Notes from the Roundtable Discussions

Association of College and University Museums & Galleries (ACUMG)
Annual Conference - Saturday May 2, 1009
The Museum Studies Experiment: What is it? Why do it? Who owns it?

MORNING SESSIONS

1. Faculty/Student Curatorial Projects: Focused Approaches to Museum Learning
Discussion Leader: Lynn Marsden-Atlass, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania
Facilitator: Caroline Rossy, American Swedish Historical Museum

Ideas & Issues:
- Lynn came into the field prior to museum studies programs, she studied art history in college. She learned much of what she does on the job.
- Her style came out of her early experience, figuring things out as she went along.
- Mentoring students give her an opportunity to pass on what she knows and to give them an experience that she didn't have as student.
- Interns work with her on everything that she does, editing catalogues and labels, exhibit research, preparing PowerPoint presentations for lectures.
- Other intern programs at University of Maryland and American University have summer internships for exhibits: students design shows and do marketing.
- Some institutions couldn't do all of their programming and exhibitions without interns, only source of extra (often free) labor.
- Many university programs are sponsored by the art and art history depts., especially if the school doesn't have a museum studies track.
- How can we collaborate with more than just art depts.?
- Other schools use student work study/internships to collaborate with other campus departments. For example, at the University of Pennsylvania, the school of design had students work with the Arthur Ross Gallery to design the exhibition installation and catalogue.
- The Arthur Ross Gallery's current mandate is to collaborate with other departments at Penn and other institutions for exhibition themes/content.
- It can be hard to collaborate with faculty. Museums and galleries run on different schedule than academics.
- In collaborating, it's important to have mutual interest and relevant outcomes, otherwise partnerships won't work.
- Time and money is often scarce.
- Students can help museums by bringing in a new audience, helping to bring in the community.
- There is a strong desire to find a good model for creating more and sustainable museum, faculty and student collaborations.

What do students want from Museum Studies?
Quotes from recent graduates:
"I think that internships are super important, so that we actually go into the field having some "real world" experience."
"It's helpful to learn about departments/subjects other than your focus area."
"I really appreciate being able to understand the goals and practices of the other teams at my museum."
"Meeting established museum professionals through internships and some of our classes was helpful. Although I found a job outside of Philadelphia, it felt good when I was there to feel like I had some 'connections.'"
"I think museum studies students should be aware of web-based technology, content management systems, social networking, graphic design, etc."
"There may be a need for some type of interdisciplinary project management coursework for those who wish to do administrative work."
"It's really important to work directly with museums on projects that directly affect museum programming. For example, studio art/design students help design installations and publications; Median/Communications majors work on the actual marketing/pr materials...that way students can also build their portfolio while earning their degree."

Questions to pose to academic museum leadership:
- What is the value of internships?
- What kind of technology do you expect to use/need to understand?
- What is the value of interdepartmental projects?
- How can students gain from working with a real collection?
- Is not-for-profit business administration a necessary component of museum studies?
- What does working on actual museum programming, marketing or exhibit design provide for students?

2. Practicums and Internships
Discussion Leader: Jill Hartz, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon
Facilitator: Michiko Okaya, Lafayette College Art Galleries

Most of the discussion was about internships within the academic institution and not about the value of sending students to other institutions.

Jill Hartz began the discussion with some thoughts on the value of internships and practicum:
- Job candidates with internship experience have advantages over those who don't.
- Through internships students develop an interest in working in the field.
- Interns perform valuable services for understaffed institutions.
- Student interns who go into the field become alumni of the parent institution and the museum, and can be called on to support the museum, offer future internship and networking opportunities.

There are many different internship models, some examples cited:
- Interested undergraduates at Cornell are selected after an interview process; commit to 10 hours/week; meet together once a week; the internship results in an exhibition project.
- Many internships are one-on-one relationships.
- At the University of Oregon, graduate students receive course credit for practicum (8-10 hours/week/ quarter.)
- Initiated by students. In one example a student was interested in art conservation, and as a result did an internship in a print collection, and is now a conservation technician with the same collection.
- Students will work in a single department, or will rotate through many departments in an institution, depending on the scale and stewardship availability.
- It was noted that students have many pressures on their time and in order to encourage students to complete projects, students can receive course credit or be paid. Although many museums can't afford to pay students, there are some who do pay their student interns. In order to support this, a suggestion was made to find donor(s) to support assistantships.
- Undergraduate and graduate students have different levels of interest, skills.

