ARMS - Museum Studies (ARMS)

A survey of the entire museum: its governance, its mission, and its operation. Topics include the roles of the museum board and key staff members, including the director, curator, registrar and other department heads, as well as contemporary issues such as audience development and relevance of programming.

This course gives an overview of interpretive strategies of, and critical approaches to visual and material culture. In a format in which lectures alternate with discussions, the course covers such critical trends as formalism, iconography, Marxist/social historical analysis, semiotics, feminist and psychoanalytical theory, as well as visual and cultural studies.

This course presents a survey of the history of museums and introduces students to the complex theoretical discourse that has both informed and framed museums since their inception. Special attention will be given to the lively debate regarding the significance of museums that has gone on during the past two decades.

This course offers a practical view of managing projects and important lessons about the critical role of individuals in the museum workplace. Students will explore organizational behavior, leadership at all levels, and working on or leading teams using project management methodology applied to various museum-related activities, including a strategic planning process, a public-facing program, and exhibition development.

This course offers a practical view of museum education as a key profession, one with increasing significance in the field. We will explore educational/learning theory, andragogy, and pedagogy as applied to museum programs and activities created for learners of all ages and backgrounds, including children, adults, seniors, family audiences, and visitors with disabilities. Students will examine how demographic trends and audience motivations for museum visitation influence the development of programs, exhibits, community collaborations, and evaluation and assessment.

A seminar abroad is offered each year in May. Accompanied by a faculty member, students travel to a major European city (destinations have included Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, and Rome), where they visit museums and galleries and meet with local museum professionals. For more information, see shu.edu/academics/artsci/ma-museum-professions.

A seminar abroad is offered each year in May. Accompanied by a faculty member, students travel to a major European city (destinations have included Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, and Rome), where they visit museums and galleries and meet with local museum professionals. For more information, see shu.edu/academics/artsci/ma-museum-professions.

A seminar abroad is offered each year at the end of May. Its purpose is to acquaint students with museums and museum practice outside of the United States. Accompanied by a faculty member, students travel to a major city abroad (past destinations have included Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Paris, and Rome). During the seminar abroad, they visit museums and galleries and meet with local museum professionals. Students receive a 25% reduction in the tuition for the course, but do need to pay for travel, lodging, and food.

A seminar abroad is offered each year in May. Accompanied by a faculty member, students travel to a major European city (destinations have included Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, and Rome), where they visit museums and galleries and meet with local museum professionals. For more information, see shu.edu/academics/artsci/ma-museum-professions.

A seminar abroad is offered each year at the end of May. Its purpose is to acquaint students with museums and museum practice outside of the United States. Accompanied by a faculty member, students travel to a major city abroad (past destinations have included Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Paris, and Rome). During the seminar abroad, they visit museums and galleries and meet with local museum professionals. Students receive a 25% reduction in the tuition for the course, but do need to pay for travel, lodging, and food.

A seminar abroad is offered each year at the end of May. Its purpose is to acquaint students with museums and museum practice outside of the United States. Accompanied by a faculty member, students travel to a major city abroad (past destinations have included Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Paris, and Rome). During the seminar abroad, they visit museums and galleries and meet with local museum professionals. Students receive a 25% reduction in the tuition for the course, but do need to pay for travel, lodging, and food.

A seminar abroad is offered each year at the end of May. Its purpose is to acquaint students with museums and museum practice outside of the United States. Accompanied by a faculty member, students travel to a major city abroad (past destinations have included Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Paris, and Rome). During the seminar abroad, they visit museums and galleries and meet with local museum professionals. Students receive a 25% reduction in the tuition for the course, but do need to pay for travel, lodging, and food.

Courses on selected special topics in museum studies may be offered on an ad-hoc basis.

Courses on selected special topics in museum studies may be offered on an ad-hoc basis.

The course introduces future registrars and collection managers to issues associated with care, preservation (conservation), history, and technique of objects in a wide variety of media. To be considered are works on paper, paintings, sculpture, textiles, photographs, frames, and ethnographic objects.

Among the major topics addressed are: care and management of museum collections, administrative duties, ethics and accountability, legal issues, storage and handling, acquisitions, loans, transportation of works, art theft, risk management, authentication and appraisal.

Students acquire basic knowledge of curatorial skills through personal involvement and observation of the actual planning and implementation of an exhibition. Topics include design, budget, interpretive material, registration, conservation, lighting and promotion.

This course is an overview of selected ethical and legal issues that arise in museums. It focuses upon ethical issues that have been recently identified as becoming more critical to museums over the next 15 to 20 years, as well as specific legal issues that museum professionals encounter in their work. Topics covered include: mission, vision, and values; professional codes of ethics; roles and responsibilities of museum directors and board members; authority, social responsibility, accountability and transparency; and the responsibility of maintaining collections.

