The Art History and Museum Professions (AHMP) program celebrated its 20th anniversary with a symposium this April that highlighted both its history and what lies ahead. As faculty continue to revise the curriculum to meet the changing needs of the field, the program’s Assistant Chair Kyunghee Pyun shares insights on how AHMP is adapting and what that means for students.
Newsroom: What kinds of jobs is the AHMP program training students for now?
Kyunghee Pyun: Because our program is a two-year Bachelor of Science program, we focus on skills-based training, and we aim for entry-level museum jobs. Those are usually in visitor engagement or visitor services, which includes ticketing and giving information to visitors. They are the front side of the museum operation.
Another popular division of museums is event planning or event management. One way museums generate revenue is to rent out their facility to companies or individuals. Our young and dynamic professionals are needed there. Some alumni use that event-planning expertise in the tourism industry in New York, which generates as much revenue for the city as the finance industry.
Additionally, a lot of students want to go into museum conservation. FIT is a great place to learn conservation. Lastly, some alumni go on to pursue advanced degrees in the field.
As the field evolves, what new skills or areas of knowledge are becoming essential for students entering these professions?
Our students definitely have to master event planning software and collections management software, which helps museums, galleries, and libraries to catalog, track, and manage physical and digital items. Our program has courses that specifically teach collections management. In the end, the industry is run by people, so that’s why we emphasize writing and speaking skills; our students are very good at those.
How is the curriculum adapting to changes in the art world?
The rise of digital art requires special skills, so we have a class in digital art history. Because now digital assets or video files have become artistic creations. We have to learn those skills, how to archive those files, and how to safely store them, so we are updating our curriculum to accommodate the changing nature of art-making as well.
Museums also organize a lot of digital exhibitions, and students must learn what type of platforms are available now, even though it will change next year. We want to teach those principles and fundamental theories so that they can adapt.
What distinguishes the program from other museum studies programs, particularly in a city with so many cultural institutions?
FIT is a public college. We serve both the state and the city. With that in mind, our program is aware of the public-serving side of the museum operation.
This is the city of many galleries and museums. Our program is also unique because we are adjacent to the Chelsea gallery area.
How do you see both the program and the broader museum field continuing to change over the next decade?
Over the next decade, museums will likely plan more dynamic exhibitions that will include multi-sensory experience and multidisciplinary forms of art. We want to train our students to have more knowledge in soundscape, tactile, or olfactory art. For that type of multisensory and multidisciplinary art making, we again keep updating our curriculum.