Also:
- Internships can be very useful to have between undergraduate and graduate school
- Student interns from different departments can be a bridge between the museum and faculty.
- Could internship opportunities be posted on the list-serve? Or are there other central places to post internship opportunities?

3. 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

Where are we finding our supporters and allies in discipline-based programs?
On behalf of Kris Anderson and myself, I would like to point out that this was the largest polity at the conference, at 21 people.

How many programs represented here are tied to a museum?
Just under half. One graduate program started in the museum and moved to a department and there 5 freestanding programs.

+ Developing interdisciplinary programming is viewed as a way to strengthen a program. The challenge is that, because of the interdisciplinary nature, there is a lack of funding for the entity. Dollars still go to specific departments and then get allocated, hopefully, to the partnership.

+ Use of a strong collection to teach across disciplines helped strengthen funding (for museum-based programs).

+/- The partnership has to seek adjuncts to fill in specialties.

+ Invite faculty from many disciplines during program development as a way to engage them in a program when it is launched.

Some business programs are investigating the addition of/adding arts administration because it makes for better-rounded business students/MBA candidates. Most programs mentioned were in business schools/departments.

A challenge is that other disciplines may not value museum studies, i.e. what do they "get out of it?" And when they don't value the program, they don't value the faculty.

Another challenge is the difficulty of having considerable variation in nomenclature. (For example, compare to a library science degree program, which also has considerable variation, but it is all within library science (not museum studies, arts administration, curatorial studies, etc.)

A plus and a challenge is being an alternative to classroom education. Largely a (+) practical work experience, but in down economy, (-) more vulnerable to retrenchment.

How do different institutions protect museum studies?
For example, at a research 1 institution, where mission is all research, it may devalue museum studies. Perhaps museum studies can be viewed as a way to protect and maintain support in down economy.

+ Use of successful program Ð the placement of students in museum jobs helps a program be recognized as important across disciplines.

Besides jobs, are there other reasons people on campus support?
+ Because of the interdisciplinarity/interdepartmental nature of the program, it is viewed as a distinctive aspect of the parent institution that can be used as a recruitment and donor tool.

4. Partnership Degrees: Museum Studies & the Sciences
Discussion Leader: Peter Tirrell, Sam Noble Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma
Facilitator: Brent Tharp, Georgia Southern University

Because art museums are the preponderance of university and college museum, it is worth questioning whether the sciences are being ignored in training museum professionals.

The U.S. educational system is very rigidly structured, students are expected to fulfill all the requirements of their department and of partner departments, leaving very little time or opportunity to develop truly interdisciplinary opportunities. This is particularly a problem with science curators who tend to be highly focused on research and sometimes lack development of the ability to work well together with others in team discussions/projects.

Interestingly enough, there is some optimism that the bad economic times may provide the opportunity to act on some of these issues. Likewise, globalization has also been and will be important in changing how people will learn, creating more opportunity for "composite" learning, to create more synthesis.

Museums in general, and science museums especially, are well situated to play a greater role in this transformation. Museums don't often react well to crisis management. They are not structured to move/change quickly, but museums can manage crises by preempting them through the education/prediction process in cooperation with the public. In other words, instead of merely reacting/responding to things like the swine flu pandemic, museums are good at putting such events in a greater perspective, culturally and scientifically, for the public/students by predicting and discussing trend. For example, what else is out there that could or will be the next pandemic, or, how do we get ahead of the continuing debate on evolution?

From a museum studies perspective, how to do we get our museum staff to effectively participate in this prediction/interpretation process if, as we have noted, they are not trained in interdisciplinary programs? Sciences, like others, continue to be too departmentalized, producing scholars/museum professionals who are not interdisciplinary. Science museums need to begin to work with art museums and libraries and their associated training programs. Much of the dilemma with science museums has been the problem of traditionally bringing curators into administrative positions for which they were not educated/ trained. Thus, science museums continue looking elsewhere, like MBA programs, to find leaders with these skills. Similarly, students have had to create programs to follow any interests, such as combining art with science and math to develop a degree in conservation.