This course will provide an overview of the creation, implementation and management of a comprehensive museum fundraising program. Highlights will include positioning the annual (including membership), capital and planned giving campaigns; articulating the mission and case for support; and, becoming familiar with the techniques and methods of identifying, researching, cultivating, soliciting and stewarding donors. In addition, it will cover important aspects such as prospect research, special events, finance and accounting issues of reporting, tracking and managing a fundraising effort. The use of technology in fundraising will also be discussed.

This course gives an overview of learning theories especially applicable to childhood, then applies these theories to the museum setting. Examples from museums of diverse genres from across the country and around the world will be used to explore how museums can work with school-age audiences, curriculum, and current trends in education and testing in beneficial collaborations. The course will focus on such questions as: how can museum educators make our exhibits come alive for young learners; and, how can our collections engage students actively and experientially.

Learn how education theory can help museums attract learners of all ages and cultural backgrounds, including adults, seniors, and family audiences. Explore how theories of learning and audience motivations for museum visitation influence the development of exhibits, technology such as websites and podcasts, collaborations with adult organizations, and professional assessment. Examples from museums of diverse genres from across the country and around the world will be used to explore how museums can turn lifelong learners into constituents and docents.

This course will introduce the student to the educational role that museums play in the community to provide civic and social change through programming. Students will explore the importance of museum collaboration with other community agencies and institutions serving diverse populations.

This course will familiarize students with the many different styles of writing that are practiced in museums. From labels to grant proposals, the assignments are modeled on the kinds of writing that museum professionals engage in on a regular basis,

This course will introduce students to current theory and practice in the field of museum visitor studies. In a weekly seminar, we will review and discuss exemplar literature by practitioners working in the social sciences to familiarize students with the range of contemporary discourse and to introduce the major terms and concepts operationalized within museum visitor studies. Through a sequence of practical exercises employing qualitative methods, students will collaboratively engage their emerging conceptual understanding through first-hand research with museum users. Research exercises will combine the students’ growing understanding of research methodology, ethics and best practices, and comparative analysis to produce written reports of their findings that meet accepted standards for professional practice. Students will also investigate a current key topic in visitor studies by a careful reading of literature broadly, and produce a written essay at the end of the semester that examines and argues a position regarding that theoretical or practical topic.

This course provides a basic introductory overview of archival administration, historical documentation, and the management of historical resources. Students will gain a basic understanding of the archival functions of arrangement, description, collection development, appraisal, preservation, and reference. The class will also discuss current issues, trends, and theories that continue to change the nature of archival management, with an emphasis on the web, electronic records, digitization, and MPLP.

This course will introduce students to the conceptual and practical concerns of developing museum exhibitions. Students will discuss the exhibition as a metaphor and learn ways to communicate this metaphor most effectively. Students will examine how the exhibition process defines and is defined by the mission of the host institution, and will build skills in key areas of exhibition development - from design to wall texts, programming to audience research. The class will consider the experiences of both specialist exhibition developers in large museums and generalists meeting many competing needs in smaller institutions.

Small groups of students (2-3) produce an exhibition in the Seton Hall Walsh Library Gallery, the Pierro Gallery in South Orange, or an alternative location, under the guidance of the gallery director and a faculty member.

Special Topics.

Special Topics.

Information technologies prompt museums to rethink the ways in which they manage and exhibit their collections. Just as corporations, agencies, and universities reinvent operations in response to technological innovation, museums must meet these challenges in creative manners. The profusion of sophisticated museum websites and breathtaking “virtual exhibitions” contrasts sharply with growing discontent among professionals over lacking information standards, insufficient data storage systems, and widely differing policies regarding collection accessibility. Do “virtual exhibits” increase visitorship or will they substitute museum visits one day? This course explores the institutional impact of technology by charting the practical application of knowledge in various areas of the museum. Guest lectures and site visits facilitate assessment of traditional methods and innovative tools in the museum.

Special Topics.

In this course, students, under the supervision of a faculty member, will work independently on a reading project of their choice. The directed reading option will be offered to students who have a special interest in a topic about who receive approval from the program faculty and Graduate Studies administration.

In this course, students, under the supervision of a faculty member, will work independently on a reading project of their choice. The directed reading option will be offered to students who have a special interest in a topic about who receive approval from the program faculty and Graduate Studies administration.

Supervised practical experience learning in a museum or at a historic site how to, for example, catalog collections, put up exhibitions, conduct tours, help with fund raising, and perform other tasks.

The master’s thesis is the culminating experience of the Museum Professions Program. Students, guided by a faculty member, write a paper on a museological topic that has previously been approved by the thesis committee. The thesis must be original - based on new research - and must make a contribution to the museum field. In rare cases, a project may be substituted for a thesis.