Department of Art History at BU

Museum Studies

Program for the Certificate in Museum Studies

The departmental certificate in Museum Studies is awarded to students who have completed four courses that satisfy the certificate’s requirements. These must include AH520, AH521, and AH501 (or AH502) an internship in a museum or non-profit arts organization. The fourth course is an elective, which shall be chosen with the approval of the Director of Museum Studies. This last course is tailored to the specific student’s program. Possible options include a second internship, AH524, AH576, AH804 (when it is a conservation seminar), or a number of other classes if approved by the Director of Museum Studies, including courses from other departments and the Metropolitan College’s graduate program in Arts Administration.

These courses may be taken either as part of or in addition to the courses required for the MA or the PhD. Students enrolled simultaneously in the MA and Certificate programs may complete the course requirements for both programs by taking nine courses instead of the eight for the MA alone. This typically includes five required area courses, including two seminars, and four museum courses; however, such students may choose to take ten courses. With approval of the Director of Museum Studies, the curatorial seminar may occasionally double as an area distribution for the MA, but in this case, the total of nine required courses remains. The Certificate is awarded at the completion of the master’s degree. The program in museum studies is also open to MA students in other disciplines of graduate study, as well as qualified non-degree students. The Department has ongoing internship placements at a range of institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities; the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy; the Photography Resource Center; the Peabody-Essex Museum; the Boston Public Library; the Harvard University Art Museums; the List Art Center at M.I.T.; the Preservation Society of Newport County; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, among others.

For further information please contact:

MELANIE HALL
Director of Museum Studies

725 Commonwealth Ave, Rm 205A
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
Telephone: (617) 353-1476
Fax: (617) 353-3243
E-mail: hallmj@bu.edu

Series of symposia and conferences organized by Professor Melanie Hall, Director of Museum Studies Boston University

List of Conferences - Click for Papers

NEW AUDIENCES FOR OLD HOUSES: BUILDING A FUTURE WITH THE PAST
September 28, 2007

Speakers:
Cary Carson, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (ret.), US, The End of History Museums: What's Plan B?

Reena Suleman, Curator of Collections and Research, Leighton House Museum, England, Leighton House Museum and the New Connoisseurship

Dr. John Walton, University of Central Lancashire, England, Recovering the Popular Past: The Beamish Open-Air Museum in its British Context

Giles Waterfield, Director, Royal Collection Studies, Attingham Trust, England, The Country House in Britain - Yesterday and Tomorrow

Patricia West, Curator, National Park Service, US, A Thing of the Past: The Beginning of History Museums

Conference convenors: Melanie Hall, Associate Professor and Director of Museum Studies, Art History Department, Boston University
                          Claire Dempsey, Associate Professor and Director of Preservation Studies, American and New England Studies, Boston University
                          Flavia Cigliano, Director, Nichols House Museum, Boston

Conference supported by: The Humanities Foundation at Boston University, the Boston Athenaeum, The National Trust for Historic Preservation's Preservation Fund for Eastern Massachusetts, and a friend of the Nichols House Museum.

AT HOME WITH THE PAST: INTERPRETING HISTORIC HOUSE MUSEUMS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Friday, October 1, 2004

Speakers:
Margaret Richardson, Director, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, England, Sir John Soane’s Museum: Changing Ways of Interpretation and Innovation

Kathleen Johnson, Curator of Collections, Historic Hudson Valley, Tarrytown, NY, Giving Voice to the Previously Unheard at Philipsburg Manor: A Colonial Provisioning Plantation and its Enslaved Community

Edward Diestelkamp, Building Design Advisor, Historic Buildings Department, The National Trust, London, England; Lecturer, NYU in London, Interpretation of the National Trust’s Historic Houses and Properties

Peter Brown, Director, Fairfax House Museum, York, England, Presenting the Past: A Forensic Approach to Table Display at Fairfax House

Stephen Long, Vice President of Collections and Education, Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New York, NY, Harnessing the Power of History

Conference convenors:
Melanie Hall, Associate Professor and Director of Museum Studies, Art History Department, Boston University
Flavia Cigliano, Director, Nichols House Museum, Boston, Massachusetts

Conference supported by:
The Humanities Foundation at Boston University, Board of Governors, Nichols House Museum and the Boston Athenaeum.

