California

JFK University offers three distinguished Museum Studies programs:

• The Master of Arts is the preferred credential and recommended for students who intend to pursue a full-time career in the museum field.
• The MA and MBA dual degree is recommended for students interested in deepening their knowledge and skills in museum leadership and management.
• The program’s certificate option is designed for professionals who have extensive experience in the field and do not require a master’s degree.

The Museum Studies program at JFK University is one of the nation’s most recognized museum studies programs and is committed to preparing museum professionals to meet the demands of an increasingly complex profession. Today’s museum professionals must have the knowledge and skills to serve diverse audiences, create collaborative partnerships with communities, design innovative exhibitions and programs, and develop a sustainable financial base of support.

The curriculum covers a wide range of issues and provides fundamental skills while challenging students to critically analyze and creatively reform museums for a diverse society. The training is applicable to all types of museums, historical sites, natural parks, and cultural and discovery centers.

All Museum Studies students are required to complete one or more internships to put their classroom knowledge to practice. Recent internship sites include the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California Academy of Sciences, the Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand, the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage,  the Walt Disney Family Museum, among others.  A list of recent student internships and alumni positions is included under "Related Downloads" on the right.

All Museum Studies faculty members are practicing professionals. Their ranks include conservators, registrars/collections managers, educators, exhibit designers, and museum administrators. Students have close contact with other experts in the field through museum visits, guest speakers, and internships. During the academic year professionals from many of the more than 250 Bay Area museums work with JFK University students.

The Master of Arts Program is highly practical, building upon students' previous academic studies in Anthropology, Art History, Classics & Classical Archaeology, Design, Education, History, the Sciences, Public Administration, or related disciplines. Find out more about us by accessing the left sidebar links.

The Program also explores alternatives to museum employment in a variety of professional contexts such as: private galleries, city/state arts commissions, historical associations, auction houses, libraries with exhibition programs, corporate galleries and museums, private art collections, archives, civic art centers, science centers, planetaria, natural history/environmental education centers, and living collections.

Students working toward a M.A. or Ph.D. in Cultural Studies may choose to complete a concentration in Museum Studies. The master's and doctoral degrees in Cultural Studies with a concentration in Museum studies gives students the opportunity to participate in multidisciplinary graduate work within the humanities and between the humanities, social sciences, and management. Students learn about the history and political role of museums, the interpretation and display of a wide variety of cultural productions, and topics of special concern to museums as cultural organizations. The program emphasizes critical, theoretical, and practice-related developments in the ever-changing field of museums, exhibitions, and sites of public memory. Students will acquire the knowledge and expertise to meet the challenges confronting arts and cultural organizations today.

Students are trained in both field-based work and text-based work. This convergence of methods produces a fully engaged analysis of culture. Outstanding research topics that have recently emerged from CGU's Cultural Studies Department include: Video Art and Documentary Production; Representing the Holocaust in Contemporary Jewish Museums; Sociology of Art; Critical Theories of Space and Geography; Afro-feminism; Asian American Political and Social Movements; Hip-hop Culture, Gender Studies, and Ethnography.

Master of Arts in Art and Certificate in Museum Studies is offered. 

Courses leading to the certificate are designed to educate students in museum practices in preparation for entry into the museum profession. The curriculum includes instruction in the historical development and philosophical basis of collections, exhibitions and their design, and curatorship. A museum internship is required. The Certificate in Museum Studies may be undertaken as a self-contained program, or may be taken in conjunction with the Master of Arts in Art degree or, by special permission, with other graduate degrees in the university. Studies incorporate required prerequisites and 24 units of upper-division and graduate classes.

Students have two options in pursing a degree in museum studies: the Certificate in Museum Studies or the Masters Degree in Anthropology, with an Option in Museum Studies. The Museum of Anthropology was established in 1970 in Trinity Hall at California State University, Chico, to support the Department of Anthropology’s unique and innovative museum training program. Today, the Valene L. Smith Museum of Anthropology continues to function as a multifaceted educational facility for students in the Museum Studies Program. The Museum Studies Program at CSU Chico is one of the few museology programs in the United States, where students conceive, research, design, and install exhibits as part of their formal training, as well as gain hands-on courses in museum collections management and other areas of museology.

The Certificate in Public History program prepares students for non-teaching careers as historians outside the academy. Emphasis is placed on gaining skills and knowledge necessary for public and private sector employment in the fields of historic preservation, historic site assessment, archival management, and cultural resources management.