Course Description:
Museum Studies is both a study of the historical and cultural aspects of museums and museology, as well as a flexible platform for students to engage in the study, research and presentation of a variety of art and objects, ranging from material culture to art history to media. Another option is for students to present collections of artifacts, natural history, cultural history, and other topics of their choice within a visual format. Students will learn how to design virtual museums or develop proposals for actual museum exhibitions, depending upon their individual interests.
While presented through the lens of the visual arts and humanities, students from other fields may learn about research, concept development, cataloguing information, and visual presentation in a way that might translate into their own discipline or future career. A student could begin to prepare him/herself in the fields of museum education, curatorial practice, art education, or any other field that calls for visual presentation.
In keeping with the idea of the curator as the center of museum activity, and in recognizing the expectation of the curator to understand the concepts, styles, and ideas behind works of art and/objects from the world and their historical context, the focus of the Museum Studies course will be on curatorial practice. In addition, students will be connected to resources within the field of museology through the Association of American Museums, part of the Smithsonian Institution website serving the field of museum professionals and educators.
The course requires solid critical thinking and writing skills, as well as a desire to apply creativity (in the broadest sense) to a variety of written and visually oriented projects. While an art or art history background is very much relevant, it is not a prerequisite, as students across disciplines may take this course.
This course fully meets the General Education requirement in The Arts.
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