255

THE M U S E U M AND THE UNIVERSITY

Mívsezmz, profession und Zmiversity:

stadies at Leicester

Geoffrey Lewis

Director of Museum Studies, University of Leices- ter, since 1977. Previously Director, Merseyside County Myseums, Liverpool, and Director of Shef- field City Museums. Born in Brighton, United Kingdom, in 1933. M.A. (University of Liverpool). Diploma of the Museums Association. Past Presi- dent (and Fellow) of the Museums Association. Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Has been Chairman of Examiners for the Museums Association. President of ICOM since 1983; previously Chairman of the Advisory Committee and the International Documentation Committee.

1. For a more detailed history of museum training in this country see Geoffrey Lewis, ‘The Training of Museum Personnel in the United Kingdom’, M u m m s J . , 83 (l), 65-70, London 1983.

The Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom provides professional training for museum entrants and those already in museum employment. It also provides opportunities for research into many aspects of the museum and its operation. This work brings the teaching staff of the Department into regular contact with museums, museum colleagues and the professional associations. This linkage is an important element in the professional standing of the Department in the United Kingdom and abroad. Addi- tionally the staff of the Department have all served in full-time, senior museum positions - collectively representing over a century of experience in the museum profession - and are qualified profes- sionally as well as academically. These are all factors which contribute to the close and fruitful collaboration that exists be- tween the university, the museum and the museum profession.

A university base for the professional training of museum staff is important. This is not just because of the affinities that exist between universities and museums as a result of the latter’s collec- tions of primary evidence for a number of the disciplines taught in universities. Rather it is the opportunity presented by a university for teaching and research to interact. This is beneficial for the staff and students, and at the same time pro- vides a dynamic and sympathetic en- vironment in which to develop excellence in professional training of this nature. This does not exclude the essential ex-

periential element of museum training but, rather, enhances it.

The Department’s work

The Department of Museum Studies was opened at Leicester University in 1966. The idea of university courses to train curatorial staff had already been discus- sed in the United Kingom nearly seventy years ago,’ but the first formal training for museum staff appears to have commenced in the mid-twenties and cer- tainly by 1930 the Museums Association was providing courses for curators. Two years later it published the regulations for its Diploma, a qualification which receiv- ed recognition in a number of English- speaking countries as well as the United Kingdom. By 1950 there were further moves towards a university course, a number of members of the profession arguing that there should be a more museological bias to curatorial training.

It was not until the mid-l960s, how- ever, the heyday of twentieth-century university expansion in Britain, that the Leicester course-as it is widely known -was introduced. The planning of the course took place in close co-operation with the Museums Association and its museological approach reflects this. It commenced by offering a one-year, full- time course leading to a Graduate Cer- tificate in Museum Studies. Holders of this qualification are accorded con- siderable exemptions in the examinations for the Diploma of the Museums Associa- tion. Apart from the Leicester course,

the only other qual ibt ion recognized ~ Q O E this purpose is the Diploma in Gallery and Museum Studies, established in 2971 at the Department of the History of Art, Manchester University.

Further developments at Leicester in 2975 saw the introduction of t~clo-yeag taught courses leading to the degrees of Master of Arts or Master of Science, depending on the subject specialism of the person concerned. These are also recognized by the Museums Association. At the same time, research degrees by thesis were introduced, for an MA. OH Ph.D. in museum studies. Thus since that date the Department has been able to offer a full programme of both voca- tional training and research to develop museum studies, an important contribu- tion which is available to many other pro- fessions.

Increased demand for the Museums Association's Diploma training brought with it additional organizational prob- lems, not least in finding suitable venues in museums where traditionally the courses had been held. This had been done very much on a self-help basis, with museums providing their facilities freely. The Museums Association began to look for a more permanent urangement and in 1980 entered into a seven-year agree- ment with the University of Leicester to provide the compulsory taught courses for its Diploma. Since then, Museums Association Digdoma studems have at- tended two three-week courses at Leices- ter to provide the museological founda- tions on which this essentially in-service training is based.

