Anthropology 3310: Introduction to Museum Studies
Spring 2008, 10:30 – 11:45 am T, R (Old Main 304)
Professor : Dr. Bonnie Pitblado (my last name is pronounced with a long “a” sound)
Office : Old Main 245F Phone : 797 – 1496 E-mail : bonnie.pitblado@usu.edu
Office hours : Tues, 8:45 – 10:00 a.m.; Wed, 1:15 – 2:45; by appointment
Museum Coordinator : Sara Lundberg Office: Old Main 252 (in the museum)
Sara’s phone : 797-7545 Sara’s e-mail : sara.lundberg@usu.edu
T.A.: Aubrey Hill Office Hours (Old Main 245H) : M, 10:30 – 11:30; R, 9:15 – 10:15
Aubrey’s phone: 253-691-1717 Aubrey’s e-mail: aubreymhill@cc.usu.edu
USU MOA web site address: www.usu.edu/anthro/museum
Course description
Anthropology 3310 will introduce you to various aspects of museum administration and operation. Course topics will include, among others, museum organization and structure; marketing; fund-raising; collections acquisition, care, and research; construction of exhibits; and public outreach and activities. Learning in this class will be hands-on and real-world. In addition to discussion-based classes, you will participate in three field trips: an in-class visit to the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art and another to USU Special Collections; and an all-day visit to a larger museum to be determined. You will also write a press release that may be published in the LoganHerald Journal; conduct research on a USU Museum of Anthropology (MOA) object of your choice; and complete a term project that will benefit the MOA in a tangible fashion.
Program learning goals & assessment
The USU Anthropology program has identified learning goals to help guide students through coursework in the discipline. Goals that Anth 3310 will help you reach include:
I will assess your progress toward these goals in a variety of ways. Classroom discussions and interaction during field trips will allow me to evaluate the extent to which you have identified the nature and scope of anthropology, as well as evolution in your critical thinking. Collections research on objects housed in the USU MOA will familiarize you with a culture or cultures of a major world region through library research, and production of web page copy will enable you to refine your computer and written communication skills. Composing a press release and e-mails lobbying Utah legislators for increased museum funding, and grant proposal writing and review assignments will provide additional critical thinking, written communication, and computer write-up practice. Finally, a term-long project will provide an opportunity to think critically by identifying and solving a problem, to apply museum studies methodologies, and to communicate your project results in written and oral form.
Required textbooks
Swain, Hedley. 2007. An Introduction to Museum Archaeology. Cambridge University Press.
Fifteen copies of this book are available for sale in the USU bookstore, and there are 30 of you. I encourage each of you to purchase the textbook instead using a Museum of Anthropology web link to Amazon.com. You will avoid standing in the bookstore line and obtain a better price and the option of purchasing the book used (i.e., even cheaper). You will also automatically direct a 6.5% commission on the sale to the Museum of Anthropology operating budget, a fund that supports student projects and outreach activities.
To purchase your text book (and anything else you ever want to buy from Amazon—we get a commission on everything you purchase when the link is made through our website), follow these steps. Navigate to http://www.usu.edu/anthro/museum/catalog/amafundmus.html at the MOA website and click on “Anthropology” under “Course Book Catalogue.” Scroll down to Anth 3310 and click on the icon of the required text book (use the one on the right; it’s for the less-expensive paperback version). This will take you to Amazon, where anything you purchase, including the book itself, will automatically yield a 6.5% deposit to the museum. You needn’t do anything else besides pay for your purchases.
As of this writing, the cost for a new copy of the book at Amazon runs $28.99, and a few used copies are available starting at $25.36. New books over $25 ship for free. NOTE: We will not read out of the text book until January 31, so “back-ordered” status of a couple weeks, should you encounter it, won’t pose a problem.
