UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 10, Page 5
November 7, 1991
Museum professionals face new set of challenges
By Sue Moncure
Museums once may have been considered slightly stuffy, quiet
havens for artifacts from bygone days, but things have changed
dramatically in the museum business.
Today's museums have the multifaceted mission of collection,
exhibition, preservation, interpretation, scholarly research,
education and publishing, all being done to ensure that our
heritage from the past and present will be maintained for future
generations.
In addition, museums are learning lessons from corporate
America and becoming more business-oriented as they encounter the
financial realities of today's world, according to Bryant Tolles,
director of the University's Museum Studies Program.
Museums have changed during the past 20 years, strongly
competing with live entertainment, cultural and athletic events as
a leisure-time activity, Tolles said. They have enlarged their
educational and community programs and appeal to a broader
audience. Seeking private and public support is another component
of modern museum management.
As museums have changed, there have been increasing
responsibilities and new challenges for museum professionals,
Tolles said.
The University of Delaware has played a leadership role in
recognizing the importance of providing academic, practical and
hands-on training for professionals through its Museum Studies
Program, one of the first in the country, according to Tolles.
Interdisciplinary in nature, the museums studies program was
established at the University in 1972.
It is an outgrowth of two existing joint programs with
Winterthur and the Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation, and has
kept pace with the demands on today's professionals.
This non-degree program that offers certification to graduate
students in a variety of disciplines who are interested in pursuing
careers in the museum field.
The program requires a minimum of two years to complete.
Participating students must take 12 credit hours, including three
credits on museum management.
This basis gives an intensive overview of the functions of
museums, Tolles said, from research to fund raising. Optional
courses may be on curatorship, historical properties, museum
education or other selected topics.
During Winter Session, for example, students may take a course
in environmental institution management, being offered for the 10th
year at Ashland Nature Center. There will be 35 guest lecturers,
who will discuss a variety of subjects, from long-range planning to
coordinating volunteers.
Another requirement is a three-credit internship, which may be
in a museum or institution anywhere in the United States and may
last a summer or six months.
Graduate students not seeking certification may take museum
studies courses. Although not eligible for certification, museum
volunteers also may take courses through continuing education, and
undergraduates may take a general course on museums and by special
arrangement do an independent study or a summer internship for
credit.
Approximately 90 persons are enrolled in the Museum Studies
Program, with 15 seeking certification.
Museum studies is an outreach program as well. Each year
students must research and organize a public exhibit at the
University Gallery in Old College. Last year, they mounted an
exhibit entitled "The Chicken in Delaware," which was well
received, Tolles said.
The program also publishes scholarly works, such as After
Ratification, Material Life in Delaware, 1789-1820, edited by J.
Ritchie Garrison, assistant director of the program; Bernard
Herman, associate director of the Center for Historic Architecture
and Engineering; and Barbara McLean Ward, former assistant
professor of the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture.
The book, published in 1987, was an outgrowth of an exhibition
shown in Delaware's three counties, which was designed and
presented by Garrison's museum studies exhibit class.
Another outreach project has been the annual Museum Studies
Conference, which began under the leadership of Edward P.
Alexander, the founding director of the program. These conferences,
for graduate students and museum professionals, has made the
University a center for museum-related information and activities,
Tolles said.
Next fall, the Museum Studies Progam will co-sponsor, with the
New York State Historical Association of Cooperstown, an important
workshop on leadership in history museums in Albany.
Active in the museum field as chairperson of the Committee on
Museum Professional Training, member of the board of directors and
senior examiner for the Accreditation Commission of the American
Association of Museums, Tolles recently edited a book, entitled
Leadership for the Future, Changing Directorial Roles in American
History Museums and Historical Societies, a series of essays
discussing the changing environment and leadership of museums
during the past 20 years.
As Tolles writes in the preface of his book, in the '60s and
before, the prime requisites for leadership in museums were
"demonstrated competency in a particular academic discipline, well-
honed curatorial skills, broad knowledge of one's institutional
collections...and personal presence."
However, with the emergence of grants, corporate support, tax
laws, inflation and other financial considerations, museums have
had to turn to the world of business.
Now, in addition to personal qualities, museum managers must
have "expertise in such areas as long-range planning, resource
development, finance, marketing, the law, professional standards,
collections care and management, collections presentation and
interpretation, facilities and security administration and
personnel management. Conditions...have dictated that leadership in
our museums must reach a higher level of professionalism, and
indeed more professional we are becoming," he writes.
By combining intensive coursework and practical experience
through internships in the Museum Studies Program and by keeping up
with modern trends, Tolles said, the University is providing an
opportunity for its graduate student scholars to successfully
pursue careers as directors, administrators, curators, registrars
and educators in the museum and related fields.