My first semester was one of the most challenging and fast-paced. It began with our orientation day in late-September when we all sat around in a large circle in one of the faculty's two class-rooms introducing ourselves to the other new students who would become our colleagues, friends and team-mates in Museum Studies for the next two + years. Somewhat nerve-wracking but also a relief to put faces and brief life-stories to the previously anonymous twenty or so other students.
(The picture on the left is of the main campus building in Pleasant Hill - our classes are in Berkeley)
Many of my class-mates were from the immediate Bay Area; some from other parts of California; and a few had relocated from as far afield as Arizona, Iowa and New York to take the course. Although quite ethnically diverse (Asian-American, African-American, Puerto-Rican etc.), as i'm learning is common in the field, the majority were women with only three men in the class including myself. Most are also in their twenties and still close to having just completed undergraduate studies but a few like myself were returning after ten or more years away from academia.
We all were required to begin with two of the core courses which gave us a chance to get to know each other better as a class. Museum Issues I: History and Theory was taught by Leslie Madsen-Brooks, who did her Doctorate at UC Davis followed by work at the Smithsonian Natural History Museums. She gave us a good overview to the history of museums, specifically in the US since their beginnings in the 1800s. We also learned about some of the key issues and past and present controversies in the field. The highlights of this class for me were a 'museum critique' paper i had to write about the Charles Schulz Museum and a 'museum controversy' essay where i chose to focus on the 2003 looting at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.
(One of our first site-visits to the Oakland Museum of California. Oct. 2007)
Initially i was driving over three hours each way to classes from Lake County in my old 1983 Ford LTD. I worked out an arrangement with some friends to stay in a room at their place in Napa for the early part of the week when my classes took place; and then i would return up the mountain to my room there for the rest of the week. I was able to sustain this routine until around Halloween when fate took a hand in moving me towards living in the Bay Area.
On the way home from our student-organized Halloween party, my car started smoking on the Richmond Bridge. It finally gave out a couple of days later as i attempted to head back north on the US 101 Freeway in a big cloud of head-gasket blown smoke. So i stayed in Marin with some other friends, rented a car and began looking for a place closer to Berkeley in earnest from early November onwards.
Our second class 'Museum Issues I: Finance and Administration' was taught by the head of the Faculty, Professor Marjorie Schwarzer who had just fittingly published a book called 100 Years of Museums in America for the AAM's (American Association of Museums) centennial (this was the required reading for Leslie's class above). We learned many of the fundamentals of museum management including about mission statements, fundraising, budgets, SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), marketing and staff/leadership roles. One of our early site-visits was to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park for a conference about new building programs or renovations (picture below).
Grades:Museum Issues I: History and Theory (A)
Museum Issues I: Finance and Administration (B+)
(Sculpture Garden at the de Young, Oct. 2007)
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