Electronic Reserve
Non-text book readings will be available via electronic reserve through the USU library system. To access the Anth 3310 e-reserve site, start at the Merrill-Cazier library home page ( http://library.usu.edu/ ). Select “find resources” and then “course reserves.” Highlight “instructor” and type in my name: “Pitblado.” All of my courses will appear. Choose “Anth 3310, Spring 2008.” When prompted for a password, enter “PIT3310.” You can now select, save, and/or print a given reading. Note: I will make every effort to post copies of the text book readings for those who do not want to buy the book and don not mind printing out more pages of reading on personal or USU printers.
Assistance
I strongly encourage you to ask questions and make comments in class, by e-mail, or during my office hours. I am happy to help you in any way that I can.
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities act states: “Reasonable accommodation will be provided for all persons with disabilities to ensure equal participation within the program.” If you have a disability that may require accommodation, please (a) document the disability with the Disability Resource Center, University Inn 101 (797-2444) and (b) contact me directly, ASAP. Any request for special consideration relating to class attendance, assignment completion, and so on, should be discussed with me well before the accommodation is needed. In cooperation with the Disability Resource Center, Anthropology 3310 course materials can be provided in alternative formats including large print, audio, diskette, and Braille.
Course grading
A (100 - 93%); A- (92 - 90%); B+ (89 - 87%); B (86 - 83%); B- (82% - 80%); C+ (79 - 77%); C (76 - 73%); C- (72 - 70%); D+ (69 - 67%); D (66 - 60%); F (≤ 59%)
Course requirements; Total points possible = 250
Assignment 1: Marketing “Saturdays at the Museum of Anthropology.” In summer 2007, the MOA embarked upon a one-year experiment of opening our doors on Saturdays so that non-USU community members could more easily visit us. Supported by grants from the Utah Humanities Council and the Office of Museum Services, this undertaking has so far been a success, with Saturday visitation ranging from 30 to well over 100 people. The program is run almost exclusively by Anth 5800 (Museum Development) participants; some of whom are shifting this semester into paid positions. The staff members develop a new theme for each Saturday and brainstorm and create activities and special tours consistent with that theme.
So where do you come in? We need help marketing our Saturday programs and expanding our audience this spring even beyond where it is now. Our team already avails itself of eight or ten different vehicles each week to advertise the upcoming Saturday’s events. However, we believe we can do better, and we need you to help us do so. For this assignment, you will be assigned in teams of 2 or 3 to create and execute a mini-marketing plan for one Saturday during the semester. In short, I want you to entice as many new visitors as possible to pass through our doors, and I would like you to evaluate the results of your marketing plan by interviewing visitors on your Saturday. Your product will be an approximately two-page (double-spaced) evaluative report that clearly describes the following:
Your evaluative report (one report co-authored by your team) will be due the Thursday after your Saturday , and the information you provide is very important to me. I will synthesize the data each group collects to create statistics that I will use to support grant proposals to continue “Saturdays at the Museum” in 2008 – 2009.
Assignment 2: Press Release. On Jan. 17, you will learn about a new exhibit on the “Peopling of the New World and Utah” to open in late February or early March (date TBA) in the MOA, and created by a team of Anth 5800 students. The same day, you will hear from guest speaker Patrick Williams, Senior Writer and Utah State Today Editor for USU Public Relations and Marketing. Mr. Williams and others in his office serve as a clearinghouse for all press releases anyone writes about a USU event or accomplishment. He will share tips on writing effective press releases, and then you will try your hand at this important skill.
You will each write a press release explaining the exhibit development project your colleagues undertook this year and inviting members of the public to our grand opening ceremony. You will turn in your press release in hard copy in class on January 24. You must also send me your press release via e-mail (by class time that same day). I will read and grade all the press releases. Then I will choose the very best one, edit it if necessary, and send it to Patrick Williams for release to the local media. Whoever does the best job will almost certainly see their press release in print in the Herald Journal (and you never know, once in a while the Salt Lake Tribune or other papers further afield print the releases as well).
