[The A.S. Degree Program in Gallery and Museum Studies Program
Review] 1
Outside Reviewer
Gary Alan Wood, Director
Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University
Tuesday, May 6 – Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Preface
The A.S. Degree Program in Gallery and Museum Studies of Queensborough
Community College is a significant and vibrant course of study, one highly
relevant to American culture and the contemporary arts scene. As a degree
program, it is poised to be very appealing to students looking for an avenue of
involvement in the arts and a creative, hands-on career option.
Students within the program are offered the abundant information vital to the
development of specialized skills and comprehensive knowledge for continuing
their degree and to future employment in the field, as well as the individualized
attention and care that builds character, confidence, and practical skills.
The program as it now exists has important pieces in place to grow; yet will
require and highly deserves comprehensive attention and resources for it to
blossom.
Program Strengths
The program is replete with upside possibilities; a point-of-view built on the
existence of several critically important and already-existing components:
1. Faculty
The arts faculty in general—and the current faculty member heading this
program—offer students the crucial and contemporary information of an
exciting, evolving field of study in a highly-informative, well-organized and
supportive learning environment. Attention to the individual learner and
their unique needs is present; thus, each student is poised to find the
strength of confidence to continue their training, as well as their own,
unique arts management voice.
2. Facilities
The classroom facilities and on-campus galleries, museum and arts center
provide strong, hands-on learning opportunities. While Queens in the
immediate area—as well as Brooklyn and Manhattan—provide
exceptional learning opportunities in the field, it is a significant selling point
for potential students to understand that skill building and resumeenhancing opportunities are at their doorstep.
3. Location and regional opportunities
Queens has its own historic reputation for distinctive and exhilarating arts
activity, with numerous individuals and organizations of national and
international distinction. Affiliation of the A.S. degree program with such
notable entities is invaluable to growing its own reputation and
capacities.
It may be worth considering as part of a larger plan to quantify an
appropriate number and acquire lasting partnerships with some of the
leading institutions of the city. In the end, the A.S. program is readying
their future (well-trained and knowledgeable workforce).
4. International and culturally-diverse student body
The international nature of the student body is a very special asset to the
program as it provides a vast array of cultural perspectives on the arts, as
well as enhancing the learning experience for all by way of dynamic
conversations built on their classroom learning and hands-on, in-the-field
experiences.
5. Today’s gallery and museum scene
While the core principles of management are tried-and-true, we see
across America galleries and museums expanding their boundaries of
mission in extraordinary and fresh ways. As a result, the dual challenge of
the program—and for its learners—is to acquire and holdfast to the basic
management principles, but indulge in the new, fast-paced generation of
galleries and museums.
6. Classroom to career
Although students in this A.S. degree program will be required to
complete their degree beyond Queensborough Community College, the
selection of this degree program for students represents a track to work
upon completion of the degree, as well as internship and part-time
positions along the way.
The program has a work-to-career character; that is, the study of core
principles is interesting, yet has little benefit without their creative and
firsthand application. But as a selling point, it is true that the program as it
is structured—and as it will surely continue to evolve—is very much
classroom to career oriented, both practical and purposeful by its very
nature (that may not be apparent in its current title).
Program Challenges
1. Program name
While the program’s current name is industry appropriate, it does not
convey the inventive, hands-on, management/leadership, and
contemporary flair characteristic of the profession today. A process of
name change will create substantial opportunity to entice greater
[The A.S. Degree Program in Gallery and Museum Studies Program
Review] 3
enrollment and re-brand it within the industry as a fresh and innovative
training program.
The process itself—if it involves a number of diverse stakeholders—can
serve to strengthen the program by way of a deep examination of the
programs existing strengths and its potentialities.
2. Advising
There appears to be a gap in knowledge about the program and all that
it has to offer amongst the advising program. The title notwithstanding, the
advisors need to be fully informed and equipped with the knowledge,
incentives and materials to comprehensively and effectively convey the
program’s benefits and its inherent creative, fulfilling nature. Periodic
discussions and training with the program’s faculty—and tips from students
within the program—is advised.