THE HISTORIC HOUSE AND ITS SETTING
Friday, October 24 and Saturday October 25, 2003

Speakers:
Dr. Peter Leach, Senior Lecturer in History, Department of Historical and Critical Studies, University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom, The House with a View in late 18th Century England

Edward R. Bosley, Director, Gamble House, Pasadena, California, Autopia in the Garden: Conserving Early Car Culture at The Gamble House

Lucinda A. Brockway, Landscape Preservationist and Lecturer, Kennebunk, Maine, Capturing the Spirit of a Legend: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nook Farm and Plans for the 21st Century

Lee Farrow Cook, Site Manager, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Brookline, Massachusetts, Restoring the Landscape at Fairsted, Frederick Law Olmsted’s Home and Office

Ian Gow, Curator, The National Trust for Scotland, Newhailes – Awakening Edinburugh’s Early Georgian Sleeping Beauty House

William L. Beiswanger, Robert H. Smith Director of Restoration, Monticello, Virginia, Preserving Thomas Jefferson’s Essay in Landscape at Monticello

Evelyn D. Trebilcock, Curator, Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, New York, Truth to Nature, Canvas to Landscape: Frederic Church’s Olana

Deborah Pope, Executive Director, Shangri La, Honolulu, Hawaii, Imagining Shangri La: Doris Duke’s Islamic-Style Estate in Hawaii

John R. Tschirch, Architectural Historian, The Preservation Society of Newport County, Landscape Plan of The Breakers

Conference convenors:
Melanie Hall, Associate Professor and Director of Museum Studies, Art History Department, Boston University
Dr. Richard Candee, Director, Preservation Studies Program
John Tschirch, Director of Academic Program and Architectural Historian, Preservation Society of Newport County

Conference supported by:
The Humanities Foundation at Boston University, the American Friends of The National Trust for Scotland, and the Preservation Society of Newport County

HISTORIC LANDSCAPES
Friday, November 1 and Saturday, November 2, 2002

Speakers:
Dr. Keith Morgan, Professor or Art History, Boston University, The Inalienable Pleasure Ground: Charles Eliot and the Emergence of Regional Landscape Planning in New England

Dr. Martin Cherry, Chief Buildings Historian, English Hertiage, Changing Approaches to Landscape Issues and the Politics of Historic Landscape Designation

Dr. Ulrich Lange, Coordinator of National Research, The National Museum of Cultural History, Sweden, From Buildings to Landscape: Cultural and Environmental Preservation in Sweden

Dr. Mohammed Rafique Mughal, Professor, Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Changing Landscape Around the Garden City of Lahore, Pakistan

Dr. Desmond Fitzgerald, The Knight of Glin, President, Irish Georgian Society, Historic Parks and Gardens: Their Past and Their Future in Ireland

Joanna Doherty, Preservation Planner, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, Preservation in Practice: The Massachusetts Historic Landscape Preservation Grand Program

Alison K. Hoagland, Associate Professor of History and Historic Preservation, Michigan Technological University, Nature vs. Nurture: Cultural Landscape and Change

Dr. Paul Groth, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture and Department of Geography, University of California, Berkley, Dilemma Raised By Preserving Spaces of Oppression: Indian Reservations of the American West

Terrance Levinthal. Director, The Scottish Civic Trust, The Cultural Landscape of Scotland-Identity and Change

Conference convenors:
Melanie Hall, Associate Professor and Director of Museum Studies, Art History Department, Boston University
John Tschirch, Director of Academic Program and Architectural Historian, Preservation Society of Newport County

Conference supported by:
The Humanities Foundation at Boston University, and the Preservation Society of Newport County

PRESERVING THE LIVABLE CITY
Friday, November 2 and Saturday, November 3, 2001

Speakers:

Dr. Sean O’Reilly, Director, The Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, Former Secretary, Irish Georgian Society, Regeneration or Degeneration: Dublin’s Temple Bar Experience

Dr. Barnes Riznik, Director Emeritus, Wailoi Mission House and Grove Farm Homestead, Kauai, Hawaii, Honolulu’s Capitol District: A Preservation Partnership

Gray Hitzsimmions, Historian, Lowell National Historic Park, Lowell, Massachusetts, Lowell’s Diverse Communities and Historic Preservation: A Critical Appraisal

Dr. Kevin Murphy, Associate Professor of Art History, CUNY Graduate Center, City University, New York Progress and Preservation in 19th Century Rouen

Dr. Steven Parissien, Director, Sotheby’s Institute, London. Theatre in the Park: The Prince Regent and Nash’s New West End

Gretchen Schuler, Preservation Consultant & Eric E. Dray, Preservation Consultant, Historic District Commission Design Review

Pieter N. Roos, Director, Newport Restoration Foundation, A Grander View: a Historical Perspective on Rebuilding the Streetscapes of Newport

Frank N. Ray, Foundation for Newport, A Traffic Plan for Historic Newport

Andrew H. McLeod, Trust for Public Land
Robert H. Kuehn, Jr., President
Keen Development Corporation
Massachusetts Community Preservation Act