American Studies has been one area of academic programs that has successfully created opportunities to create unique programs/collaborations, but the degree has continued to face an aura of suspicion by traditional academic departments.

The challenge will be to train people with knowledge that can be applied in many areas, rather than just content-specific, to create professionals who can be successful in science museums and in collaborations with other museums. Traditional boundaries are still too strict, even though the artifact base may not support such boundaries. What is considered "art" in one museum might be labeled an "ethnographic artifact" in another.

One key to developing these skills is the necessity for good internship programs that are part of the museum studies degree. These opportunities often have been more successful in training and identifying/creating people who are interested in interdisciplinary programs. They are vital in developing theory and practice in tandem.

There will always be a place for programs that are "signature" programs, that are known and recognized for producing a very specific specialization, but we still need a way of instilling broad leadership, and other professional skills such as successful planning and meeting development.

The current economy has recently produced some significant closings and crises in the science museum community. The extent/scale of the problem can be partially attributed to a traditional staff culture that was not prepared to deal with change, with developing institutional relevance, nor anticipating change, thus bringing us back to our essential opening questions.

5. Doctorate Degrees in Museum Studies
Discussion Leader: Peggy Lindauer, Virginia Commonwealth University
Facilitator: Susan Moldenhauer, University of Wyoming Art Museum

Peggy introduced the session with information on a study at Virginia Commonwealth University about the feasibility study on adding a PhD in museum studies at VCU (conducted in 2006). University faculty was ambivalent to the idea. She then asked a series of questions for the group to consider:

Why have a PhD in museum studies?

What would a PhD contribute to the museum field and how does it impact the standards for the masters degree?

Where does the PhD fit in? It is not all job driven but also offers new research to give back to the field.

Comments from the group:
- Jobs are not available in museum studies.
- Should be considered a joint degree with other doctoral programs in the university.
- It has the advantage of addressing the field's need for a body of research.

Question: What are the research field needs? What are the research questions?
- Qualifications of a director for research museums is business background.
- Does PhD in museum studies need to involve business? Or what are we researching?

Question: Who should the faculty be?
- Museum professionals may return to gain advanced degree in research.
- Ask the field: What competencies would best serve the field?
- Leadership?

Question: What would dissertation topics be?
- Leadership, management, and general business applied to museological setting.
- Curatorial study could take up specific research scholarship.
- Creating a point of intersections with professional training and theory based courses.
- Non-profit management, education, and theoretical issues in which museums lie, such as the history of art
- Or is research being done already in other PhD programs and will the PhD generate the topics of research?
- Masters programs would support PhD programs.
- How many students could be taken into a PhD program? Issues include ability to retain quality, cost, and faculty demands.
- Museum studies are academic programs with a disciplinary background.

Question: Should museum studies be a discipline?
- Museum studies are a great vehicle for inter-disciplinarity on campus.
- At the University of Washington, the museum studies program resides in the Graduate School. Having it placed within a college would reduce effectiveness across disciplines.

Question: What would the core curriculum for a PhD look like?
- Research methods course with personalized curriculum based on student interest/need.
- Curatorial track in PhD Program, for example PhD in art history, museum studies, and non-profit management.
- Core course should be based on issues, ethics, and the law.
- The beauty of the discipline is that it doesn't fit anywhere.

Peggy concluded the session with comments about how the U.S. is falling behind because of the obstacles and challenges of creating a PhD in museum studies, unlike the U.K. where museum studies programs are advancing and contributing research to the field. After careful consideration and efforts at VCU, a PhD program has not been established.

6. Undergraduate Learning & Museum Studies
Discussion Leader: Nicolette Meister, Logan Museum, Beloit College
Facilitator: Sherry Maurer, Augustana College Art Museum

An overview list was distributed of undergraduate museum studies programs in North America:
- 33 undergraduate programs in the U.S., including Beloit College
- at least 56 graduate programs in the U.S.

There are majors, minors, certificates and concentrations. Beloit College offers a museum studies minor.

