MA in Museum Education & Visitor-Centered Curation
The MA major in Museum Education and Visitor-Centered Curation conflates museum education and exhibition functions. This major prioritizes addressing the educational needs of museum visitors through programming, interpretation, and exhibitions. This program takes advantage of the expertise and resources available through The Ringling and FSU Museum of Fine Arts to prepare edu-curators, a term coined to express our vision for the future of museum practice.
APPLICATION DEADLINES: February 1st, for students interested in funding consideration.
Program Overview
We prepare edu-curators (a hybrid of education and curation functions) to advance museum theory and practice, and to become innovative and socially-engaged leaders and scholars. Informed by an adapted feminist systems approach, the specialized program in Museum Education & Visitor-Centered Curation aims to develop practitioners who envision exhibitions and interpretative planning as non-hierarchical, collaborative processes.
Admissions Requirements
- EXPERIENCE & GPA REQUIREMENTS
- An earned bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited US institution, or a comparable degree from an international institution, with a minimum of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) grade point average (GPA) in all coursework
- The applicant must be in good standing in the institution of higher education
- An undergraduate major related to Art, Art Education, Arts Administration, Museums, or Performing Arts
- Thirty (30) hours of Arts and/or Art Education coursework or relevant work experience in a cultural organization. (Students may satisfy deficiencies upon acceptance into the program)
- GRE Test Scores
- Earn a minimum percentile ranking of 55% on the Verbal and 25% on the Quantitative portions of the GRE.
- Students may submit a request to waive the GRE if they have a 3.0 overall undergraduate GPA or a 3.0 in their upper-division undergraduate coursework
- TOEFL (for International Students only)
- Minimum scores: 80 internet/213 computer
- TRANSCRIPTS
- Official transcripts must be submitted
- For detailed information on this process, visit: Graduate Admissions.
- EXPERIENCE & GPA REQUIREMENTS
Application Materials
- Letters of Recommendation
- Students must submit three letters of recommendation
- The letters of recommendation should be from someone who can describe your ability to meet the graduate level of rigor and expectations in coursework, writing, and speaking skills
- Statement of Purpose
- A 1,000 word biography addressing:
- professional or academic background
- career goals
- rationale for applying to the program
- list of other programs you are applying to
- Advice for writing a statement of purpose can be found at the FSU Career Center Website
- A 1,000 word biography addressing:
- Academic Writing Sample
- Most people submit a paper that they wrote in college, retouching it for content and style.
- If you don’t have a paper that you have already written, you can write one from scratch.
- You’ll want to submit a piece of writing that demonstrates your ability to analyze a topic in the same (or related) field to which you are applying.
- Letters of Recommendation
Rolling Admissions Deadlines
- FALL ADMISSIONS
- International applicants, priority deadline: January 15
- Applicants interested in funding consideration: February 1st.
- Applicants uninterested in funding consideration: July 1st
- SPRING ADMISSIONS
- Applicants uninterested in funding consideration: October 1st
- FALL ADMISSIONS
Objectives
- Professional practices include taking visitor-centered roles in museums and participating in thoughtful scholarship.
- Our students learn how to include underrepresented voices in exhibition and interpretation development and seek social justice through museum practice, evaluation, and organizational change.
- Graduate students will leave with the ability to facilitate and conduct visitor-centered research as well as to plan and evaluate collaborative and reflective museum practices.
Structure
- This is a residential program, and students take mostly face-to-face classes on FSU’s main campus.
- Minimum 39 credit hours. Usually takes 4-5 semesters to complete.
- One course and the internship take place at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, a College of Fine Arts affiliate, located in Sarasota, FL.
- Program benchmarks: Students take 6-hours of an internship and complete a Comprehensive Exam as their culminating project.
Advisor Contact Info
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