The Museum Studies Experiment: What is it? Why do it? Who owns it?
Thanks to All Participants!
NEW! Round Table Discussion Notes
Saturday, May 2, 2009
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Museum Studies as a field of inquiry exists in a great variety of forms across the academic landscape. These range from singular, supplementary courses offered in various academic departments to full degree programs. Regardless of their scale on our different campuses, they engage and sometimes emanate from our academic museums.
With a field so varied in its presence on our campuses and variously respected or not as a field of inquiry among its academic peers, this year’s ACUMG Conference will attempt to determine the state of Museum Studies in academe and the role our museums play in supporting it.
In keeping with the theme — The Museum Experiment — of this year’s AAM Annual Meeting, questions to be posed include:
Where does Museum Studies fit into the educational program of a university or college? Does it belong with professional training schools like law, medicine, journalism and business or is it properly placed within the context of academic disciplines such as art history, natural history, literature, or anthropology?
Is there in fact a field of inquiry called Museology, with distinct methodologies, a notable historiography, and an intellectual rigor that reaches beyond the day-to-day activities and functions that take place within collecting institutions?
Or is Museum Studies ultimately limited to serve as supplementary pre-professional training in the management of not-for-profit collecting institutions for students studying academic disciplines like those mentioned above? And to the contrary, can Museum Studies possibly stand alone as a field of inquiry without such a pairing?
Fathoming the field’s proper depth can very much determine its place in academe and its programmatic relationships with other fields of inquiry and academic museums, not to mention its luster for institutional, moral and financial support.
Conference Agenda
8:00 & 8:45 a.m.
Transportation via Romano School Bus from Philadelphia Marriott Downtown.
Bus meets at Filbert Street Entrance (Two trips).
8:30 – 9:45 a.m.
Late Registration
Main (Trescher) Entrance and Mosaic Gallery, Penn Museum
9:45 a.m.
Welcoming Remarks
Rainey Auditorium, Penn Museum
Dr. David Alan Robertson, President, ACUMG, & The Ellen Philips Katz Director, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University
Dr. Richard Hodges, The Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Dr. Vincent Price, Provost, University of Pennsylvania
10 – 10:45 a.m.
Keynote Address
Rainey Auditorium
“They’re just not that into you: Museum Studies and Academia”
Carlo Lamagna, Clinical Associate Professor, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University
10:45 – 11 a.m.
Questions & Answers
11 – 11:45 a.m.
Round Table Discussions
Penn Museum Classrooms
“Faculty/Student Curatorial Projects: Focused Approaches to Museum Learning”
Discussion Leader: Lynn Marsden-Atlass, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania
Facilitator: Caroline Rossy, Former MA Student in Museum Studies, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
“Practicums and Internships”
Discussion Leaders: Jill Hartz, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon
Facilitator: Michiko Okaya, Lafayette College Art Galleries
“The Polity of Museum Studies on College and University Campuses”
Discussion Leader: Kris Anderson, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, University of Washington
Facilitator: Dan Mills, Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University
“Partnership Degrees: Museum Studies and the Sciences”
Discussion Leader: Peter Tirrell, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma
Facilitator: Brent Tharp, Georgia Southern Museum
“Doctorate Degrees in Museum Studies”
Discussion Leader: Peggy Lindauer, Virginia Commonwealth University
Facilitator: Susan Moldenhauer, University of Wyoming Art Museum
“Curatorial Studies versus Museum Studies”
Discussion Leader: Helen Shannon, Director of Museum Studies, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
Facilitator: TBA
“Undergraduate Learning and Museum Studies”
Discussion Leader: Nicolette Meister, Beloit College
Facilitator: Sherry Maurer, Augustana College Art Museum “Museum Training and COMPT”
Discussion Leader: Carlo Lamagna, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University
Facilitator: Lisa Hanover, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College
12 – 12:45 p.m.
Round Table Facilitators’ Reports
Rainey Auditorium
1 – 2 p.m.
Luncheon
Lower Egypt Gallery, Penn Museum
2:15 – 3 p.m.
Keynote Address
Rainey Auditorium
“Thinking Deeply about Museums: the PhD in Museum Studies”
Richard Sandell, Head of the Museum Studies Department, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
3 – 3:15 p.m.
Questions and Answers
3:30 – 4:15 p.m.
Round Table Discussions
Arthur Ross Gallery
“What do Students Want from Museum Studies?”
Discussion Leader: Caroline Rossy, University of the Arts
Facilitator: Lynn Marsden-Atlass
“Career Paths and Currents in the Museum Field”
Discussion Leader: Robert Steele, The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts, University of Maryland
Facilitator: Susan Moldenhauer, University of Wyoming Art Museum “What Does the Job Market Look Like”
Discussion Leader: Linda Sweet, Partner, Management Consultants for the Arts
Facilitator: Lisa Hanover, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College
“The Academic/MBA Track to a Museum Leadership Position”
Discussion Leader: Andrea Douglass, Curator, University of Virginia Art Museum
Facilitator: Jill Hartz, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon
“Museum Studies versus Arts Administration”
Discussion Leader: Phaedre Livingstone, Museum Studies Director, Graduate Program in Arts Administration, University of Oregon
Facilitator: TBA
“Options: Certificate, Museum Institute, or Degree Programs”
Discussion Leader: Marion Goethels, Co-Director, Summer Institute in Art Museum Studies, Smith College
Facilitator: Sherry Maurer, Augustana College Art Museum Optional Afternoon Tours:
“Surviving: The Body of Evidence” (Darwin), Penn Museum Anthropology Collections, Penn Museum
Classical Archaeology Collections, Penn Museum
Architectural Archives, Kroiz Gallery, Fisher Fine Arts Library
4:15 – 4:45 p.m.
Roundtable Facilitators’ Reports
5:00 p.m.
Cocktail Reception
Penn’s Institute of Contemporary Art
6 & 6:45 p.m.
Buses depart ICA for Philadelphia Marriott Downtown/Conference Center (Two trips)
