Hello fellow wanderers! I'm currently in the middle of starting the process to apply for my masters (which I honestly should've been on top of alot earlier in the year but better late than never!) and I've come to ask for y'alls opinions on universities you think I should also try and apply to. I graduated with a degree in Anthropology and two minors in Archaeology and Art History, plus I'll have a good amount of CRM experience because of the internship I'm in right now. Even though I'm doing CRM work at the moment I'm working towards the eventual goal of working in a natural history museum at some point, I've already requested some admissions information from Tufts University, The University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, the University of Chicago, and the University of Texas at San Antonio, but the last one is my backup. Ideally I want to attend another university since I received my bachelor's from UTSA. I'm still looking for programs but it's slow going because I'm pretty busy most of the time because of my internship, so any recommendations would be very helpful!

Hello everyone advice on the following scenario is needed. Someone who runs a chain of historical museums needs a data entry system. The way it should work is, the museum has 4 branches at different locations, we want everyone from each location to be able to enter and access data all from 1 onsite physical computer at MAIN branch. What software to do recommend to achieve this as I want to store the data locally.

I am a public historian who specializes in digital history. I have a master’s in history with a concentration in museum studies. I love history. I started working for a small history program at college, building digital archives and working with student groups. I got a new job 1.5 years ago and am still there. It's a small regional museum. I work on digital projects there. I make a little over 60K. I want to learn and grow more, and I am struggling with figuring out the path forward. My ambition pushes me to learn more and grow, but I don't see a way at my current institution. But I am limited for options for finding a new job because my wife and I are building a house and love our city. There are only so many museums in the city.

I like my job, but a lot of the work is funding contingent, so I find myself in holding patterns or doing busy work until we can get the funding to work on the next project. I want to get my Phd, and there’s a local college with a great program that interests me, but getting a Phd doesn’t necessarily equate to a job or promotion. I want to be promoted, but I can’t get a clear answer from anyone about when I will see a promotion, which is frustrating. I just got an offer from my father-in-law to work for the family business, a business my wife and I could and would take over in 3 years, as he wants to retire. Growing a business aligns with my ambitions and would allow me to do the things I love, like research and writing.

I would be sad to leave the field, but I don’t think I would be leaving forever. I have plans to get a PhD, and I would love to teach at a college or university. The world of non-profits is not easy to be in. I’d like to move forward, but I am finding it to be so limiting.

Would love to hear anyone’s thoughts. Is anyone else experiencing anything similar to this?

I'm starting out as an art collector, and am mostly (though not exclusively) collecting emerging artists. They're more accessible (and affordable), and I like the idea of helping support someone at the stage of their career when they most need it, before (knock on wood) they hit it big.

As part of that support, I've starting thinking about potentially trying to donate some work I own by these artists to my local art museum (I live in a relatively large American city -- in the top 25 by population -- but not a particularly major art hub). I know getting one's work into a museum is a big accomplishment for an artist, and it would feel really good to help facilitate that milestone. The artists I have in mind are doing reasonably well for where they are in their career (multiple solo shows over the last several years, work that seems to sell at a decent enough pace, 5 digit follower levels on Instagram to the extent that matters), but they do not to my knowledge have any work in any museums yet. They're not based in my city (though one did do a solo show at a gallery in my city).

Of course, I know museums don't just take any artwork that's offered to them. But I realized I have absolutely no idea how a museum decides on accepting a donation of an artist who doesn't have a track record of already being found in (that or another) museum. Obviously it happens (every artist in a museum at one point, wasn't), but I was curious as to what factors museum curators consider when deciding to be the first museum to include an artist as part of their collection. Obviously, the artist's work has to fit the collection/style of the museum, but what beyond that? Is there a price threshold (an artist's work should be selling for $X dollars before one would consider accepting the piece)? Is there a particular process I should know about for making the approach? Do the artists themselves play any role, or is this something a collector do all by themselves?