Assignments 3a & 3b: Grant Proposal and Review. One of the greatest challenges any museum faces is securing adequate funding to allow it to operate. One key way museums meet this challenge is by writing and submitting grant proposals to government agencies, private granting programs, and corporate and individual sponsors. For this assignment, you will develop a grant proposal of your own, based on the real Utah Office of Museum Services (OMS) grant program (this, by the way, is the grant program for which state funding will increase if your lobbying efforts in Assignment 4 are successful). You will brainstorm a museum exhibit, event, outreach program, or infrastructure improvement for the USU MOA, and then complete an OMS grant application to fund it. Using an application form available for download via e-reserve, you may request up to $6,000 in funding for your proposal.
On the date the proposal is due (Thursday, Feb. 7), please bring 9 copies of your proposal to class (Sara and I can help you make copies, for free, before class; just stop by and ask us—but not at the last possible moment. Please don’t arrive in class without your 9 copies). Also, please don’t put your name on the proposal; only the number I assign you. The class will be divided into four grant review panels of about eight people per panel. You will give copies of your proposal to all classmates in one of the groups, plus one to me. Before Tuesday, Feb. 12, everyone must read, evaluate and score the proposals they receive (based on an evaluation template I provide and which we will discuss). On Feb. 12, panels will reconvene to discuss and then assign a consensus point value to each proposal. Panels will then decide how to distribute $12,000 per panel in funding. If each of the eight proposals in a group has requested $6,000, only two can be funded in full.
Grades for the proposals will be assigned as follows: All funded proposals will automatically receive 15 points for the assignment. Any proposal that requests and receives the full $6,000 in funding will receive an additional 5 bonus points. If I am particularly impressed with one of the proposals, I will work with its author—if he or she chooses—to finalize it for actual submission to OMS for their spring 2008 deadline. Receiving a grant as an undergraduate is a tremendous accomplishment, and one that looks very impressive on a resume. Non-funded proposals will be assigned point values based on my evaluation and that of the panel that assessed it.
Grades for the review process will be assigned on the basis of the effort you put into reviewing the eight proposals you receive. I will gauge your effort by reading the comments you provide on the review sheets you fill out for each proposal. The more extensive, incisive and constructive your critiques are, the higher your score will be. After my grading is complete, the proposal copy you provided to me and all evaluations of your proposal will be returned to you.
Assignment 4: Legislator E-mails. February 4, 2008 is Utah Museums Day at the Salt Lake City capitol building. The USU MOA will send a delegation of representatives to the event (and any of you are welcome to attend—it’s fun and educational). The primary goal of this event is to raise awareness in the Utah legislature of the importance of Utah’s many museums and to encourage legislators to increase the 2008 appropriate for Utah museums. In preparation for this event, you will each identify your Utah state representative and senator and e-mail them by Thursday, January 31, inviting them to visit our USU Museum of Anthropology exhibit and asking them to vote to fund Utah museums as generously as possible this year. Details on how to figure out who your legislators are and how to effectively lobby them for support will be presented in class, in part by USU political scientist Michael Lyons. You must “cc” me on your two e-mails (by 5:00 on the due date) so that I can give you credit for this assignment.
Assignment 5: Collections Research . On January 31, you will tour and learn about the USU MOA. You will see not only the current exhibits, but also collections that we own but are not currently displaying. For your collections research project, we will assign you an object or group of objects from the museum’s collections, and you will conduct research on it/them. Your investigation will include interviewing the donor of the object, if (s)he is available, and it will certainly include library research. You will learn to conduct such library research on February 14 during a session with Wendy Holliday, coordinator of library instruction at USU.
Rather than producing a standard paper based on your research, you will produce text for the USU MOA web site. A link on the museum’s web page opens a “collections” section, where you can see examples of object research done by students in previous Anth 3310 classes. If your research is of sufficiently high quality, it will be added to this section of our web site, where you, your friends, family, and e-visitors can enjoy it for some time to come. I will provide a template via e-reserve to guide you in the collection and proper reporting of your data, so that everyone’s research is comparable and easily posted to the MOA web site. You will turn in a hard-copy draft of your research in class on February 28. On March 27, you will turn in a final hard-copy of your research and (also by class-time) e-mail me an e-copy of the template to facilitate posting your research to the web.
