next »

[msparticularity]

Related to Larryc's comment about being sure to take a course in grantwriting--I would also suggest some coursework and some experience in educational methods. Many of the museum positions that come up in smaller to mid-sized museums and communities require the ability to juggle curatorial responsibilities with grantwriting and educational outreach. In fact, there are federal grantmaking programs that specifically target school-arts partnerships, and few small to mid-sized museums have the funding to hire specialized staff in each area.

[bread_pirate_naan]

Related to Larryc's comment about being sure to take a course in grantwriting--I would also suggest some coursework and some experience in educational methods. Many of the museum positions that come up in smaller to mid-sized museums and communities require the ability to juggle curatorial responsibilities with grantwriting and educational outreach. In fact, there are federal grantmaking programs that specifically target school-arts partnerships, and few small to mid-sized museums have the funding to hire specialized staff in each area.

Since there have been some threads on the board on related topics:

Art Education is a PhD field of its own and is focused almost exclusively on K-12  (and is a fine arts field).   Education and Curatorial are not especially closely allied or parallel fields.  The sort of generalist preparation you are recommending is a field called arts administration and prepares people for jobs at small institutions and sites of historic preservation. It's more closely allied with public history than museum studies (from the perspective of someone like the OP with fine arts scholarship in her past).  And, once you go the museum route academe is pretty much ruled out.  Top people curate from Art History as as university scholars, but not in every field.

Remarkably, the arts are as specialized as the sciences and telling a curator to get some courses in education is like suggesting a physicist make sure they know some biology.    It doesn't make you more marketable for the field you want.  Fundraising and grantwriting, on the other hand, are things no one aspires to do, and is the way to fund one's own work, therefore indispensable to any PhD in any discipline.  There are always opening in Development.

As someone with some general grantwriting training and some seasoning in the approaches of the sciences/medicine as well -- like internships, it is useful to learn fine points and insider tips within the field of specialization (ie Natural History is not the same as Ethnic study), rather than tack on general grantwriting skills which one can research and pick up fairly independently.

[msparticularity]

Related to Larryc's comment about being sure to take a course in grantwriting--I would also suggest some coursework and some experience in educational methods. Many of the museum positions that come up in smaller to mid-sized museums and communities require the ability to juggle curatorial responsibilities with grantwriting and educational outreach. In fact, there are federal grantmaking programs that specifically target school-arts partnerships, and few small to mid-sized museums have the funding to hire specialized staff in each area.

Since there have been some threads on the board on related topics:

Art Education is a PhD field of its own and is focused almost exclusively on K-12  (and is a fine arts field).   Education and Curatorial are not especially closely allied or parallel fields.  The sort of generalist preparation you are recommending is a field called arts administration and prepares people for jobs at small institutions and sites of historic preservation. It's more closely allied with public history than museum studies (from the perspective of someone like the OP with fine arts scholarship in her past).  And, once you go the museum route academe is pretty much ruled out.  Top people curate from Art History as as university scholars, but not in every field.

I agree that what I am suggesting would be a generalist route for someone who might be interested in employment at a small institution and/or within a community arts and cultural setting--that's why I highlighted exactly what kinds of employment it might lead to. These may or may not have any relationship with the OP's actual interests, of course, but these kinds of positions are what the recent graduates of the curatorial programs I have worked with (at two universities in two states) have been able to find in the last 3-5 years. These are also the kinds of positions currently being funded through federal grantmaking activity, which means that--at the moment at least--they are being created rather than cut in some places. As in so many areas, I think a lot of folks are having to weigh back-up options to careers that focus purely upon curatorship; my intention was just to suggest what some of those might be.

K-12 arts education is indeed a discrete professional licensure field, and I am in no way suggesting that this would be a possible or desirable direction for the OP or anyone else. The current placement rate for people in K-12 arts education is absolutely abysmal; our recent graduates, several of whom have both an MFA and K-12 certification, have not been able to find employment anywhere at all within the continental U.S. Arts positions are generally the first to go when teachers are being laid off, and the last to be reinstated.

[bread_pirate_naan]

She has an MA in museum studies, therefore is qualified for those jobs already, and more broadly trained than a curatorial MA. 