Appreciate any insight folks can offer. I'm trying to be a responsible collector, and part of that as I understand it is helping grow the careers of the artists I care about however I can (and of course, make their work more available to the wider community by putting it in the museum). Thanks!

same as title, hopefully i can emerge some help

I want to start off by saying “not all managers”. I think we each know that gem of a person who is doing it right.

But otherwise…

I’ve worked in a few different industries across different sectors. I’ve worked in liquor stores, cutting grass, movie theatres. I’ve worked construction, I’ve worked retail, I’ve worked all types of places.

But for the last 10 years, I’ve worked in the museums sector. By and large, the worst managers and leadership I’ve ever had have been in this sector. And although I’ve only worked in three museums, I’ve worked from one side of the country to the other. One thing has been consistent…management seems to just suck. Like they make poor decisions, they don’t plan. But also, they don’t seem to have any vision or drive or ambition. They don’t know what they are doing, they don’t know how to get there, and they are bad at moving in any direction.

Time and time again I see a situation that’s maybe little worse than average, and a manager will intervene, and then it will just become a disaster as a result. Racism, Sexism, a lack of understanding of contemporary life and living, a total ignorance of our audiences, and the one that makes me the saddest, just no desire to do good things. No desire to create good public programs or exhibits. The goals (if they can be discerned) seem to be to create things that are as easy as possible, rather than having any sort of quality.

How is it possible that the managers at my retail jobs were orders of magnitude better than the managers at these prestigious institutions? I feel like some of my old managers there could walk into a leadership role here and run an entire department single handedly with time to spare.

And listen, if there’s any museum managers reading this, I’m sorry. I want to hear your perspective. I want to hear what causes things to be this way. Why do museums in particular seem to have this problem? Do you notice this skills gap amongst your fellow managers?

I dream of being a manager one day, but I just have this growing list of “Terrible things that I will never do if I get to be a manager” and that’s all I ever seem to learn from these folks, just “what not to do”

Do any of you empathize with this? Have I just had bad luck? Is there something about this industry that attracts bad management or that somehow turns good managers into bad ones?

Hello! Hate to intrude on a subreddit for a profession I don't belong to (never say never, though!), but from all my searching it seems like this subreddit might be the best shot I have for getting some assistance. That said, please feel free to delete this if posts like this are not allowed.

I'm a graduate student in linguistics and I've been trying to find a corpus of transcriptions/scripts for English-language museum/memorial visitor orientation films for a paper I'm writing, but I haven't had much luck! I'm talking about films like this. So, expository/informational documentaries that aim to provide context for an exhibit.

In a last ditch effort, I was wondering if anyone knew of any online collections/archives of such films or their scripts? Video quality doesn't matter, I just need to be able to get transcripts (I can transcribe the videos myself if needed).

I've managed to scrape some together from YouTube, but it's been a real pain searching them out and most of them are at least a few decades old. That's not necessarily a problem in itself, but I was aiming for films from the 90's onwards (the newer the better, but beggars can't be choosers) and I would also prefer a wider variety of subject matter since the one's I've found so far are mostly for military cemeteries/monuments.

I'd also happily accept any orientation films (in any form: scripts, transcripts, videos) from y'all's places of work if you'd be willing to share them!

Hello everyone!

I'm wondering what will be more useful, a masters in art history or a museum studies certificate program?

I'm worried that if I pursue a masters in art history it might limit my career to curatorial jobs. I'm interested in curatorial work but am also interested in working in an education department. Especially since my current job is teaching.

Or does it have to be in something like history, anthropology, etc? is MSIS good enough?

Hi all! I applied to the spring Communications internship about two weeks ago and haven’t heard anything back yet, has anyone else gotten any updates? Just curious if anyone’s made any progress :)

My museum has been using the same tour guide manual for, well, since for ever. The only changes it has had is adding more and more info.

My question is what resources are out there to guide me in making a better visitor handbook? Are there any examples? How much is too much? Should I include info from collections/archive? I feel a touch overwhelmed as I should probably scrap most of the guide.

So if anyone has any examples or best practices to consider, I would be very interested in hearing them!

