Check-in at Sessions House

Welcome dinner with program faculty at Lamont House
After dinner: House meeting at Session House

Mon, June 15

Introduction, Marion Goethals, Suzannah Fabing, Katy Kline
Logistics, introduction of faculty and TAs. Overview – what is an art museum?  Basic functions of art museums: collecting, preserving, exhibiting, interpreting, audience building.  Explanation of assignments: reading, class participation, oral report, class exhibition, five writing assignments culminating in final portfolio.  History of Smith College Museum of Art.

Behind-the-scenes tours, and presentations by museum staff

Smith College Museum of Art
Behind-the-scenes tours, and presentations by museum staff, continued

STUDENTS!  Bring your laptops this afternoon.
Barbara Polowy, Head of the Hillyer Art Library, Introduction to library resources
Elisa Lanzi, Director, Imaging Center, Insight image management system

Governance and Mission, Suzannah Fabing
Governance structures of both independent and “nested” museums.  Boards of Trustees and Advisory Committees;  responsibilities and ethical obligations of the Board;  role division between board and staff.   The Public Trust.  Role of the Attorney General. Mission and Vision statements.  In-class exercise on mission statements.

Oral reports: New Haven and Hartford

Exhibiting, Katy Kline
Types of exhibitions: permanent collection, temporary, blockbuster, interventions, etc.; audience driven exhibitions; curatorial role; challenges to museums.
Also, SCMA, Winslow Gallery with Ann Musser.

Trip to New Haven and Hartford

Class Exhibition, Marion Goethals
Open discussion in gallery of artwork: themes and connections, potential audiences, programming, design.
Trip review

Exhibition practicum, students indicate two choices of teams, by 12 noon to Angel Harrell

Robert Wright, Associate Director, Human Resources, Williams College
Working in Groups

Museum Writing, Susan Rossen, Director of Publications, Art Institute of Chicago

Oral reports: New York, part one
2:00     SCMA
Exhibition practicum: Mentors meeting with all students, followed by teams/mentors sessions

~Writing Assignment One due~

Tues, June 23

Conservation, David Dempsey, SCMA
In-class technical examination of original objects from the SCMA collection

Collections I, Katy Kline          
Collecting: Defining collecting parameters; relation to mission, various means of acquisitions: gifts, bequest, transfer, including pro-active acquisitions: purchase--auction houses, galleries, private dealers, art advisors, art fairs. 

Oral reports: New York, part two

New York City trip, exhibiting and education focus

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ellen Howe conservator
Lunch in the Met cafeteria with Smith/SIAMS/Williams alum

Collections II, Katy Kline, Aprile Gallant, SCMA
Policies and Procedures; shaping a collections plan; role of staff; role of Board; appraisals; tax law.  Ethical issues: provenance, Nazi-era, cultural patrimony, NAGPRA.  Review of SCMA acquisition proposal.  Collections management: deaccessioning policies and procedures; responsibility toward scholarship; role of the Registrar: record-keeping, curatorial files, databases; accessioning and cataloguing; photography; inventory; copyright and reproduction rights.

Trip review
Exhibition practicum: staff meeting

Exhibition practicum: exhibition teams meet. Curatorial team: title, theme, checklist by 5 pm; TAs assign catalogue entries by 7 pm

~Writing Assignment Two due~

Audience, Marion Goethals
Understanding visitor demographics; national participation in the arts; different kinds of audiences.  Why attendance matters.  Reaching and informing potential audiences.
Oral reports: Boston     Sign up: Career Exploration Day

Education, Ann Musser                                    
Role of the education department; learning theory; looking strategies; art-making; didactic materials; assessment and evaluation

Boston Trip

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Paty Jacoby, Deputy Director and Budge Upton,
Director of Project Development, hard hat tour

Lunch in MFA cafeteria with various staff

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Peggy Burchenal
Free time in Gardner and MFA, dinner

MIT  Patricia Fuller, Curator of Public Art

Trip review; exhibition practicum: staff meeting; TA session with Angel Harrell, Emily Arensman; Sign up: Friday’s faculty appointments

Exhibition Installation Workshop (optional)
Mentors: 2nd meeting may be scheduled by teams with mentor

~Writing Assignment Three due~

Budgets and Funding I, Suzannah Fabing, Stacey Anasazi, SCMA
A look at a typical museum budget: sources of income; expenses; what happens in a downturn.  Role of the museum fundraising department, board, staff; campaigns; membership programs; stewardship. Earned income: admission fees, café, shop, rentals, benefits.  Ethical issues around for-profit exhibitions, corporate sponsorships, collection sharing and other novel approaches to raising revenue. 

