Enter the World of Museum Studies at the University of Washington

Museum studies at the University of Washington is an interdisciplinary approach to preparing students for curatorial or other professional work in museums. The Museology Graduate Program brings together faculty and staff from a number of University departments and regional museums to help you earn your Master of Arts in Museology.

Background

At the time of its inception in 1972, the Museology Graduate Program was only one of three of its kind in the United States and Canada. Today it is widely recognized as one of the premier graduate programs in the field. The two-year master's program provides training, knowledge, and skills in areas such as museum history, philosophy, law and ethics, facility and operational design, conservation, collections management, administration, and interpretive program work.

Piecing it Together

While enrolled in the program, you'll have the opportunity to work closely with the program's faculty. Course work is divided between the theoretical and practical aspects of museum operations and includes required core museology subjects and a range of classes offering you the chance to specialize in an area of interest to prepare you to pursue specific types of museum work.

When applying to the program, you'll be asked to indicate the academic path you are interested in pursuing. You can choose from a variety of academic paths including anthropology, archaeology, art, art history, botany, geology, history, living collections and zoology. Your academic path will help prepare you for careers in administration, conservation, curation/research, collection management, education, exhibition, registration and security in a specific type of museological institution.

Digging In

As a student in the Museology Graduate Program, you'll have access to a wide range of opportunities for gaining practical experience at the area's cooperating institutions. Required practicums can be carried out in campus facilities such as the Burke Museum, the Henry Art Gallery, the Herbarium, the Arboretum, and University Libraries.

As one of the first university graduate programs to require internship training, the Museology Graduate Program continues to require this practical experience as an essential training element. Internships place students in regional and national museums, galleries, and cultural centers, e.g., the Smithsonian, the Field Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and many other institutions here and abroad.

In past years, students have been involved in such hands-on work as collections management, collections research, preparation and packaging of materials for loans, collections inventories, storage renovation, preventive conservation, zoological specimen preparation, exhibit design, educational programming, fund raising, and planning and organizing special events. In addition, many students pursue independent research on collections, and several have collected for the Burke Museum.

Current and past research projects include:

• 19th Century Photographs of Maori People
• Conservation of Egyptian Mummy
• Native Northwest Coast Art
• Fabrics of Bhutan
• Collections Management for Urban Governments
• Analysis of Patron Visitation

The Finished Product

Students from Canada, Germany, Nigeria, Bhutan, Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Columbia, and other countries, as well as students from across the United States, have earned the M.A. in Museology from the University of Washington. Approximately three-fourths of program graduates obtain a job within nine months of graduation. Many are currently working in museums and other organizations around the country and around the world in areas such as anthropology, art, botany, geology, zoology, as well as in interpretive programs and museum administration.

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture

Because classes are held in the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, you’ll have access to the resources of the museum and be able to interact with staff members on a daily basis. Located on the University of Washington Seattle campus, the Burke Museum is Washington state's natural history and anthropology museum and is the oldest and largest natural history museum in the Northwest. It has nationally and internationally renowned collections focusing on the anthropology, geology and zoology of the Pacific region and Pacific Rim. Read more about the University of Washington and Seattle-area museums.