Although the full-time professional cour~es at Leicester were intended originally fa British students whhin pursue a museum career, they have &o attracted a number of overseas applicants each year, often from people in estab- lished museum posts; this gives the courses an added dimension, beneficial to both home and foreign students. There may be as many as 10 non-British students among the 25 students normally selected each year from about 3QQ ap- plications. The number of British students admitted is related to the job opportunities likely to arise and although the pattern of job vacancies has changed considerably over the last five years, most students find museum employment within a few months of graduating. In- deed, since the course was intmduced, over 90 per cent of Leicester's graduates have entered museum or closely related work on completion oftheir course. They are employed in a wide variety of museums. About hdlf are recruited to local government museums while, of the remainder, fiteen per cent go EO overseas museums and the others are employed by national, university and independent museums in Britaim2

Factor.r cawem@ itzjhencing trai&?i&?g

Over the last thirty years the museum operation has become increasingly com- plex, requiring its practitioners to have a good understanding of a number of dif- ferent disciplines. What then are likely to be the key issues in training tomorrow's museum personnel?

Museum, profession and university: museum studies at Leicester 257

The first of these remains the respon- sibility to society for preserving and inter- preting the collections in their care, as has been the case since museums began. They are part of the heritage of all mankind. Closely related to this is the fact that they contain primary source material for furthering the knowledge of mankind and the natural world. This ac- centuates the academic requirement. For this a university degree in a subject rele- vant to museum collections should pro- vide the necessary basis. In fact, close ex- amination of university courses soon reveals certain lacunae. There is no guarantee that a relevant university degree will have included any real contact with physical objects - with material culture- which is the foundation of curatorship in the humanities; in the natural sciences many undergraduate courses do not teach taxonomy adequate- ly, with the result that graduates have dif- ficulty in classifying and identifying specimens from the natural world. In cer- tain subject areas, for example in history, there is little if any first-degree training involving material culture. At best a rele- vant or related university degree must be regarded as a standard of educational at- tainment and, hopefully, as an inter- pretative framework for the subject con- cerned. Museum training must therefore involve familiarity with and an understanding of objects and their materials. In the humanities this will also include their cultural implications although it should not be forgotten that natural science collections also acquire cultural attributes.

In the preservation of cultural property the theory and practice of museum con- servation is already a specialized area, with its own advanced training. But all concerned with cultural property should have clear conservation awareness and be able to take preventive action to ensure a minimum of object and specimen dete- rioration. Preservation is not restricted to an item’s physical form. In a majority of cases it is the information inherent in or associated with the item that gives it significance in museum terms. The per- manent recording o$ this information is therefore equally important. The result- ing documentation, of course, is far more than a record of a particular item or col- lection. It is a small contribution to knowledge. Information technology al- ready provides opportunities to bring the knowledge of many such collections together for the benefit of research or a number of other purposes such as exhibi-

tion planning, for example. Another im- portant aspect of information handling is that the traditional discipline boundaries can readily be transcended with a suitably designed system. The control of this documentation in larger museums is nor- mally in the hands of a Registrar- another example of the increasingly specialized personnel now being employed in museums - but a proper understanding of the significance of museum documentation and its purpose is vital for the curator.

There is much more to a curator’s public responsibilities than placing the choicest objects on exhibition. The museum display is a very powerful means of communication and needs to fulfil this potential. It involves the exhibition of the real thing, which carries an aura which no reproduction can convey. The object itself is a communication medium and it is necessary to understand this. Communication, however, involves not only the objects but the design of the ex- hibit and the exploitation of its educa- tional potential. This in turn requires knowledge of the museum’s visitors and how effectively its exhibits are com- municating to that clientele.

Public expectations concerning the museum as a public service vary con- siderably. It may be seen in terms of leisure, entertainment, tourism, educa- tion, or a combination of these, quite apart from the scholarly purpose most museums have. Unlike many other non- profit organizations, museums are sub- ject to direct market forces of this kind. These forces tend, however, to emphasize the publicly visible aspects of the opera- tion and respond to them in isolation, which can bring severe imbalances to the whole. Training can help to counteract this danger.

The museum practitioner is involved in the management of resources. These may be collections, sites, buildings, equipment, money or, of course, people. Even the most junior member of a museum’s professional staff, whether curator, exhibit designer, educationist, information scientist or conservator, has a management function, even though it may not be perceived personally in those terms. In addition, each is contributing to the management of the institution in the more general sense. Understanding of this is vital for the institution’s success. A museum’s activities also need to be planned and organized, its staff motivated and its affairs controlled. Management techniques, properly 2. Detailed statistics are given in Lewis, op. cit.