Oral reports: Worcester and Providence

Funding II, Suzannah Fabing, Stacey Anasazi
Grants.  History of government grant funding in the U.S.  Foundations.  Strategizing about seeking grants. Tips on writing winning grant proposals.  Overhead and cost-sharing. In-class preparation of an NEA grant budget.

Graduate training: guest panel

Trip to Worcester and Providence
Worcester Art Museum, Jim Welu, Director, Allison Berkeley, Marketing, lunch
Rhode Island School of Design, Hope Alswang, Director
Dinner at Hope Alswang’s house

Career counseling appointments with faculty

History of European Museums, Andrew McClellan, Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Art History, Tufts University.  Author, The Art Museum: From Boulée to Bilbao.

Strategic Planning, Marion Goethals
The value to museums of looking ahead, and planning for the future.                  
Exhibition practicum: staff meeting; Trip review

Afternoon and evening available

~Writing Assignment Four due, Catalogue entries~

“Downside Up”, award-winning video about MASS MoCA

Recent Museum Architecture, Katy Kline
A look at several examples from the recent explosion of new and renovated/expanded museums, often by international “starchitects”, examining how these new buildings reflect their institutions’ missions, programs and values, and serve both art and audiences.

Afternoon available

Graduate Training, guest panel

~Writing Assignment Four, entry rewrite due~

History of Art Museums in the United States, Marion Goethals
Founding of civic museums; establishment of private museums; role of state, local and federal governments; proliferation of new museums; shifts in the future?
Oral reports: Williamstown and North Adams

Trip to Williamstown and North Adams

Williams College Museum of Art
Lisa Corrin, Director and Nancy Mathews, Eugénie Prendergast Curator

MASS MoCA, Susan Cross, Curator, Joe Thompson, Director (4:30)

Role of the Director, Museum Ethics and Challenges for the Future, Suzannah Fabing, Marion Goethals and Katy Kline 
What does a director do?  Transparency, conflict-of-interest, ethical conduct.  Class discussion of trends and challenges museums face in the future.  Wrap-up, written evaluation of SIAMS.

Exhibition practicum: staff meeting; Trip review

Afternoon available

~Writing Assignment Five due~

Exhibition preparation

~Writing Assignment Six due, Portfolio of revised Assignments One through Five~

Class presents finished exhibition to program faculty and SCMA staff
Class practices graduation ceremony

Written SIAMS program evaluations
[Staff: Outside Advisory Group meeting]

Graduation Ceremony and Exhibition Opening. Friends and family welcome.

Curriculum Overview

Classroom sessions: Structures affecting how museums operate
Introduction
Governance/Mission/Planning
History of European Museums, Andrew McClellan, Tufts -
History of American Museums
Museum Architecture
Budgets/Development
Strategic Planning
Role of the Director and Ethics

Classroom sessions: Doing the work of museums
Exhibiting
Audience/Marketing
Museum Writing, Susan Rosen, Art Institute of Chicago
Museum Education, Ann Musser, SCMA
Collections I, Collecting/Collections Management/Art Market
Conservation, David Dempsey, SCMA  hands-on examination
Collections II, Museums and Public Art, Artists

Exhibition Practicum
Class Exhibition launch
Class Exhibition, SCMA Mentors
Design/Installation Workshop, SCMA
Audience, Design, Education, Curatorial, SIAMS 2009 students

Tools for personal growth
Group Dynamics, Robert Wright, Williams College
Intensive, coached writing assignments
Career Discovery Days
Graduate study panels
Faculty counseling
Career Counseling Workshop

Travel to over 15 art museums/organizations in the northeast, to meet with professional staff
Yale University Art Gallery, director, conservators
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, registrar, designer, curator
Christies, estates and auction
International Center for Photography, communications director
Metropolitan Museum of Art, conservator
Samuel H. Kress Foundation, president
The Jewish Museum, director, curatorial associate (provenance)
George Adams Gallery, president
The Rubin Museum, assistant curator
DIA: Beacon, audience manager
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, development director, building project manager
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, education director
MIT, List Visual Arts Center, curator of public art
Institute for Contemporary Art, rights and reproductions
Worcester Art Museum, director, marketing associate
Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, director
Williams College Museum of Art, director, curator
Clark Art Institute, education director
MASS MoCA, curator, director