I work at a museum and we do have a section here dedicated to the kiddos. Other than that, it's not really an interactive space for kids. I was reading on a couple of posts about how people can be turned off by museums due to loud kids (which I get). As a GLAM professional, do you believe that kids should be allowed in museums that are not kid friendly?

I've wanted to be a curator for a long time. At the moment, I got lucky to land a job as a museum educator. I'm still not sure how I can work my way up to curator, is museum educator a good starting point? Are there more skills/internships I should be looking at to help me become a curator? I'm assuming it's all a process and not something you can just jump into. I'm also interested in registrar positions too, anything that lets me work with objects, interpret them, and lets me travel

This is a long shot, but does anyone know of a museum in the United States that would want to take in a large collection of toy soldiers, model artillery and vehicles, and a few dioramas? Before my museum is what it is, there was a board member who "donated" his entire collection to the museum with no accession paperwork and it has just been sitting in some cabinets taking up space. Some of it is really neat, but it has absolutely nothing to do with our scope of collections. There are about 7,000 pieces total (although 3,500 are flat soldiers less than an inch tall). It's been inventoried and appraised in an effort to give people an idea of what's in there, but we just haven't found any other museums who can take it all.

If anyone knows of a museum that handles these kinds of objects, please let me know. If you know of a museum outside of the United States, you can also leave a comment for that, but I'm not 100% sure my higher ups would go for it.

i'm currently a curator and looking to apply to MA programs. I have good practical experience - I know how to hang a work, write curatorial texts and install different mediums.

My main goal with an MA is to fill in research gaps and have a more holistic, interdisciplinary approach towards art and cultural studies.

Does anyone know which universities/departments/programs are good for this? English taught programs only unfortunately, but I'm open to going anywhere as long as the curriculum + environment being offered seem promising.

I suppose most programs would fall under the broad realm of liberal studies, culture studies, comparative literature, continental philosophy, etc. but i'm open to suggestions. Thank you!

Hey! Is this an event that would be worthwhile for a recent graduate museum professional seeking work in Canada? There is not much details about it online.

If anyone knows of any other networking opportunities in Canada, particularly Ontario, please do let me know. I'm already planning on attending NCPH 2025 in Montreal.

Cheers!

Hello, i might be visiting egypt soon, so i was wondering about your experience thier, what to expect and what not, and what musem or places i should prioritize visiting ?

Folks, I have a pretty extensive pre-1917 Russian militaria collection (many uniforms, hundreds of pieces of insignia). I’ve been a collector for the past 20 years, quite knowledgeable on the subject, but I have never been published in anything English-speaking. Question: Is lending the collection for display to American/European museums a “thing”? Will any museums want to talk to me? Can I make money from it? Where do I start? Thanks in advance.

Hi there, I have a relatively well-known collection of samples of the individual elements of the periodic table, including samples that have been photographed for Wikipedia, books, and posters. I am in the process of donating these to a local museum and trying to have their value appraised. The closest common categories I know of are gems and minerals (*everybody* has tried to send me to a gem/mineral appraiser, which isn't what they do exactly and so far none of them have said yes) or antique science/industrial memorabilia.

The appraisal is not a straightforward task per se, because element collecting is not a full-blown industry with large amounts of public sales of exotic samples to establish a market value. There are now some businesses that cater exclusively towards element collectors, but my samples are much more exotic than those types of widely available samples. However I am doing some legwork here by getting "replacement value" quotes from industry sources who might be able to create similar samples to mine, per my tax attorney, ignoring any sort of multiplier for historical or antique value. So essentially I think an appraiser would have to look at the replacement value quotes, which should undervalue my samples but at least provide some sort of basis for them, and be able to say "yes this is real and I agree".

If anybody can point me in *any* direction, I would be extremely grateful, and if you are able to directly link me to a qualified appraiser that is able to assist me, I am very happy to arrange a significant finder's reward.

We are the Whittier Museum, CA, and we are looking for recommendations on a Guest data collection process along with software and hardware suggestions.

Our vision would be to have a tablet in our lobby entrance where guests can easily enter in their basic information. Name, city, email - anything more than that would be based on your recommendations.

