10
British Museum staff give a behind-the-scenes insight into the running and organisation of an internationally celebrated museum. Education, curatorial and collections management staff discuss museum theory and practice, particularly in relation to the special exhibition Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Students wishing to broaden their knowledge of museums and the culture and heritage sector are welcome.
Full programme
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar/courses/museum_studies_student_day.aspx
Tickets available through the Box Office
I went a few years ago when I was studying at Leicester and it comes highly recommended. If you are currently feeling a bit down or disenchanted with a career attempt in the museums field, this is the kind of thing is the kind of thing to recharge your museum-love battery.
Go there, listen and ask questions. And if they say something revolutionary or striking be sure to report back!
Call for papers: Curiouser and Curiouser
Challenging Convention and Celebrating the Unusual in Museums and Heritage
A THREE-DAY Phd Symposium
School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester
(28TH -29TH -30TH of March 2011)‘Curiouser and Curiouser’ sets out to deconstruct notions of normality and eccentricity in museums and heritage institutions. What exactly is normal, and what is idiosyncratic? In an attempt to begin to answer some of these questions, we are inviting submissions for papers or practical workshops on subjects including, but not limited to, the following:
Interpretation
Eccentric: display strategies
education and learning strategies
visitor research and engagement
uses of display space
uses of media and technology in museums
research methods
events/ performances
portrayals of museums in other media
museological theories and paradigms
What is eccentric/idiosyncratic?
What is acceptable, and who decides?
Collections, Collecting and Collectors
Eccentric/idiosyncratic collections/objects
collectors
collecting methods
Intangible heritage and its retrieval
Historical interpretations of collecting, and how what is acceptable has changed
The value of collections, what is worth collecting and why?
Spaces and Places
Eccentric/idiosyncratic architecture, both deliberately designed and unusually used environment and surroundings
Physical compared to virtual collections
Displays in unexpected places
Transformations of spaces
Museos Unite: Skills every museo should have (or learn)
Let’s face it. Although you learn so much over the course of a museum studies master’s degree, there is still so much to learn. I am trying to compile a list of things that I learned outside of school that I think are necessary skills in today’s museum industry.
1-Social Media:
If you are reading this blog, chances are that you found us though social media networks such as twitter, or perhaps another blog that you frequent. That is awesome! Maybe you tweet for yourself/a museum/a museum consulting company/a historical society. Maybe you run your own blog. Whether you blog & tweet or just read them & follow them, you should be able to navigate social networks. Period. There is no excuse today not to have some knowledge of social networks. Museums need to keep up with technology, and therefore Museos do, too. (Here’s a guide to Twitter Basics in case you need it.)2-Grant Writing:
Kirsten and I studied in England, which meant that our program taught us bids to city council, instead of the US equivalent of grant writing. Although there are many similarities, they are actually very specific processes. Therefore, to get my ducks in a row, I found a grant writing class at a local university and audited it. This option was very cost effective (as I didn’t need the credits) and I was able to learn everything I needed to know. Kirsten, on the other hand, learned grant writing on the job. She successfully researched and wrote several successful grants for her museum. Since you may end up being one of only a few employees at a small museum, you have to be able to do practically everything, and that involves fundraising. So…3-Varied Computer Software:
I know there is a long list of computer software that Museos should know (please please please add any I forget into the comments!) but I would start with
- Adobe software such as Photoshop and Illustrator. That way, you can make and print media that looks professional at your museum.
- I also suggest basic web design (some HTML and CSS) so that you can stay involved in how your museum is portrayed online. I personally learned Dreamweaver using the free online tutorial on Adobe’s website. There are so many free resources on the web to learn basic web design, and a quick look at google will help you find them. Remember: your museum may have a web team, and it may not. Better to be prepared.
- Office suite, obviously.
- A basic movie editing program (Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, iDVD) to make videos or slide shows of exhibits to show members or donors
- I would add museum cataloging programs (PastPerfect) and fundraising software (Raiser’s Edge) but I am sure that these are going to be specific to the institution. If anyone has any experience with learning these before you got a job, and if that helped, we’d appreciate the feedback!
4-People Management Skills:
It may be hard to gain this experience while not on the job. You will probably have to create a project in order to find people to manage. Not like we need to do any more unpaid work, Museos, but if you create a fun project, you can find yourself managing a group on your off hours. Personally, I organize and coordinate a social group that does happy hours, and I know friends who have started other social groups that exist to help raise money for nonprofits. Many museums have young members’ groups, and you could join these and take leadership positions in planning fun events. Whichever route you take, having management skills will always help you on a resume (and on the job).
As we all know, since the word “museum” can mean anything from a small historic house to a huge international tourist destination with millions of visitors a year, a Museo’s job can be incredibly varied. Although museums are really about the interaction between visitors and objects, we cannot ignore the way technology is creeping into everything that we do. Being able to interact with people in person and online is always helpful, and knowing how to get funding to keep your museum ticking will be priceless.So Museos, what extra skills have you developed that helped you land a job or to improve your current work? Have there been any skills you wished you had learned prior to gaining a position? How did you develop these skills?
Click the link and join in the discussion. Which skills do you think you wouldn’t be able to do your job without? Or wouldn’t you employ someone without? I would have to say that the number one skill that is keeping me anywhere near the game at the moment is sheer detirmination and dogged tenacity.
