Association of Manitoba Museums

Certificate Program in Museum Practice

(Download this page in PDF format)

We are currently working toward getting our courses online.
Subscribe to the AMM Messenger for updates as they become available.
 

Quote from Dr. Jeremy Maron, Certificate graduate:

“The AMM’s Certificate in Museum Practice Program – which I completed in 2015 - was an excellent professional development opportunity that I strongly encourage other museum professionals to take advantage of. Through its wide array of courses, the program gives participants from both large and small museums a well-rounded and efficiently delivered overview of many practical issues related to museum practice, from organizational structure to collections preservation and conservation (and many more). Participants come from all over the province, from many different types and sizes of museums, which also offers an excellent opportunity to strengthen the network and sense of community of museum professionals in Manitoba.”

 

Certificate Program in Museum Practice
Course Descriptions

The purpose of the Certificate Program in Museum Practice is to provide entry-level training in the core subject areas of museum practice based on professional museum standards as established by the Association of Manitoba Museums. The program introduces museum workers (board members, volunteers and/or staff) to the basic skills, knowledge, understandings and standards involved in operating a successful public museum.

Courses are one or two days in length, and are offered in different locations around the province each year. Participants who attend courses, which include lectures, demonstrations, discussions and group work, and successfully complete the take-home assignment, receive full credit towards the AMM’s Certificate Program in Museum Practice. Assignments are designed to help you apply what you have learned in the course to your own museum.

Although you are encouraged to attend the courses in the order listed below, as the curriculum develops progressively through the courses, AMM understands that is often not a realistic expectation. The courses are independent of one another, so that you may attend courses in the order deemed most efficient for your own resources.

Organizing and Managing Museums (1 day or 4 one hour or 90 minute online sessions)

  • Roles and responsibilities of the governing authority – board and individual members, board renewal, committees
  • Definition and impact of public trust on museum activities
  • Risk Management
  • Board decision-making – role, barriers, decision-making process
  • Policy development – purpose, types of policy, evaluation
  • Planning – short and long-term planning, who is involved, responding to the environment, planning cycle
  • Financial management – relationship to planning, budget cycle, fundraising

Museums and the Community (2 days or 6 one hour or 90 minute online sessions)

  • History and philosophy of museums
  • Changes in society and the changing role of museums
  • Concepts of a museum
  • Examining the statement of purpose
  • How interaction with the community impacts the mission and functions of the museum
  • Definition of community
  • Types of partnerships
  • Understanding and building community collaboration

Collections Management (1 day or 4 one hour or 90 minute online sessions)

  • Definition and activities of collections management
  • Relationship of collections management to public trust
  • Ethical behaviour
  • Writing a collections management policy and procedures
  • Laws, regulations and conventions governing collections
  • Appraisals
  • Risk management
  • Planning for collections development
  • Collections documentation process and records
  • Artifact numbering and standards of record-keeping

Collections Care and Preventive Conservation for Museums (2 days or 6 one hour or 90 minute online sessions)

  • Role of the museum in the preservation of collections
  • Cultural sensitivities
  • Writing a collections care policy
  • Causes of deterioration and responding with preventive conservation measures
  • Condition reporting
  • Safe handling, storage and exhibition

Research: Policies, plans…action! (1 day or 4 one hour or 90 minute online sessions)

  • Identify research sources
  • Develop research policies and plans
  • Conduct research
  • Build community relationships

Exhibit Design (1 day or 4 one hour or 90 minute online sessions)

  • Purpose of museum exhibits and their role in the community
  • Writing an exhibitions policy
  • Exhibit planning process and elements
  • Exhibit design – visitor characteristics, designing the exhibitions gallery, conservation considerations, exhibit production and installation

Museums and Education (1 day or 4 one hour or 90 minute online sessions)

  • Role of education within the museum and its relationship to public trust
  • Object literacy
  • Writing an education policy
  • Visitor expectations, needs, characteristics and learning styles
  • Linking audience and program strategies
  • Program planning process
  • Curriculum-based programs
  • Public programming
  • Evaluation

The Museum Facility (2 days or 6 one hour or 90 minute online sessions)

  • Care and management of historic buildings as museums; “historic building as artifact”
  • Conservation considerations in the planning, renovation and maintenance of museum buildings/space
  • Museum as public space for interaction/exchange with the community
  • Standards, ethics, best practices and legislation related to the museum as a public facility

 

 

For more information about this program and other educational opportunities, please contact the

Association of Manitoba Museums

Tel: 204-947-1782

programs (at) museumsmanitoba (dot) com

The Association of Manitoba Museums acknowledges that we are on Treaty 1 territory and the land on which we gather is the traditional territory of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.