Before this class, I had a general understanding of how art museums run. Through a few internships, I became familiar with some day-to-day operations (though mostly in marketing/PR) and an overview of the jobs offered at museums. But this class went into much more detail about the functions of museums, the various roles of museum jobs and how they all work together.

It’s been so interesting to learn how museums have changed over time and what that means for the future. I really enjoyed our readings and discussions about modern visitor experience efforts and how new technologies like social media play into the museum world.  I think museums are at a really interesting point in history where they’re seeing contrasts between traditional practices and new strategies and innovations.

Since the beginning of the semester, I’ve started to notice a lot of these new visitor experience strategies at museums and galleries I’ve visited. It’s been interesting to see how what we’ve talked about in class plays out in the real world, and to be able to evaluate if something is effective or not.