华盛顿大学

Our program is centered on three core beliefs:

Museums can make the world a better place;

The power of museums lies in the role they play in learning, wellbeing, community building, and social justice;

Museum professionals are connectors – they are storytellers, dialogue facilitators, community liaisons, designers, evaluators, researchers, project managers, and more.

Since we welcomed a new decade in 2020, the world has fundamentally changed. The global pandemic has affected all areas of society, but the inequities and vulnerabilities it exposed are not new. We believe that museums are playing and will continue to play a vital role in rebuilding our communities. Museums will look different than they do today, but at the core, they remain organizations devoted to learning, wellbeing, community building, and social justice.

Students and faculty are leveraging their skills and understanding of learning, community engagement, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and communication to contribute to the work of museums both in the short and long term.

Curriculum

Whether you are excited to tell stories through exhibits, provide access to collections or engage with your community, our courses help you build the skills to follow your passion.

Our core courses are designed to provide a strong cohort experience and a solid foundation for your exploration. As a cohort, you will take three courses that provide bookends to your experience and prepare you to design your thesis research or project.

Opportunity and options abound

Archivist. Evaluator. Exhibit Developer. Membership Manager. Registrar. Visitor Experience Coordinator. These are just a few of the titles that show up on our alumni’s business cards. Some are generalists and some are specialists. Some like working for small museums in small towns, while others prefer the buzz of the big city. Some work for museums of flight, others for libraries of medicine. The flexibility and rigor of our program means you’ll be prepared regardless of which career path you pursue.

The following list gives you a sense for where our alumni find jobs upon graduation:

Curator, Warren Anatomical Museum, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine

Collections Manager, Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Registrar, Phoenix Airport Museum

Manager of Learning Experiences, Omaha Children’s Museum

Capital Campaign Manager, Town Hall Seattle

Evaluation Project Manager, Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Learning & Audience Engagement Assistant, Grand Rapids Art Museum