Assignment 6: Final Project. Your final project, which you may conduct independently, with a partner, or with a team (depending on the project), will be to contribute something to tangibly improve the USU Museum of Anthropology. I will circulate a list of possible projects, and we will discuss them in class. You may also suggest additional projects that I haven’t thought of. Members of the class often have their own great ideas about what we can do better. Anything that improves the quality of our museum is fair game. Examples of projects completed by past students include rehabilitating exhibits; designing anthropologically oriented games for young museum visitors; evaluating docent tours and developing improved versions; creating new tours; developing a reading list for an anthropology “story hour” for kids of various ages; designing a poster to be used at public events to advertise the museum; and planning a museum event.
You will work closely with Sara Lundberg (USU Museum Coordinator) and me throughout your project to insure that you create something that you will be proud of and that we can put to immediate use. Your grade will reflect your effort and the quality of the execution of your project. The product will vary from project to project, and I will help you determine what your individual product should include. In addition to the points you can earn for the project itself, you will have an opportunity to earn additional points for an in-class presentation during the final two class periods. Your presentation should be 7 – 10 minutes long and should explain to your classmates (a) why you undertook the project you did; (b) how you executed it; (c) what your product entails (with visuals, as appropriate); (d) problems you encountered; and (e) how your product will benefit the USU Museum of Anthropology.
Reading Quizzes . You know, I hate to do these as much as you all do (really). However, I know from past experience that without significant external motivation to read assignments, some students never will. So, expect to complete six unannounced quizzes on your readings over the course of the semester. Each is worth 10 points, and I will drop the lowest score at the end of the term. You may not make up the quizzes except under the most extraordinary of circumstances (e.g., extended hospitalization)—that’s the point of dropping the lowest score; to allow you a mulligan for that one time you just have to miss class and there happens to be a reading quiz. You will only find the quiz difficult if you didn’t read. Be aware that I will frame quiz questions so that it is immediately obvious if you are trying to fudge your way through the quiz without have read (so please don’t waste my time—just write on your sheet “I did not read”). These are 50 easy points to earn, so please do not squander them by failing to prepare for class.
Daily Attendance and Participation . Attendance and active participation in this course are imperative. The class is relatively small, so it will be clear to me who is well prepared, engaged, and participating. Twenty-five points will be determined by your willingness to attend class, read assignments, and actively engage in class discussions. Again, these are easy points, so please knock me out with your outstanding presence!
Field trip attendance and participation . In addition to visiting on-campus facilities such as the NEHMA and USU Special Collections during regular class periods, we will also take one all-day field trip this semester to a museum to be determined. The field trip date will be March 20, 2008. You will earn 15 points for this assignment by showing up, actively engaging in activities, and participating in a follow-up class discussion. Field trip points may not be made up, except under the most extraordinary of circumstances and with priorapproval.