Background:
Beloit College is a small, private liberal arts undergraduate college located in southern Wisconsin. The campus museums are: Logan Museum of Anthropology that curates approximately 250,000 objects and the Wright Museum of Art that holds approximately 6,000 objects. Both museums are run by small professional staffs: 2.5 FTE at the Logan and 2 FTE at the Wright. Both museums have served as teaching laboratories since their inception and in the case of the Logan, the museum came before the department of anthropology. The Beloit College museum studies program centers the museums in the college through a balance of college courses and practical hands-on experience in two campus museums. This is a stand alone program. Entrenched is the ideal of the museum in the school forming a bridge over to academics. Faculty and students involved come from art history, anthropology, education, classical studies, foreign languages, geology, etc.

The goals of the museum studies minor are: 1) to prepare students planning to do graduate work in their academic discipline or museum studies; 2) to prepare students who wish to enter the field at an entry-level position; 3) to generate critically engaged museum goers.

Requirements: 6 units (credits) of museum courses taught by museum staff, 3 units of supporting interdisciplinary courses from the college faculty or guest instructors, 1 unit practicum with a faculty sponsor, extensive off-campus internship with reflective component, participation in museum programs. This is not the only model; every institution is different.

The primary focus of this program is to develop museum literacy and encourage students to be strong critical thinkers; it is not expected that this program graduates a museum professional.

Pros: This program at Beloit has the highest enrollment of any campus minor. It keeps the museum staff very up to date in the field, and connects them out to other museums and professionals. The reputation of the Beloit programs provides an opening for their students looking for internships and, eventually, for jobs.

Considerations: None of the museum staff have tenured faculty status so they cannot steer or vote on adjustments to their program. As 12-month full-time salaried staff, they are not additionally compensated for teaching the museum courses. It is not yet clear how this program slots into a master's program in museum studies; at present there is some duplication of requirements.

Nicolette left these questions:
What is, or should be, the role of undergraduate museum studies programs? Do undergraduate museum studies programs duplicate the graduate programs? Does a completion of an undergraduate program make the candidate more desirable for a graduate program?

7. Museum Training and COMPT (Committee on Museum Professional Training Ð A Professional Standing Committee of the American Association of Museums)
Discussion Leader: Carlo Lamagna, Steinhardt School, New York University
Facilitator: Lisa Tremper Hanover, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania

COMPT is proactive in developing management training workshops, collating information on programs, and have developed a Standards & Best Practices Guidelines for museum professional training programs. This fits into the larger academic structure which legitimizes our disciplines. COMPT looks to be a vehicle to provide resources and common educational goals to undergraduate and graduate programs.

COMPT leadership is working to get programs to embrace and endorse the overall standards, to talk to each other about curriculum, to share models, to provide a common resource point for information. An important goal is to develop an annotated bibliography (Book List) of museum studies and related fields of pedagogy with reviews and recommendations to share with the field. Perhaps this can be a joint effort between the COMPT and ACUMG organizations.

How does one evaluate one museum studies program over another? Internship program structure and job placements are revealing statistics. Most programs are on a graduate level, offer a certificate or M.A. A Ph.D. program in museum studies might be too narrow whereas the Ph.D. in art history offers curatorial, teaching, commercial gallery, or auction house opportunities.

The on-campus museum as laboratory in support of museum studies programs is a natural collaboration. Although sometimes the practical issues of sharing faculty, sharing space, developing courses across the disciplines, and managing the partnership can be onerous, there are models that can help guide the process. The politics of the process can preclude the success of interdisciplinary partnership, thus it takes a good leader to achieve consensus and communicate/address articulated needs.

Finally, the field needs a mentoring component to educate our future professionals.

AFTERNOON SESSIONS

1. What do Students Want from Museum Studies?
Discussion Leader: Caroline Rossy, American Swedish Historical Museum, Philadelphia
Facilitator: Lynn Marsden-Atlass, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania

Caroline Rossy spoke briefly about her background: BA in art history from Vassar, where she was also a docent. Upon graduation she worked for a Miami art dealer, then received her MA in museum communications at the University of the Arts in 2007. Caroline did a one-semester internship with Lynn Marsden-Atlass at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in fall 2006 for academic credit, and continued in the spring 2007 as an intern without receiving academic credit. She worked on two PAFA exhibitions: Daniel Garber and Cecilia Beaux. Caroline also interned with the American Swedish Historical Museum.