For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Richard Sandell is the head of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. Referred to here as a ‘museums guru’, Richard focuses on work of social agency and inclusion in museums (see bio and selected bibliography here). He is also a thoroughly lovely man and was the supervisor on my Masters thesis. I don’t know who put the video up, but they obviously agree too.
Apparently, he is also a Taiwanese aboriginal percussion instrument player. Who knew?? I found this via Richard’s Twitter page.
Museum studies aging well
By Jennifer Lanthier, posted Tuesday, June 8, 2010Museums — public or private — are a beloved trope of fiction, a source of mystery and intrigue for everything from novels and comic books to films. But in real life?
“There’s a real push these days for social ethics in museums,” said Professor Jennifer Carter of museum studies. “We’re talking about museums involving communities in programming, in exhibition development, in a much more open-ended way.”
She cited the recent decision by Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England, to consult Haida peoples about its collection and the Royal Ontario Museum’s move to involve
First Nations elders in the construction of its First Nations hall.
“Museums, as colonial institutions, developed their own categories for naming objects, so we’re looking at how we can make those categories more reflective of the communities that used those objects,” Carter said.
Museum studies is celebrating 40 years at the University of Toronto and the program recently hosted a sold-out conference, Taking Stock: Museum Studies and Museum Practices in Canada. Students, alumni, faculty and museum professionals spent more than two days wrestling with topics from pedagogy to partnering with First Nations.
“We wanted to take stock of what’s been done but also to think through and create new research alliances for the future,” said Carter, conference chair. “We hope that we opened the door to different kinds of thinking and practices.”
Museums are as much about narratives as collections or display and deciding what story you want to tell and how to tell it is a challenge, said museum studies professor Lynne Teather.
“We’re grappling with the thorniest issues of people’s cultures and how we represent them through the objects we hold or the way in which we show them and engage publics,” Teather said.
The trend in recent years towards memorial institutions such as Holocaust museums or museums based on an idea, such as human rights, rather than a collection, also presents challenges, said Carter.
“How you present traumatic information is very sensitive and also how you institutionalize memory,” said Carter. “We’re talking about the role of museums in developing historical consciousness.”
Teather, who began lecturing at the university in 1979, said “the conversation here has always been cutting edge.” She pointed to a student thesis from 1989 that argued northern museums could only work if communities and indigenous peoples participated.
“Many of our students have gone out to push practice, to be a conscience wherever they were working,” said Teather.
Research Week - The Biography of Votive Objects
Some of these projects sound so fascinating! It must be so inspiring to sit in on these talks and listen to people describe their projects.
What really makes something ‘votive’ is, it seems, the intention of the giver. They give this item to the sanctuary to ask for help, or to give thanks, and it this intention which makes an object votive. These objects are often anonymous, but some are iconic or personalised.
What is interesting, though, is what happens to the objects after they have been dedicated. Some are kept, but many things go to the ‘Bazaar’, re-entering the commercial world - I think this idea was surprising and shocking to some people. Sometimes things are disposed of in other ways, destroyed or donated. Many people don’t know this. It’s interesting to debate upon the ethics of this.
Professional Development and this time it’s FREE!
Back from London!
This from PastPort:
Since we’re on the topic of professional development….
The Archaeology Program of the National Park Service in conjunction with the University of Maryland offers a series of distance learning courses designed to aid archaeologists, cultural resource managers, and museum staff members in the creation of interpretative programs and the care of archaeological collections. All of the self-paced courses are free and available to everyone. The courses may be found at National Park Service Archaeology Program Distance Learning.
Here are some of the courses available:
Managing Archeological Collections
Archeology for Interpreters
Interpretation for Archeologists
Study Tour of Archeological Interpretation
Assessment of Archeology Interpretation
Caring for Your Historic Building — Online Education
In other news, I have applied to at least 150 jobs over the past 6 months, leading to 1 interview and 0 serious prospects.
ETA: “Only” 150ish jobs because I’m not just applying for any old job. Also sorry potential employers, I know I BREAK ALL THE RULES when I show you negative qualities about me like:
- I am not a hot market commodity, which you could have probably figured out the moment you saw “M.A. Museum Studies” on my resume.
- I have a blog.
- I have another blog about how I think jobs should pay money in return for work. This means I must be either greedy or a socialist, and possibly both!
This is a very familiar story - have applied for multiple jobs (problems compounded by the fact that museum jobs in Austria don’t seem to be advertised in the same way as the UK, lots of word of mouth and through - subscription payable - professional organisations). I sent out C.V.s anyway, got two interviews, neither actually had any jobs going but found my C.V. interesting (nice, but no good to me).
My problems seem to be:
- Austrians don’t seem to believe that an English person can speak German (despite it being written on my CV, both expressed surprise when I interviewed in German)
- Museum Studies MA doesn’t really exist here in the same way and the closest things are still quite young. There isn’t the same route into the museums profession (if only I had know that I would end up here when I carefully planned my career-orientated qualifications!)
- Jobs aren’t really advertised. Sometimes something will come up on the museum homepage but more often than not they get sent out over listservs for professional organisations (universally expensive) or through friends. It’s a hard circle to break into the get the networking opportunities.
If anyone can think of any ways to get around this or turn it to my favour, please let me know!
