Cultural Heritage Stewardship Graduate Academic Certificate

The Graduate Academic Certificate in Cultural Heritage Stewardship will provide students with key skills and experiences needed for competitive careers in museum archives and other cultural heritage settings. Students will learn the theory that drives the practice through hands-on learning experiences in grant writing, museum education, preservation, and museum archiving.  Understanding how and why individuals and communities engage with cultural heritage institutions is vital to the preservation of both heritage and citizenship in the US. Galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) that exhibit cultural heritage collections allow visitors to seriously engage with materials that push them to learn about themselves, their communities, and the world at large.  These institutions are also responsible for the appraisal of which materials are deemed worthy of preservation as cultural heritage.  In response to the national need for a workforce in museum archives, this graduate academic certificate, with an emphasis on the preservation of museum collections, serves archivists, preservation specialists, and other information professionals which are critical to the stewardship of cultural heritage collections in museums and archives.   

Cultural Heritage Stewardship Audience:

• Library and Information Science Professionals:  Master’s degreed professionals or degree seeking students who want to develop expertise in the stewarding materials in museum archives and other cultural heritage institutions.  
• Art Education Professionals:  Master's degreed individuals or degree seeking students who want to develop or enhance their knowledge of cultural heritage studies through graduate coursework, or supplement their academic studies by preparing for a possible career in museum archives and other GLAM settings. 
• Other Cultural Heritage Professionals:  Master's degreed individuals or degree seeking students in areas including but not limited to history, anthropology, theatre, hospitality management, and nonprofit management who want to develop or enhance their knowledge of cultural heritage studies through graduate coursework, or supplement their academic studies by preparing for a possible career in museum archives and other GLAM settings. 

Who Needs this Certificate? 

• Students interested in working in museum archives, rare books and manuscript libraries, special collections, art galleries, and other cultural heritage settings.  
• Future or current managers of cultural heritage organizations and leaders in the field. 
• Librarians, archivists, curators, and non-profit project managers who want to update their skills in grant-writing, archival preservation methods, art education, and cultural programming. 

Anyone seeking to supplement their graduate education with valuable professional skills. 

Why is this Certificate so Valuable? 

Courses and internship have been designed to provide students with hands-on experiences that will provide them with skills that add value to their resumes. These include grant-writing, preservation of special format materials, museum education, and archival management.  

Courses are led by faculty with a variety of expertise in different facets of cultural heritage stewardship including archival management, grant-writing, preservation methods, and art education.  

Course Requirements: 

• INFO 5960 Seminar in Cultural Heritage Stewardship. 3 hours.  

Students will engage with the topic of cultural heritage stewardship from several different perspectives. We will be speaking to local artists, museum archivists, collection curators, researchers, and others engaged with this work. They will also be reading case studies and watching documentaries on various aspects of cultural heritage stewardship which we will be discussing as a class. As a final assessment, students will create a grant proposal for a cultural heritage site of their choosing to ensure that students are equipped with a key skill needed to work at a cultural heritage institution.  

• INFO 5297 Introduction to Preservation of Special Format Materials. 3 hours.  

This course will serve as an introduction to the processes, standards, and best practices governing special materials preservation work in a present-day special library setting. It will offer students the opportunity for direct, hands-on training and experience through the process of assessing the preservation needs of collection materials and performing preservation treatments on-site in the library’s preservation studio. Throughout the semester the class will examine the types of items and materials typically found in the collections of special libraries, the methods used for preserving them, and the supplies, tools, and equipment commonly used in preservation work. The class will consider the historical implications of legacy media formats and the manufacturing processes that went into their production and learn how a basic knowledge of these histories influences the decisions we make, the priorities we establish, and the supplies that we use. The primary focus will be on special materials such as recorded sound, moving images (film and video), electronic devices, photographs, artifacts, paper dolls, maps, etc. In the Preservation Lab students will construct custom enclosures for collection items including 4-flaps, lightweight and heavy phase boxes, encapsulations, large boxes, and Mylar book jackets. They will also perform archival treatments such as mold remediation, surface cleaning, humidification/flattening, and deacidification. 

• ARTE 5940 Seminar in Art Museums. 3 hours.  

Focuses on the study of art museums: their human resources, their purpose, and their place in society. In this course, students explore the mission of art museums and the course is structured around the International Council of Museums, ICOM standards of what constitutes a museum: acquisition, research, stewardship, communication, and exhibition. Besides exploring operational museology, the course also uses a critical museological lens to introduce students to the history of art museums and the current philosophical and ethical debates that surround them. Students read seminal work by historical and contemporary academics and museum professionals, including John Cotton Dana, Stephen Weil, Carol Duncan, Ivan Karp, Steven Levine, Lois Silverman, and Susan Pearce, among many others. Students explore their interests by choosing a dilemma faced in contemporary art museum culture and write a formal research paper exploring both sides of this issue. 

• INFO 5092 Museum Archives Professional Internship. 6 hours.  

The internship course provides students with practical and general training experiences in museum archives and other GLAM settings. Designed to give students an opportunity to apply what they learned, expand and enhance their knowledge, and gain work experience in related areas. Course requirements enable students to make the connection between theory and practice and further develop students’ analytical and interpersonal skills. 

Once You Are Admitted 

Once admitted, you will be assigned an advisor who will assist you in getting enrolled for classes and beginning the Graduate Academic Certificate Program. 

Note: If you are a current IS Master’s student and you are applying for a GAC, please complete the Application for Concurrent Graduate Academic Certificate Programs (EUID and UNT password login required) so that your academic certificate program will show up on your transcript. If you do not complete the form before your graduating semester, the Toulouse Graduate School will not accept your request for the certificate. 
  

Contact Information: 

More Information 

• Latino Art, Museums, and Preservation Fellowship 
• An Overview of the Archives Profession 
• Society of American Archivists Museum Archives Section 
• UNT Special Collections 
• UNT Art Education 
• The Onstead Institute