Abstract
In this study, the researcher sought primarily to identify current requirements for an art museum career. Based on the opinions of art museum professionals and the actual demands of employers in the art museum job market, the researcher endeavored to answer the question: According to art museum professionals, what should a museum studies program consist of? Secondarily the study concerned the opinions of art museum professionals about museum studies programs and sought to identify possible criteria for museum training content based on the suggestions and feedback of these art museum professionals.
In order to achieve its goals, this study utilized three instruments: (1) document-based content analysis of 255 job descriptions from AVISO, (2) a mail survey of 101 art museum professionals, and (3) four face-to-face/telephone interviews. This study discovered that the skills most highly valued by the art museum professionals and employers include communication, organization, management and people skills. In addition, the museum job markets as well as art museum professionals do not recognize museum studies programs as viable educational background for a museum career. Art museum professionals prefer that museum studies programs are more specific in training, have more academically based graduation requirements, and combine elements of theory and practice in the curricula.
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