A Museum Course at Newcomb College

Abstract

Very simply, this is a one semester, introductory muscology course for both graduates and advanced undergraduates, some of whom do seriously intend museum careers. My own intention with the course, however, is to do more than prepare clerks and otherwise cater to students with “cubbyhole” career plans. On the contrary, I try to stress that a professional preparation properly consists of more than what is, perhaps, all too often the standard (and only) museum fare: ie. considerations of cataloguing, registration methods, documentation and authentication, history of collecting, conservation and restoration, etc. While all these topics are, to be sure, seriously considered, we attempt to go further and suggest that, in fact, almost any meaningful kind of human activity of knowledge can somehow be positively utilized in the course of a museum career. The students are encouraged to direct their bright, imaginative minds to thinking of “the museum” not as something limited but, in fact, almost unlimited from the standpoint of what it can do—or better, of what they, as potential museum people, can do for it.

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Notes on contributors

Victor Koshkin-Youritzin

Mr. Koshkin-Youritzin is an Instructor of History of Art at Newcomb College, Tulane University. After receiving his M.A. at the Institute of Fine Arts (NYU), he held a Ford Fellowship as an intern in the Department of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and received the certificate in Museum Training.