Museum Studies
College of Liberal & Creative Arts
Interim Dean: Daniel Bernardi
School of the Arts
Department of Art
Chair: Gail Dawson
Museum Studies Program
Fine Arts 265
Phone: 415-405-0599
Fax: 415-338-6537
Email: museumst@sfsu.edu
Web: http://museumstudies.sfsu.edu
Director: Edward M. Luby
Graduate Coordinator: Edward M. Luby
Faculty
Professors: Ellis, Luby, Lyall
Lecturers: Arms Simon, DeMouthe, Fogarty, Fox, Kienzle, Osborne
Program
Program Scope
The Master of Arts in Museum Studies program is designed to provide professional training in major areas of museum work—Museum Management & Fundraising, Curatorship, Registration/Collections Management, Exhibition Design, Cultural Property Law and Protection, and Museum Education & Public Programming. The program builds upon students’ previous academic studies in museum-related disciplines by emphasizing practical experience, professionalism, and important developments in the field of Museum Studies. Museum Studies students include mid-career museum professionals, people from other professional career fields, and recent B.A. graduates.
The mission of the program is to develop future museum professionals through highly structured coursework in a setting where museums’ educational efforts, collections, and interactions with community are of central concern, and in a 21st century landscape, where responsiveness to the significant changes taking place in the museum profession are integrated into curriculum, activities, and professional development. The M.A. in Museum Studies is unique to SF State, and is the only one of its kind in a public university in the state of California, either in the California State University or University of California systems.
The program operates a museum with permanent collections that is volunteer-operated and for which admission is free. Museum Studies students not only staff the museum, but also produce all exhibitions and related educational and public programming. Facilities also include specialized labs, collections storage, and an exhibition preparation workshop.
Career Outlook
Museum Studies Program alumni have found employment at all career levels in museums of all sizes and types throughout the U.S. The Museum Studies Program partners with the Department of Art, Special Collections at the Leonard Library, and other units on campus on projects and courses that prepare students for employment in all types of museums, cultural arts centers, arts commissions, historical sites and houses, science centers, environmental education centers, libraries with exhibition programs, exhibit design firms, auction houses, planetaria, aquaria, zoos, and botanical gardens.
Master of Arts in Museum Studies
Graduate Advisors: Ellis, Luby
Admission to the Program
Students are admitted in the program for fall terms only. To be admitted to classified status, a student must meet all general University requirements. No more than 6 units of work taken in post-baccalaureate status are transferable to M.A. degree credit in the museum studies program.
To be eligible for consideration, applicants must:
- Have an undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university in one of the following or related fields: anthropology, archaeology, art history, classics, design, education, history, biological or physical sciences, or public/art administration. Additional museum experience beyond the minimum required is expected when a student has a degree in a field not listed.
- Have at least a minimum grade point average of 3.20 in the last 60 semester units of upper-division courses completed.
- Be able to demonstrate understanding of the work and profession of museum studies, gained through paid or volunteer experience (minimum of six months) in a museum or related setting. Experience can be completed prior to or concurrent with application to the program.
- Submit to the Museum Studies program two letters of recommendation from faculty or supervisors knowledgeable of the applicant’s academic or professional ability. At least one of these letters should be from a museum supervisor.
- Submit to the Museum Studies program a current resumé and written statement of purpose, outlining background, intentions, and goals as specified in the program’s admissions procedures. Each applicant is encouraged to specify as closely as possible the emphasis s/he wishes to pursue.
- Send one set of transcripts of all prior academic work directly to the Museum Studies program. Another set is required by the university graduate admissions office.
- Submit GRE scores with a minimum of 4.5 or better on the analytical writing section, and 156 or better on the verbal reasoning section. Past scores will be accepted if taken within five years of the semester the applicant wishes to attend.
- Submit a paper TOEFL score of at least 550 or a computer-based score of 80 to the graduate admissions office, if an international applicant is from a non-English speaking countries.
Applications for admission are due February 1. Domestic applicants may be contacted by the Museum Studies program for interviews only if needed, and, if application files are complete and received by February 1. Local applicants are also required to attend one of the program’s regularly scheduled open house dates (November or January) as part of the admissions process.
Written English Proficiency Requirement
The University has a requirement for written English proficiency that is to be assessed at two different points in a student's program.
Level One (must be met prior to admission): GRE scores with a minimum of 4.5 or better on the analytical writing section, and a 156 or better on the verbal section.
Level Two (toward the end of the program): grade of B+ or above on final research papers for M S 700 or M S 860.
Advancement to Candidacy
Besides meeting all general requirements for advancement to candidacy, applicants must, in addition, have completed with a grade of B or better each of the following courses: M S 700 and M S 880.
Museum Studies (M.A.) — Minimum 33 units
Courses are 3 units unless otherwise indicated.
Core Requirements (9 units)
-
M S 700 History and Organization of Museums
[required during first semester of program] - M S 860 Fundraising in Museums
- M S 880 Museum Internship
Area Requirements (9 units)
3 units of coursework selected from each of the following three groups:
Collections Care and Conservation
- M S 740 Museum Conservation and Restoration (1)
- M S 794 Museum Collections Management and Registration
- M S 791 Integrated Pest Management in Heritage Facilities (1)
- M S 792 Museum Security Systems (1)
- M S 793 Museum Facilities Management (1)
Museum Management
- M S 800 Museum Management, Law, and Ethics
- M S 830 Museum Governance
- P A 745 Perspectives on Nonprofit Management
Exhibition Design
- ART 719 Exhibit Design
- M S 720 Museum Curatorship and Collecting
Area Emphasis (12 units)
Select four electives relevant to the following areas. No more than 6 units of non-museum studies courses may count towards electives in the area emphasis. Courses must be chosen in consultation with a museum studies faculty advisor.
- Curatorship
- Exhibition Design
- Cultural Property Law and Protection
- Museum Management and Fundraising
- Museum Education and Public Programming
- Registration/Collections Management
Culminating Experience Requirement (3 units)
-
M S 894 Creative Work Project
or
M S 898 Master’s Thesis
If the thesis or creative work project is not completed during the semester the student is enrolled in M S 894 or M S 898, the student is required to enroll in M S 897, a continuation course, in the third semester following their initial enrollment in M S 898 or M S 894. If the thesis or creative work project is not completed at the end of the third semester, students are required to enroll in the College of Extended Learning’s course, LCA 499 “Culminating Experience Continuous Enrollment,” and must maintain continuous enrollment in LCA 499 each fall and spring semester thereafter until graduation or until the department’s five-year deadline for completing the degree.