Classroom policies
PART I: MUSEUM ADMINISTRATION
Jan. 8 Intro to course and museums None
Jan. 10 History of museums; key concepts in museum studies Glaser, Ch. 2
Jan. 15* Marketing museums to the public (marketing plans) Kotler & Kotler 2007;
NOTE: Lecture 9 – 10:15 in the MOA (repeated on tape Rentschler 2007
during our regular class period in our regular classroom)
Troy Oldham, Lecturer, Journalism & Communication
Receive & discuss Assignment 1
Jan. 17 Marketing museums to the public (press releases) Genoways & Ireland, Ch. 11
Guest, Patrick Williams, USU Public Relations & Marketing
Receive & discuss Assignment 2
Jan. 22 Marketing museums to granting agenciesSample OMS proposals (.pdf file)
Receive & discuss Assignments 3a & 3b
Jan. 24 Marketing museums to legislators McIntire 2005
Assignment 2 (press release) due
Guest: Mike Lyons, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science
Receive & discuss Assignment 4
Jan. 29 Marketing museums to donors Wolf, Ch. 8
Guest, Richard Shipley, Chair, USU Board of Trustees
Jan. 31 Tour, USU MOA, Meet at MOA, Old Main 252 Swain, Ch. 3; Collier & Tschopik Assignment 4 (e-mails to legislators) due by 5:00 p.m. 2003
Feb. 5 Museums: organization and roles Swain, Ch. 5; Burcaw, Ch. 5
Feb. 7 Museum ethics and laws Swain, Ch. 4; Burcaw, Ch. 21
Guest, Gary Anderson, Hillyard, Anderson & Olson PC
Assignment 3a (grant proposals, 9 copies) due;
distribute to reviewers
Feb. 12 In-class grant proposal review Peer grant proposals
Assignment 3b (grant proposal reviews) due
PART II: MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Feb. 14 Researching ethnographic objects. Meet in Library 155. Swain, Ch. 9; Burcaw, Ch. 12
Guest, Wendy Holliday, Coordinator of Library Instruction
Receive & discuss Assignment 5
Feb. 19 NO CLASS (Monday classes meet today) N/A
Feb. 21 Collections acquisition Swain, Ch. 6; Lord & Lord, Ch. 7
Feb. 26 Registering and cataloguing collections Swain, Ch. 7; Burcaw, Ch. 9
Feb. 28 Collections storage and care: manuscripts & photos (with E-readings: “Photo care,” “Clean-
USU Special Collections curators). Meet in Library 101 ing Paper,” & “Reparing Paper”
(to your left as you enter the library foyer)
Guests, Daniel Davis & Stephen Sturgeon, curators, USU
Special Collections
Assignment 5 draft (hard copy) due
* Reading must be completed by the beginning of class on the day the assignment is listed.
Mar. 4 Collections storage and care: paintings and textiles Leisher 1992; Wolf 1992
Guest, Laurel Casjens, Office of Museum Services
Mar. 6 Collections storage and care: archaeological and Swain, Ch. 10; Rose 1992
ethnographic objects
Receive & discuss Assignment 6
Mar. 11 SPRING BREAK None
Mar. 13 SPRING BREAK None
PART III: MUSEUM EXHIBITS AND OUTREACH
Mar. 18 Visit Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art Hooper-Greenhill 1994;
Meet in NEHMA lobby at 10:30 Burcaw, Ch. 8
Mar. 20 ALL-DAY FIELD TRIP (TBA) Burcaw, Ch. 6
Mar. 25 In-class discussion of NEHMA and field trip None
Mar. 27 Exhibit design Swain, Chs. 12 & 13
Assignment 5 (collections research) due: hard copy &
electronic copy via e-mail to professor
Apr. 1 Exhibit manufacture Belcher, Ch. 10; Serrell, Chs. 8, 10-
12, & 20
Apr. 3 Outreach: public programming for adults Swain, Ch. 11 & 14
Guest, Elisabeth Johnson, Education Director, American
West Heritage Center
Apr. 8 Outreach: public programming for kids Ingle 1994;Jensen 1994;
Guest: John Gallagher, Education Director, Stokes Suina 1994
Nature Center
Apr. 10 Outreach: designing and giving tours Grinder & McCoy, Ch. 5
Guests, USU MOA docents
Apr. 15 Outreach: web sites; Guests, Ben Renard-Wiart, USU Cunliffe et al. 2001
Webmaster & Holly Andrew, MOA webmaster
Apr. 17 Historic preservation Burcaw, Ch. 18
Guest, Chris L. Hansen, Preservation Planner, Utah
State Historic Preservation Office, Salt Lake City
Apr. 22 Assignment 6 presentations None
Assignment 6 due after your presentation (in class)
Apr. 24 Assignment 6 presentations None
Assignment 6 due after your presentation (in class)
* Reading must be completed by the beginning of class on the day the assignment is listed.
Full Citations for Readings
Belcher, Michael. 1991. Exhibitions in Museums. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington,
D.C.