258 Geofirey Lewis

3. Learning Goals for Museum Studes Training, Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, 1986.

4. For more detailed information see Geoffrey Lewis, ‘Learning Goals in Museum Studies Training” Methods and Techniques of Museum Trgining at University Level, Leicester, ICOM International Committee for the Training of Museum Personnel, 1983.

5. For example, Norman MacKenzie et al. , Teaching and Learning - an Introduction to New Methods and Resources in Higher Educdtion, Paris, Unesco and JAU, 1979.

6 . ICOM, Profissional Training of Museum Personnel in the World, Paris, IGOM Training Unit, 1972; and, with minor amendments, ICOM, ‘The KOPA Common Basic Syllabus for Professional Museum Training’, The Profissional Training of Museum Personnel, Leicester, ICOM International Committee for the Training of Museum Personnel, 1980.

7. A Bibliography for Museum Stz,!dies Trainizg, Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, 1986.

8. ‘Archaeology option: learning goals and bibliography for museum studies training. History option: learning goals and bibliography for museum studies training. Museum education services option: learning goals and bibliography for museum studies training. Natural history option: learning goals and bibliography for museum studies training’, Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, 1986.

9. Board of Museum Studies, Review of the Academic Development o f the Department of Museum Studies: a Discussion Document, University of Leicester, 1984.

adapted and applied to the museum, therefore form an important element in museum studies training.

The keim$er ~~~~~~~~~

The Department approaches museum studies training from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint. It takes the student through the key areas of the museum operation, and where it is necessary to develop the application of a particular topic in one of the subject discipliness, this is done in the special option sessions. The core courses for both the Graduate Certificate and the Masters’ degrees contain five main ele- ments: the historical and contemporary museum context, materids and culture, collection management, museum man- agement, and museum services.

The specid option involves the ap- plication of a subject in the museum con- text, chosen from one o€ the following: archaeology, geology, history, history of technology, museum education services, 01 naturd history. IW addition to periods of museum attachment, there are assignments which include a design brief, &e assessment of an aspect of a museum operation undertaken during a museum attachment, and an artefact study. The whole programme is intended to provide a balance of theory and practice, the lat- ter both in the Deparment and during museum visits and attachments. Suc- cessful students leave with a good understanding and some experience of the museum $ï.amxion, on which they can build readily as they enter museum employment or rejoin it early in their careers.

A detailed syllabus is published in the Learning god^ for Xa5ezznz Stade5 Training.3 This approach to the presen- tation of a syllabus deserves a word of comment. Curatorial training in the United Kingdom involves a number of agencies, some of which are interdepen- dent within the framework of one award. Por example, when the Museums Asso- ciation asked the Department to under- take the training courses for its Diploma, it was desirable to provide a clear state- ment of intent. This was not only to pro- vide a basis for memingful discussion but also, in the longer term, to provide a common framework for all involved: teachers, students, tutors, examiners, participating museums or organizations, and the Museums Association itself. The ‘learning goal’ concept adopted4 has behaviourist origins and is well docu- mented in the educational Piterature;5 it

is related to some of the approaches used in evaluating exhibit effectiveness and forms the basis of the management by objectives philosophy used in a number of museums. The content ofthe learning goals is derived from an analysis of a number of syllabuses used in museum sedies training in different parts of the world, including, of course, those of ICOM,6 the Museums Association and the Department in Leicester. The Museums Association subsequently adopted the learning goals as the syl!ab.hl_~s for its Diploma work. There is now an ex- tensive bibliography, revised annually, to support the learning goals, as well as defined learning gods and bibliogra- phies for the four subject options taught within the Department.8

The purpose and nature of museum training have been undergoing a tho- rough review by a number ofagencies in the United Kingdom, including the De- partment of Museum Studies9 and the Museums Association. Both organiza- tions are, however, awaiting the first-ever governmental review of professional training in museums before introducing any changes to their work. The report has appeared too late to incaporate in this paper any of the changes h a t may result from its recommendations. However, a brief summary of its main findings is given in the article on page 259.