Caroline surveyed her MA colleagues to provide answers to the question: "What do students want from museum studies?" Reponses to her survey were:

1. Internships and assistantships Ð these are essential and greatly desired.
2. Technology/and current social network skills are required in the museum world.
3. Interdisciplinary studies training in historic houses/ science museums and art museums.
4. Courses in business (in profit and non-profit training) relevant to museum administrations programs.

Several museum directors in our group noted the important symbiotic relationship of interns and staff. They cited the training of students as docents, guards and behind-the-scenes work/study students. They affirmed the importance of students to keep moving forward the museum with a small professional staff. In one case, at the Daura Gallery, one graduate assistant is hired who manages all the educational and outreach programming for gallery exhibitions. On-the-job training and mentoring are seen the most important benefits of student internships.

A second recent graduate noted some positive and negative aspects she experienced as a student intern. In her museum, interns were the docents for more than 4,000 school children who visited in an academic year. Student interns were paid work/study wages to tour groups and they were assured 8 hours of work per week. Yet there were peak times (spring and fall) when students were required to devote 15 or 20 hours a week to keep up with tour requests. This was a strain on their academics and school activities. Her answers to "What do students want from museum studies" were:

1. An outlet for the student's love of art history
2. Practice in educational methods
3. Learning to contextualize art and education with digital media
4. Training in how to engage school groups/ and adult audiences
5. Internships

2. 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

I. Andrea described her educational and career paths. She had worked in other industries but wanted to do well and make a difference. She decided to pursue an MBA during the late 1980s when the arts were facing budget cuts and the need to have arts professionals who could communicate with the corporate world was very important. She applied for a museum position and was told that even with her BA in art history and MBA, her knowledge of arts management, budgeting, etc., she was not qualified, and so she decided to pursue a PhD in art history. The combination of degrees would make her a strong candidate for curating a corporate art collection, but by the time she finished, many of these corporations were no longer building collections. The educational experience and credentials did, however, make her well positioned for a curatorial position at a university.

II. MBA degree useful as it teaches budgeting and forecasting, strategic planning, management skills, resource allocation, and statistical analysis. While not essential for organizing exhibitions, for example, it makes that task easier and faster by having these skills. MBA training is useful even for staff members who are not a director, as so many museum positions require management skills.

III. PHD in art history confirms expertise. This can be useful not just for knowing collections, artists, etc., but to gain respect among faculty. Faculty with PhDs don't necessarily understand that they don't have curatorial expertise.

IV. Together the degrees support left brain-right brainwork. They offer flexibility in terms of career options.

V. Need to ask what your career goals are and what degrees are necessary to make that possible. Also need to ask what gives you the most pleasure and figure out a career that supports it.

3. Museums Studies versus Curatorial Studies and Arts Administration
Discussion Leaders: Helen Shannon, University of the Arts
Phaedre Livingstone, Graduate Program in Arts Administration, University of Oregon
Facilitator: Dan Mills, Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania

How do these disciplines speak to one another, and how are they distinct from one another. Are students looking at different programs?

Curatorial studies (CS) tract is usually a more focused, discreet program: focused on curatorial and related issues.

Museum studies (MS) is more encompassing than curatorial studies, but focused on the museum program as a whole entity.

Arts administration (AA) is the most all-encompassing and may include other arts/kinds of arts professions. (Think of three overlapping circles, with CS on the left, MS in the middle, and AA on the right.)

Does one have more/less advantage?
What are the disciplinary alignments?
Does one have more historical depth?
Do these issues affect students? hiring of graduates? the profession?

10-15 years ago, many students were professionals who were in the field 5-10 years and returned to further their studies. Now many are students who enter graduate studies directly from undergraduate school.

Programs are increasingly being formed as professional programs. How can undergraduate programs inform the upper level studies?

Conversations were about the importance of focusing more on the academic discipline and development of competencies in this (art, anthropology, etc.), than MS/CS/AA for advanced studies.

Final thoughts:
The question is whether the variety and diversity of programs is a strength or weakness. If it is a strength, it may suffer for not being understood as one area. Again, think of library science. They, too, have a variety and diversity of programs, but all come under the MLS degree. It may be detrimental to not have the variety and diversity unified under a common degree.