Hot off the conversation about nonhierarchical interpretation- I’m wondering if anyone has any examples of museums who’ve done exhibits that have a total focus on inviting the patron and their community to guide a conversation or leave feedback for others. Bonus points if it’s around topics that feel controversial or challenging to navigate!

I’m thinking about temporary exhibits that are maybe curated by guests, spaces that could be seen as “experimental,” or where there’s maybe a couple of interactives or artefacts to investigate but that the conversation and content is mostly driven by audience participation.

Looking forward to hearing some examples!

Hi all, I work in a small museum as well as for some other small historical associations, and they’re all kind of struggling right now. I’d like to set up some online stores for my organizations to bring in a bit of extra money, from things like calendars, mugs, t-shirts, etc… I’m looking for recommendations for an online platform to sell said merch through, preferably one that receives and fulfills the orders so we don’t have to package and ship the products ourselves, but I’m open to other suggestions. Thanks!

Hi all! I'm an educator at a natural history museum, and I'm on a mission to grow our teen audience. (No small task, I know.) Does your museum have programming for teens only (ages 13-17)? If so, what kind of programming? If you've tried teen programming, what worked and what didn't work?

Looking for input from all types of museums, not just natural history. Thanks in advance!!

DISCLAIMER

I'm mainly looking to hear about people's personal thoughts and experiences in the field, and am aware that no one knows me enough to tell what would be best for me, but I feel this could help by raising points I may not have thought about before.

Hey there,

I'm currently majoring in History at CUNY Queens college, and am a bit on the fence regarding which Minor I should declare.

On one hand, I took an archeology course over the summer and found it fascinating (along with the fact that I got into history from a young age thanks to Indiana Jones, who I know isn't a real archeologist).

On the other hand, I'm currently taking a Political Science course about International Relations and Policy decisions with a professor who does a great job of getting me invested in the material.

Considering I want to work in history museums and historical societies, what do y'all think would be a better choice of Minor? I'm also open to pros and cons!

I’m currently trying to save up money in my current position in the USA, but I’ve always wanted to work abroad. After visiting some historic houses in England for the very first time, I feel i’d love to work in a house or museum there instead. I don’t know how likely it is for Americans to land museum roles in other countries, but if anyone knows the process or has done something like this before, i’d love to hear it.

Hi everyone! Just like the title suggests, I am trying to get a better idea of the pros and cons of leaving a contract position at a big-name institution for a permanent position in the private sector, doing the exact same type of work and working with collections. I recently learnt that there is no chance my contract at this big-name institution will get renewed and there is a chance it might get terminated early due to budgeting issues. I am an early career and I am wondering would I get "less favored" in the future if I want to work for big-name instituions again? Is having a "glamorous" job title at a national institution actually worth it and treated as the ultimate career goal in the long run? Pretty much all my non-museum friends are suggesting me to take a permanent job, given the current economy. I will also be taking a significant pay cut if I go with the permanent job (which is not unusual I know). Thank you very much! Any insights or advice would be great.

Hi everyone,

I’m conducting a survey to learn more about people's previous experiences with museums, particularly their opinions on the information provided about artworks. This is part of a technical university project aimed at developing new methods for presenting information in museums and exhibitions.

It would be a huge help if you could take 2–3 minutes to complete it. Here’s the link: https://forms.gle/qX2yW4UEVRLpgqbc8

Thank you for your time!

When LACMA moves to its new building, it apparently will restructure its exhibits so that their display is “nonhierarchical.” I think I know what that means, at least a little…but not really tbh. And I can’t find much about this methodology online. What does it mean, and as someone in the industry, what is your opinion of it?

I currently work for a nonprofit organization that partners with both low-income elementary schools and museums in my city to take students on field trips to these places. This past week, I took two classes to a historic site museum where I would love to work one day. I met the Associate Director of Education and followed up with her via email to thank her for her support while we were visiting the site.

In her email reply, she's been very cordial and invited me to reach out to her with any questions. She means questions related to coordinating trips with my organization, but could this be an opportunity to connect? Should I ask her to meet up for a coffee and discuss career-related things? If so, how?