3. Low enrollment
Low enrollment denies students within the program to interact with others
to test their ideas, share experiences and work in teams. Given the
exceptional diversity of the student population and the cultural heritages
thereof, the program and its learners are denied the richness of learning
the program is poised to offer.
4. College support
It is imperative that the financial and management resources are made
available to launch and sustain a strategic and marketing initiative
designed to raise attention to the program’s uniqueness and increase
enrollment. A well-designed strategic and executable plan with stretch,
yet achievable outcomes will help formulate a required budget and
nudge everyone to success.
Suggestions
1. Create and launch a 3-year strategic plan that clearly identifies the
program’s unique and exciting characteristics (that set it apart in the
marketplace), along with the additional objectives:
a. Established goals for:
i. Student enrollment
ii. Degree completion college and university affiliations
iii. Gallery and museum collaborators
iv. Innovative marketing plans to extensively promote a novel,
new name for the program*.
b. Create and instigate marketing strategies that more creatively tell
the programs story, particularly for the college’s advising team;
and,
c. Establish clear, lofty and reachable goals in strengthening and
enhancing all areas of the program’s long-term future.
*Be watchful, however, to ensure that a focus on the recognized
fundamental management principles for galleries and museums
remains intact.
2. Create video testimonials of students, faculty and industry leaders to
enhance the program’s online presence as a means of speaking directly
to potential students about the program’s many benefits and highlights.
3. Formulate (at least) one formal and ongoing partnerships with an
appropriate gallery or museum in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan that
makes available and accessible its management practices and activities
for the students and the curriculum.
4. Work with a high-profile arts partner (gallery and/or museum) in the design
of an online course, so that much of the curriculum is built upon a working,
vibrant and existing entity.
5. With regard to classrooms, having ready-access to “tour” various
museums and galleries via the Internet would be advised, as more and
more such entities are providing remote experiences available. Whatever
technology may be required to ensure this distance learning is strongly
suggested.
6. Closely examine the mission and teaching + learning approach of
Vermont College of Fine Arts. Its low-residency methodology may have an
equivalent at QCC for artists wishing to return to college training in order
to enter the management side of the field. Adult-learners in this way are a
prime market for growing the program.
7. Under the list of potential careers on the website (Career – Gallery and
Museum Studies), consider including an option specific to art galleries, as
the mission and general activities of a gallery differ significantly to that of
a museum
8. Market the program with attention to the program’s key attributes:
a. Highly trained and proficient instructors
b. Access to hands-on learning opportunities on campus and
throughout the city
c. Individualized learning designed to help each learner find their
“…own unique artistic/management voice”
d. Comprehensive training in all the fundamentals of museum and
gallery management
9. In addition to Queens College, formulate two more matriculation
agreements with highly recognized universities, particularly institutions that
through association validate (exemplify) the QCC program’s stature.
[The A.S. Degree Program in Gallery and Museum Studies Program
Review] 5
10. Make use of an exhibit space for students that they independently govern
(“club”), so that they are exposed to the entirety of the exhibit planning
and execution process. Even a small exhibit space—in an office,
cafeteria, or hallway—is sufficient for this purpose.
Concluding Remarks
Visiting Queensborough Community College and getting to know the A.S.
Degree Program in Gallery and Museum Studies was a wonderful, fulfilling
experience. The college is a fascinating and vibrant place of learning, and to
see it first hand was truly enlightening and meaningful. The service provided to
the students is vigorous and powerful.
This program of study has all of the potential for greatness outlined in this review,
with the hope that the time, attention and resources will be forthcoming to make
it so.
Thank you.
Gary Alan Wood
15 Scuppo Road
No. 1602
Danbury, CT 06811
garyalanwood@hotmail.com