4. Options: Certificate, Museums Institute, or Degree Programs
Discussion Leaders: Marion Goethels, Summer Institute in Art Museum Studies, Smith College
Facilitator: Sherry Maurer, Augustana College Art Museum

1. Definition of certificate in museum studies: a certificate at master's level; requirements not standardized
- One program is about 18 credit hours (interdisciplinary), 4 courses, 6 internships, 1-1/2 years
- One program is five courses with a 3 credit-hour internship

2. Definition of museum institute: continuing education, not degree bearing, open-ended definition; a time to step out of your life and bore down on a subject. Examples:
- Getty Leadership Institute
- Smith College Summer Institute for Art Museum Studies
The Smith College Summer Institute has three components of practicum/academic study/travel to museums and to meet experts: set up with a Melon Foundation GrantÑtuition is $5,000 for 6 weeks with financial aid (alumna and Kress Foundation); enrollment cap of 15 is set by number of people who fit into athletic vans; and staff consists of 2 graduate students and 2 museum staff. For a practicum the students are divided into 4 teams and are given a selection of 40 pieces installed in the Art Museum that they can draw upon to create an exhibition with a catalog that they design and self-publish, and they design an educational program, audience survey, etc. Along with in-house guest lectures, students shadow two separate museums, and have interviews with people in museums of different types and sizes. They receive individual career counseling. The purpose: to provide opportunities to explore museums and museum work for students who don't have access to such programs; many students are studio art majors who want an inside look at the museum world, or a paying job to support launching their art careers; and some are west coast residents who want to explore the east coast. Challenge: when the Mellon Foundation support ends, the program will have to self-sustain.

3. Definition of degree programs: college and university for-credit programs

Considerations before starting a program:
- What's in it for the students, museums, museum field, and parent institution?
- Who is going to supervise the supervisor of internships?
- What is the desired outcome? Is there a need in the field for people with this training? Do advertised positions look for this kind of experience?

Are there some positive effects from such programs?
- These programs particularly train small museum professionals who need more background.
- There can be more support and buy-in to museum collaborations from faculty who have had some of this training/exposure to museum work while they were students.

Final Advice: The impetus for such programs needs to emerge from students. Be wary of a request from a parent institution that asks to start a program purely for financial gain.

5. 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

Bob began with determination of involvement in museum studies programs. There were 4 students in the group, which offered an opportunity for current professionals to offer guidance.

A comment was made that in the next 5 years, 75% of the current leaders in the museums will retire. There is a real need for leaders in the future who have strong administrative skills and fundraising expertise.

"Leaders" does not only mean "directors," but alludes to leaders within every area of the museum, such as collections and education. The old "outreach" model is transitioning into outcomes based learning and how to assess it.

Career path should not be job focused but guided by your passion.

The advantage of small museums is that they offer broad experience.

Great value in gaining experience beyond curriculum in museum work in order to distinguish yourself from your peers upon trying to enter the job market.

6. What does the Job Market Look Like?
Discussion Leader: Linda Sweet, Partner, Management Consultants for the Arts
Facilitator: Lisa Tremper Hanover, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania

Linda Sweet comes from an art history/museum background and has been in the executive recruiting business for over 20 years. She noted that the prospects for positions in September 2008 were much different than in today's economic climate. High-level positions are still sustained; however the second tier of administrators (senior curators, deputy directors) is not being filled with any urgency, and paid consultants are not used to recruit for these positions.

That said, being a part of the museum field is a passion, and there are opportunities if you use your imagination in bringing together a diverse academic background in tandem with core museum expectations. This demands being creative, flexible, and recognizing serendipitous opportunities. Make a commitment to the field even if early opportunities are tangential. She also recommended broadening your experience by working in other fields that link with museum work (i.e. frame shop, volunteer as a docent, teaching). Internships, residencies, and fellowships are critical paths to experience and to make connections.

Undergraduates are going directly to graduate school to develop the underpinnings of art history (for curatorial interests), the sciences, and in tandem with museum studies programs.

Consider working as a consultant and contract curatorial, preparatory and educational services; this is a void that can be a foot in the door. Volunteering is also a primary opportunity to create a position or learn first hand information on available positions.