Burcaw, G. Ellis. 1997. Introduction to Museum Work, 3 rd edition. AltaMira Press, Walnut
Creek, CA.
Collier, Donald and Harry S. Tschopik, Jr. 2003. The Role of Museums in American
Anthropology. In Curators, Collections and Contexts: Anthropology at the Field
Museum, 1893 – 2002, edited by Stephen E. Nash and Gary M. Feinman, pp. 23-47.
Field Museum of Natural History Publication No. 1525, Chicago.
Cunliffe, Daniel, Efmorphia Kritou and Douglas Tudhope. 2001. Usability Evaluation for
Museum Web Sites. Museum Management and Curatorship 19(3):229-252.
Genoways, Hugh H. and Lynne M. Ireland. 2003. Museum Administration, An Introduction.
AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
Glaser, Jane R. (with Artemis A. Zenetou). 1996. Museums: A Place to Work. Planning
Museum Careers. Routledge, London and New York.
Grinder, Alison L. and E. Sue McCoy. 1985. The Good Guide: A Sourcebook for Interpreters,
Docents and Tour Guides. Ironwood Publishing, Scottsdale, AZ.
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. 1994. Learning in Art Museums: Strategies of Interpretation. In The
Educational Role of the Museum, 2 nd edition, edited by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, pp. 44-
52. Routledge, London.
Kotler, Neil and Philip Kotler. 2007. Can Museums be All Things to All People? Chapter 19 in
Museum Management and Marketing, edited by Richard Sandell and Robert R. James,
pp. 313-330.
Ingle, Marilyn. 1994. Pupils’ Perceptions of Museum Education Sessions. In The Educational
Role of the Museum, 2 nd edition, edited by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, pp. 312-319.
Routledge, London.
Jensen, Nina. 1994. Children, Teenagers and Adults in Museums: A Developmental
Perspective. In The Educational Role of the Museum, 2 nd edition, edited by Eilean
Hooper-Greenhill, pp. 110-117. Routledge, London.
Leisher, William R. 1992. Paintings. In Caring for Your Collections, ed. by Arthur W. Schultz,
pp. 30-39. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York.
Lord, Gail Dexter and Barry Lord. 1999. The Manual of Museum Planning, 2 nd edition. The
Stationery Office, London.
Martin-Ross, Dorren and William K. Barnett. 2003. Information Management in the
Department of Anthropology: History and Prospects. In Curators, Collections and
Contexts: Anthropology at the Field Museum, 1893 – 2002, edited by Stephen E. Nash
and Gary M. Feinman, pp. 243-249. Field Museum of Natural History Publication No.
1525, Chicago.
McIntire, Mike. 2005. Even the City’s Cultural Organizations are Hiring Lobbyists Now. New
York Times (July 25, 2005).
Pearce, Susan M. 1990. Archaeological Curatorship. Smithsonian Institution Press,
Washington, D.C.
Rose, Carolyn L. 1992. Ethnographic Materials. In Caring for Your Collections, ed. by Arthur
W. Schultz, pp. 139-155. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York.
Rentschler, Ruth. 2007. Museum Marketing: Understanding Different Kinds of Audiences.
Chapter 21 in Museum Management and Marketing, edited by Richard Sandell and
Robert R. Janes, pp. 345-365.
Serrell, Beverly. 1996. Exhibit Labels, an Interpretive Approach. AltaMira Press, Walnut
Creek, CA.
Swain, Hedley. 2007. An Introduction to Museum Archaeology. Cambridge University Press.
Suina, Joseph H. 1994. The Educational Role of the Museum. In The Educational Role of the
Museum, 2 nd edition, edited by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, pp. 105-109. Routledge,
London.
Wolf, Sara J. 1992. Textiles. In Caring for Your Collections, ed. by Arthur W. Schultz, pp.
86-95. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York.
Wolf, Thomas. 1999. Managing a Nonprofit Organization in the Twenty-First Century. Simon
and Schuster, Inc., New York.