Art Education in museums is not a licensure field.  K-12 is a degree associated with studio practice, like music education, and requires a K-12 credential.  Art Education at the institutional level is an area of scholarly specialization at the MA/doctoral level, and preparatory programs will most often be associated or within the history of art. The national museums have great resources for credentialed educators.   

Museum educators develop the materials for people with K-12 credentials, and teach professional development courses for classroom teachers(art, history, science, nature).  Trust me on this.  Different professions, not necessarily interchangeable.  Museum educators are not subject to credential controls or qualifications at state or district levels, and credentialed educators (art or otherwise) have not been trained for the museum world. 

Art education in the museum world is one of the most accessible careers for people with BA/MAs in the history of art (but not very), and will often involve working with volunteer docents.  MAs can get a  specialization in the field.  Curatorial is a prestige job, and museum educators utilize their research, hence, the need for a PhD.

Really, like a library degree is no longer a good back up for humanities people, the museum field is a bonafide and competitive career, not plan B or a fallback MA. 

[disambiguate]

Thanks for the clarification BPN.  I do occasionally have students who are interested in museum careers, so I'll be sure to clarify the differences in my own head for those conversations.

[msparticularity]

BPN, I think you and I are talking past one another here. I absolutely agree with the distinctions you are making among these fields, and I also recognize that these distinctions in expertise and job assignments will matter at a major institution. I also realize that the primary focus of the OP is upon working at a major museum, since she says:

I have an MA in Museum Studies already and have collections management and preservation training, etc. These are great skills for a museum position like a collections manager, but not enough to get you hired as a curator (research, publishing, and exhibition development) in a major museum.

My suggested backup option is not that she make some kind of change in trajectory toward arts education (which is what I think at least some of your comments address)--it is that she might want to think about whether she has any interest in being a curator at a small institution--one where one must by default become something of a jack-of-all trades. As Larry has pointed out, gaining grantwriting skills is definitely helpful. The other major skill that appears to be increasingly helpful for a curator at a small to mid-sized museum or historic site is the ability to actually create and coordinate educational programming with local school districts and other entities--including seeking grant funding to support it.

I have recently been a grant reviewer for the Teaching American History grant program, which requires that school districts partner with local entities including museums and historic sites. One truly striking thing to me was how many of these curators had advanced research degrees in their particular curatorial specialties, combined with some background and expertise in education--especially curriculum development. This pattern was most striking for the arts, but was also noticeable at historic sites. This--combined with the placements I have seen recently from curatorial programs--was what occasioned my comments.

[bread_pirate_naan]

Right-o.  I think the OP is trying to come to terms with having miscalculated her starting curatorial salary by 40K. 

[mountainguy]

I can't speak to the museum studies angle, but I took some of my PhD cognate classes in American Studies and had a positive experience with it. Be aware that what counts as "American Studies" can vary widely by program--some are basically public history and others are more oriented toward cultural studies--so make sure that the program is able to support your interests.

[larryc]

It sounds like the OP has the museum skills and is looking for another credential. I agree with BPN's comments that some top-flight internships could be the key to getting you to the next level. Also, look at some of the people who have the jobs that you want and learn how they got there.  Good luck.

[dellaroux]

I'd also look carefully to see if there is a course or course content somewhere that lets you look at objects from both a fine arts and a material culture perspective, and clarifies what theoretical and practical concerns might be raised in interpreting such objects, discussing them in academic settings, and so on.

This is an area that could be better handled than it is, and that would possibly have some fruitful discursive results if a few folks on both sides of the table would sit down and write a book or two on the topic. Anthro, art history and sociology need to be in better conversation with each other over all, and there are areas in this field in particular where the ragged edges still want mending.

Because of the popularity of some objects and some narrative approaches, it's often hard to scrape away all the red, white, and blue-painted barnacles on the ship and see what wood it really was made of.

[sheepdog_working]

I confess that I haven't read every word of this thread, but I want to insert one quick datum: as of a few years ago, the American Studies PhD program at George Washington University had a fantastic track record of placing people in great museum jobs.  The OP would be wise to check to see whether that's still the case.  If it is, do consider GW.