August 27, 2018 | UHCL Staff
If you’re the type who could spend all day wandering around a museum, and you recognize that preserving historic artifacts is just as important as the history itself, there’s a way to turn your interests into a viable career path. This fall, University of Houston-Clear Lake is offering a new minor in museum studies that could be an excellent complement to major fields of study in history, art, education, humanities or anthropology.
“The minor in museum studies is a great pair to so many degree plans,” said Assistant Professor in Art History Sarah Costello, who will be among the humanities faculty involved in teaching courses for the museum studies minor. “With a humanities major, a student must choose two minors. A minor in museum studies can work very well to prepare students for employment after graduation, or for graduate work, whether it’s in art or object conservation or perhaps even a public science institution like Space Center Houston.”
Students with other majors can benefit from a museum studies minor as well. For example, a business major could be prepared for a job in museum administration or development, Costello said. “A business major with a minor in museum studies would have many skills that would be applicable in a museum setting.”
The idea to offer this minor for humanities and anthropology majors began in the College of Human Sciences and Humanities between colleagues working in different ways related to museum studies.“Between us, we have a great spectrum of experiences and perspectives. The coursework offers a broad understanding of culture and history in society,” Costello said. “The minor in museum studies makes it a more specific career focus with an interest in public culture and engaging with the public. It’s a great way to apply what you’re learning in those majors.”
It’s important for students to learn the responsibility that comes with presenting art, science, and culture to the public. “Museums carry a sense of authority,” Costello said. “You learn to understand the voices you’re representing in a museum.”
Maria Curtis, associate professor of anthropology, said all the faculty involved in teaching these courses are currently working in some way with museums. “Our degrees and our research are interdisciplinary, and we all have affiliations with museums, so it’s an existing strength we all have,” she said. “This minor offers practical, feet-in-museum skills to students, and they come to appreciate that Houston is a great museum city.”
Curtis said that students must also learn to be very savvy with their audience, which changes constantly in a museum. “You have to be able to sift through the many ways an exhibit can be crafted and create a narrative that is factual, has integrity, and is understandable to a wide audience,” she said. “It’s an exciting time to be working in museum studies, as the paradigm has shifted significantly from a purely fine arts collection housed in a museum to the idea that it’s a living organization that serves its community.”
She added that aspects of a particular exhibit could be extended through workshops or art camps for kids. “Museums are increasingly experiential sites where we have educational experiences that stay with us,” she said.
Students taking Costello’s arts and humanities course will visit at least six museums and engage in the study of how museums operate, learn about curation, creating exhibitions, and learning how to present historic artifacts from a curator’s perspective. “There are so many practical applications for students with many interests,” Costello said. “There are so many job opportunities, people don’t even really know about them all.”
With Curtis, Costello and Assistant Professor of Art History Beth Merfish teaching the majority of the courses involved with the minor, Curtis said that it demonstrates how broad museum studies are. “There’s so much overlap,” she said. “In anthropology, we talk about how humans move and migrate in the world. The research behind these stories and the creation of the narrative as it’s presented in a museum involves all academic disciplines.”
Certain classes have online options and prestigious internships are available. For more information about UHCL’s Minor in Museum Studies program, visit https://catalog.uhcl.edu/current/undergraduate/degrees-and-programs/minors/museum-studies-minor.
