Picture courtesy of the School of Museum Studies, Leicester.
Introduction
The following three articles were created for the Heritage specialism which needed to design digital media to represent a tangible piece of heritage for the Museum Studies course. Each group came up with a different piece of heritage for the project. Group one looked at the educational impact of the school on alumni, group two looked at diversity, and group three looked at gender representation. Each group below has a summary of what they did and a link to their digital media creation. Below is the link to the interviews with alumni.
"Transformative Education"
Group 1 (Lucas Weinman, Sarah Verreault, Jenny Chen, Xinru Cai)
The School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester opened in 1966. Its purpose was to provide academic and professional training to students entering the museum sector, the first to do so at the university level in Western Europe. From the beginning, the curriculum emphasised the practical skills and knowledge needed to work in museums, providing a solid theoretical base as well as building a network of relationships with museums and galleries in the UK and around the world. Students come from a range of backgrounds and go on to fill a range of roles in the sector. Here are the experiences of three alumni. Alexandra Corneanu began her career in creative production in Romania when she realised that she could not pursue her interest in museums in her native country. Her time in Art Museums and Gallery Studies allowed her to discover the diverse professions within the museum sector. She received the guidance she needed to find where her interests and skills could come together. She now works as the Marketing and Communications Officer for the Art Council Collection. From a background in fine art, Rehana Mughal was attracted to study Museum Studies by distance learning for its flexibility, international perspective, and the high reputation of the course and professors. She feels that the knowledge and experience she gained empowers her every week in her role as Director Arts with the British Council in China. Nigel Cook arrived at the Museum Studies course from a lifelong interest for museums and a background in Zoology and Engineering. He discovered the social impact of museums, an awareness he carries with him in his role as the Natural Science Education Officer at National Museums Northern Ireland. For all three alumni, the strong academic foundation, the practical training, and the support in and outside the classroom defined their education and prepared them for their museum careers.
"Diversity as Heritage"
Group 2 (Abbie Eastaugh, Siyun Zhang, Emma Bonzo, Christian Newth)
The School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester first opened its doors in 1966 to students (Nutting 2016: 62). The course, like today, relied on the classes, a dissertation, and the practice module to prepare students for museums (Nutting 2016: 63). While this practice has not changed, the demographic and diversity within the student body have. Today there are students from Canada, China, France, the United States of America, India, Taiwan, and many other countries who add their voices to the course and create a space for rich dialogues. This space of diversity has been built over the years. Interviewing former students, they have also touched on the diversity of their own student cohorts (Interviews were done with Rehana, Alexandra, and Nigel, all Alumni of the School). The interviewees also mentioned that more needs to be done outside the school to increase diversity and bring in more perspectives into the museum sector. The School of Museum Studies has been progressive in the diversity of the students, but there is still work that needs to be done to spur on diversity in the museum sector.
Records gathered from the university library gave notice that within the first six years alone only an estimated eight international students had attended the school, a stark contrast from the number of international students attending in only one year today.
Details over the years were limited, but Alexandra tried to help by recalling her year:
“...so I can say about AMAGS more than museum studies... there were 40 of us in that year. I think there were… 3 people from the U. K. I would say probably 3 people from the U. S. Umm one person from Venezuela 3 people from Italy if I'm not mistaken. A few people from Hong Kong but I can't remember exactly how many, one person from Taiwan and then around maybe like 15 to 20 people from China? That was kind of the whole the whole demographic I think, oh no, 4 people from Italy yes definitely...” (Alexandra)
While student diversity is noticeable, questions regarding how this reflected the museum and heritage sector in the UK varied.
According to Alexandra and Rehana, part of the reason might have to do with the travel outcomes of the international students:
“I think the diversity on the course was perhaps more to do with international students being on the course with a view that they would go back to their country and having acquired the master's degree would be in a better position to back the kind of jobs that they were looking for in their home country.” (Rehana)
“I think maybe it is something unique in a way because I've been working in the sector for over four years now, I think, and... I don't think it's that diverse. Umm…I know there are a lot of people who come and do courses like this who do go back to their home countries and-and decide to work there” (Alexandra)
Nigel felt more optimistic given his view of the gender ratio of his year...
“Yeah, I think one of the things I did find really interesting was when I studied, um, there was-there was an awful more female classmates than male classmates, and I think... the thing was I think that was representing a shift in the sector at the time, because, you know, historically when museums started, it was very much the view of a particular type of person.”
...but noted there was still work to be done:
“I do think that was reflected in the course, BUT I think as in all situations there is more work to be done, and I think in that time there was still room for other voices and other perspectives that weren’t necessarily as represented on the course at that time.” (Nigel)
Diversity can help to strengthen the museum sector, and the School of Museum Studies has helped through its own development of student diversity as a defining aspect of the School to foster this change. The change in demographics at the School of Museum Studies has made the diversity of the cohort part of the rich history of the School of Museum Studies. The interviewees pointed out the rich diversity of the course and some reasons for the lack of diversity within UK museums, but there still appears to be a need for a greater push for change to increase diversity here in the UK (Adams 2019). The School of Museum Studies has pioneered since their beginning the way forward on diversity that now defines the heritage and cultural landscape of the School, which now helps to create museums professionals that strive for a new diverse landscape within museums and heritage sites.
"Inspiring Women"
Group 3 (Anne-Marie L. Walker, Gracia Gu, Zhiyan Pan)
Our project celebrates an element of the school's heritage that sets it apart from the sector: the School's association and support for women in leadership roles. This has been evident from at least the 1980s. We have focused on seven inspiring women, a mixture of staff and alumni, to show their achievements. Nevertheless, this is unfortunately still not reflected in the sector where we found that leadership roles, especially in larger museums, are often still male-dominated. However, whilst researching this area we found that there is another imbalance, one that is much less spoken of than inequality of women. This is around the low levels of men working in museum roles below leadership levels, which is also reflected in the school of Museum Studies. One of the alumni interviewed by the heritage students spoke of this. He explained that both the School and roles in the sector are female-dominated. Could this be reflective of how men that work in the sector feel? Why is the sector so female-dominated? These questions unfortunately were unable to be answer at this time as this requires further research. This is an area that is important to look more closely at. Although we feel that the gender balance in leadership roles needs to be highlighted, a gender balance throughout every level of the sector is just as important.
Acknowledgments
Thank you again to Rehana Mughal, Alexandra Corneanu, and Nigel Cook for allowing the heritage class the opportunity to interview them on their experiences in Museum Studies. Also, thank you to the Museum and Art Gallery Society magazine for the opportunity to publish the article on their website. This article was edited by Sarah Verreault and Christian Newth.
References Group 2
Adams, Geraldine Kendall (2019), “Workforce Diversity Remains Static at Museums in
England”, Museum Association, Available at:
Dyear (Accessed, 17 March, 2022).
Department of Museum Studies (May 1973), “Directory of Studies: 2nd Edition”, University of
Leicester Archives and Special Collections, MSM 1/4.
Nutting, Ryan (2016), “The Origin of the School of Museum Studies at the University of
Leicester”, Museologica Brunesia, 5(1), pp. 62-67,
http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/MuB2016-1-6 (Accessed: 2, March 2022).
References Group 3
Gender Matters- Perspectives on Leadership (2018), https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-
on/gender-matters-perspectives-on-leadership (Accessed: 16, March 2022)