Course objective

Students will be introduced to the history of museums and the field of museum studies. Issues of theory and practice will be examined as they relate to development, care, and use of museum and systematic collections; museum education; museum administration; exhibition development; research; and evaluation.

Particular attention will be given to issues of diversity and multiculturalism; relationship of museums to changing populations and disciplinary trends; legal and ethical implications of development and use of collections; and examination of diverse types of collections.

This course will be of special interest to those students seeking advanced study or applied research in art history, historic preservation, systematic biology, collection curation, exhibition development, history of art, folklife studies, museum work, multi-cultural educational programming, park interpretation, and public policy planning.

Textbooks

• Timothy Ambrose and Crispin Paine, Museum Basics, London: Routledge, 1993. (available at local bookstores)
• HA 485 / AL 485 Course pack (produced by Paper Image, available at College Bookstore)
  

Faculty

Marsha MacDowell (Curator of Folk Arts, Michigan State University Museum and Professor, Department of Art) and Raymond Silverman (Professor, Department of Art, Adjunct Curator for African Collections, Michigan State University Museum and Kresge Art Museum, and Director of MSU Museum Studies Program. In addition, a series of university and community museum professionals will serve as guest lecturers.

Office locations, hours, phone numbers, e-mail

MacDowell, 5 MSU Museum; by appointment; phone 355-6511; e-mail macdowel@msu.edu. Silverman, 313 Kresge Art Center; Tuesday 10 am - noon or by appointment; phone 353-9114; e-mail silveray@msu.edu.

Student e-mail

Over the course of the term various communiqués will be delivered via e-mail, you will need to maintain an active e-mail account. On occasion, you will need to access the Web site that been developed for the course. To do so point your browser at http://www.msu.edu/course/ha/485 .

Class location

All classes will meet on Mondays in Museum Auditorium and on Wednesdays in Museum Conference Room unless otherwise stated in the course schedule.

1. Complete two critical reviews of journal articles that deal with course-related issues. For a list of topics see the course schedule. The articles you select to review must be approved by the instructor. Refer to professional journals published within the last five years. Suggested sources include: Curator, Museum News, History News, Museum Anthropology, Collection Forum (Society for Preservation of Natural History Collections), Museum Education Roundtable, and International Laboratory of Visitor Studies.

Your review should include a summary of the article and a critique of key arguments. Each review must be typed and double-spaced; the suggested length is 2-3 pages. The first review is due September 11, the second, September 20.

2. Complete one review of a museum exhibition of your choice. You should deal with the following issues in your review: primary goal or intent of the exhibit, secondary goals (if apparent), what kinds of objects were exhibited, how was the exhibition designed (include lighting traffic flow, use of cases, etc.), what kinds of conservation issues were posed by the exhibition, what was the nature of the exhibition's interpretive program-how were objects labeled, what sort of documentation accompanied the exhibition (catalogue, gallery brochures, etc.), what was the nature of the public programming developed for the exhibition, if a cultural exhibition, what kind of attention was given to multicultural or ADA issues? The review must be typed and double-spaced; the suggested length is 4-8 pages. The exhibit review is due October 11.

3. Complete one review of an Institute for Museum and Library Services/General Operating Support (IMLS/GOS) grant application using the instructions provided by IMLS. These instructions will be handed out during the course. The review is due Nov. 20 and will serve as the basis for class discussion that day.

4. Complete one WWW museum site critique. Many museums have an Internet presence. Details of project to be distributed later in the term. The critique must be submitted to instructor via email; the suggested length is 500 words. The critique is due Nov. 15.

5. Complete a two-part (written and oral) final term project for which you will have two options:

a. Plan the building of a new museum based on a specific case study that will be distributed during the second week of the course. The case study involves planning for the construction of a tribal (Native American) museum.

b. Develop a proposal for an exhibition. Additional information for this project will be distributed during the second week of the course.

The written portion of the final project will be due at the end of the term (December 4) and the oral presentations will take place during one of the last two meetings of the class.

6. Optional additional activities (must be pre-approved by instructor).

Grades for the course will be calculated using the following scheme. They will be based on accumulation of points. No course grade will be assigned until all assignments are submitted.

Class attendance is mandatory. Each student will be allowed three (3) absences beginning with the first class session. Five (5) points will be deducted from the student's point total for each absence that exceeds this limit. A student may earn up to ten (10) additional points for participating in agreed-upon museum-based activities.

Computing of final course grades:

186 - 200 = 4.0
174 - 185 = 3.5
164 - 173 = 3.0
152 - 163 = 2.5
140 - 151 = 2.0
128 - 139 = 1.5
115 - 127 = 1.0