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Art & Architectural History 530: Museum Studies was a course offered by Roger Williams University’s School of Art, Architecture, and Historic Preservation to undergraduate and graduate students during the fall of 2012. This course was a seminar intended to provide the students with an overview of museums and the field of Museology. Apart from the reading and writing assignments, students collaborated with several local partners, such as Blithewold Inc., the Herreshoff Marine Museum, and the Western Rhode Island Civic Historical Society, in a term-long project for which both a written report and a public presentation were produced. This assignment required the students to independently identify the needs of real-world stakeholders, brainstorm ideas and strategize solutions, locate appropriate sources, collect relevant information, and critically analyze the information or data for presentations during the final class.

Abstract

To remain functional museum professionals must remember that museums are businesses like every other enterprise, striving to exchange a good or a service on terms previously bargained for. As such, museums too must understand that branding is the golden rule for success in business. In order to brand itself the museum must echo one unified vision and voice, and that message ought to be made tangible. Museum labels are the heart of each item on display, and must resonate all that the museum hopes to convey about its enterprise.

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