Title of Effective Practice: - California Postsecondary Education ...

Direct Connection to Policy Area 1 of The Illinois Commitment
Certificate of Graduate Study in Museum Studies
Northern Illinois University
What issue or need is addressed by the effective practice?
The primary objective of the Certificate of Graduate Study in Museum Studies is to prepare students for careers
in a variety of institutions including natural history, historical, and art museums, or in the management of
collections in public and private sites. The niche identified for students completing the certificate is the hundreds
of small regional museums across the State of Illinois, which tend to employ only one or two individuals who
must have the ability to fulfill all of the necessary roles associated with museum management - curatorship,
education, public relations, collections maintenance, and administration.
Description of the effective practice:
The certificate in museum studies is jointly administered by the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It was designed to prepare students for careers in public and private
museums and related historical societies, archives, or other agencies/institutions that work with artistic, cultural,
and/or historical materials. The requirements for the certificate include 15 semester hours of course work:
introduction to museum studies, field study or internship, and selected courses in museum methods, museum
administration, museum education, museum exhibitions and interpretation, curatorial practice, or principles of
public history.
Students enrolled in the certificate include traditional graduate students earning degrees in disciplines such as
history, anthropology, or art; students-at-large completing certificate requirements only; and museum
professionals seeking continuing education. The required field study/internship provides a valuable resource for
many types of museums and collections. Interns have been placed at institutions including the Rockford Art
Museum, Ellwood House, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Milwaukee Museum of Natural History, the
Sycamore History Museum, the Geneva History Collection, Tinker Swiss Cottage, the Nehring Center, the NIU
Art Museum, the NIU Anthropology Museum, private collections, and other sites. Not only do graduates fulfill
the needs of smaller institutions, but interns also provide short-term assistance to many institutions in NIU’s
service region. In one case, an entire class served as consultants to a regional museum.
How does this practice achieve sustainability?
Costs for providing the certificate course work are shared by the two colleges sponsoring it, with each one
providing faculty to teach relevant courses, and responsibility for administrating the certificate is rotated
between the colleges. In addition to NIU’s museums, many units within the university are involved in activities
that enrich students’ experiences in courses and at practice sites; these units include the School of Art, the
Center for Burma Studies, the Women’s Studies program, and the Departments of Anthropology, Philosophy,
History, and Counseling, Adult, and Higher Education. Individual courses required for the certificate are also
taken by students earning degrees in many other disciplines, which contributes to its cost effectiveness. The
practice of placing students in NIU’s museum as interns creates further cost efficiencies for these units.
What are the results/measurable outcomes?
The Museum Studies Committee provides a venue for faculty teaching museum studies courses to communicate
effectively about their curricular offerings, which eliminates overlaps in course content and offers students a
coherent and cohesive educational experience. Intern sponsors are unanimously positive about the contributions
of students to their institutions, and students speak equally positively of their service learning experiences.
Currently 34 students are enrolled in the certificate, and 20 have completed the certificate since its inception in
fall 2002. Of the 12 students who completed the program prior to spring 2006, 10 have been tracked; of these 7
were employed in museums within six months of graduation.
Contact Information
Name: Virginia R. Cassidy
Email: vcassidy@niu.edu
Phone: (815) 753-0492
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