Dr. Martin Cherry, Director of National Programs, English Heritage, United Kingdom, Myth or History?: Reimagining the Past in Los Angeles

Leopold Adler II, President, Preservation Associates, Savannah Georgia, Preservation for Profit in Savannah, Georgia

John R. Tschirch, Architectural Historian, The Preservation Society of Newport County
Ann E. Robinson, Ph.D. Candidate, Boston University
Ochre Point: The Survival and Revival of a Gilded Age District

Pieter N. Roos, Director, Newport Restoration Foundation, The Point: Preserving an 18th Century District

Conference convenors:
Melanie Hall, Associate Professor and Director of Museum Studies, Art History Department, Boston University
John R. Tschirch, Director of Academic Programs and Architectural Historian

Conference supported by:
The Humanities Foundation at Boston University, the Preservation Society of Newport County, Newport Restoration Foundation and The Hotel Viking

PRESERVING SMALL CITIES: HISTORIC IDENTITIES AND CONTEMPORARY LIVING
Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11, 2000

Speakers:
Dr. Robert Tavernor, Professor and Chair of Architecture, University of Bath, The Renaissance Ideal City: from Alberti to Palladio

Dr. Deborah Mays, Head of Listing, Historic Scotland, Edinburgh: Past and Present Preservation in a World Heritage Site

Daniel Snydacker, Executive Director, The Newport Historical Society, Colonial Newport: The Newport National Historic Landmark District

Pieter N. Roos, Executive Director, Newport Restoration Foundation, Remaking 18th Century Newport: The Hill Section

John R. Tschirch, Architectural Historian, The Preservation Society of Newport County, Gilded Age Newport Transformed: The Bellevue Avenue National Historic Landmark District

Dr. Steven Parissen, Assistant Director, The Paul Mellon Center, London, Reinventing the Middle Ages: he Architecture of Oxford in the Modern Era

Dr. Carl Lounsbury, Architectural Historian, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, The Changing Perception of the Restoration of Williamsburg

Orlando Ridout V, Chief, Office of Research, Maryland Historical Trust, Annapolis: Economics as a Force in Historic Preservation

Melanie Hall, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Boston University, Sratford, Shakespeare and the Americans: A Town for all Seasons

Carter L. Hudgins, Hofer Distinguished Professor of American Culture and Historic Preservation, Mary Washington College, Charleston, South Carolina: Inclusive Past, Exclusive Present

Chris Wilson, Jackson Professor of Cultural Landscape Studies, University of New Mexico, Santa Fe and the Mixed Blessings of Heritage Tourism

Jeffry M. Diefendorf, Professor, Department of History, University of New Hampshire, Germany: Destroying and Rebuilding Identity

Mark Fram, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto, Stratford, Ontario: Blue Collars on Stage

Donald Insall, CBE, Founder-Director, Donald Insall Associates Architects, London, Conservation in Chester: Making it Happen

Conference supported by:
The Preservation Society of Newport County and The Humanities Foundation at Boston University

INTERNATIONAL ORIGINS OF THE PRESERVATION MOVEMENT: 1880-1920
Saturday, 1 April 2006, Boston University

Keynote Speakers:
Caroline Ford, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles, The French Historic Preservation Movement in Colonial Algeria, 1880-1930

Peter Mandler, Reader in Modern British History, Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, Rethinking the “Destructive Force”: An Anti-History of the Preservation Movement in Britain

Speakers:
Anne Blackburn, Associate Professor of South Asia and Buddhist Studies, Cornell University, Early Preservation Efforts in Anuradhapura

Erik Goldstein, Professor of International Relations and History, Boston University, Britain and Holy Wisdom: The Fate of the Hagia Sophia

Melanie Hall, Associate Professor and Director of Museum Studies, Boston University, Preservation in Britain and America as “Common Ground”

Michael Holleran, Associate Dean of Research, College of Architecture and Planning University of Colorado, Denver, A Culture of Change, A Change of Culture in Boston

Chris Miele, Senior Director, RPS Planning, Transport and Environment, London, “Heritage” and Its Communities: The English Experience

Astrid Svensen, PhD Candidate, Astrid Swenson, St. John’s College, Cambridge, The Law’s Delay?: Preservation Legislation in France, Germany and England, 1870-1914

Cherie Wendelken, Research Affiliate, Reischauer Institute, Harvard University, Tradition, History, Biography: Approaches to Architectural Preservation in Japan

Ola Wetterburg, Professor, Department of Conservation, Göteborg University, Sweden, Critical and Instrumental Use of Historical Perspectives in Swedish Planning, 1900-1920

Conference convenor: Melanie Hall
Graduate Assistant: Melissa Renn

Conference funded by The Humanities Foundation at Boston University.