This course provides a foundation in the everyday practices, critical issues, and the future of museology by introducing students to a variety of museum collection-based activities through experiential education on-site at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum. The course begins with a pōwhiri to welcome students to the museum, then the CEO presents his overview of Auckland Museum's management and governance. The application of He Kōrahi Māori (the Māori dimension) and Teu Le Va (the Pacific relationship) are explained by Māori and Pacific staff. The museum's role as a research institution, and museum values and ethics provide the content for the sessions in the first quarter of the course, and the first assignment is an analysis of museum policy and ethics. Natural History, Decorative Arts, Documentary History and Human History departments present on curatorship, and the conservators explain their role in repairing damaged objects. Students learn how to research the significance of an artefact in order to present a proposal for acquisition as their second assignment. In the third quarter of the course we visit Manu Taiko, the museum's off-site store in order to learn about preventive conservation, and how to make secure storage arrangements for collection items using nesting materials. The final part of the course introduces staff from the learning and engagement, public experience teams as well as collections management and loans, digital collections and photography which prepares students for their final assignment where they inhabit the role of one of these museum professionals in order to respond to a dilemma posed by a donation of artefacts to the institution.
This course has practical components to it where students are handling objects, making containers for them, analysing and researching them as well as moving around in the back-of-house areas of the museum so the numbers able to enrol in the course are limited to 15 maximum based on how many are able to be safely accommodated. It is designed to complement the existing Museums and Cultural Heritage courses on offer at Honours level (MUSEUMS 704 Exhibiting Cultures: Māori and Indigenous Perspectives, ARTHIST 734 Art Writing and Curatorial Practice). It is unique in that it is taught solely at the Auckland Museum by museum staff. It offers an introduction to museum practice from a museum professional’s perspective, looking across the institution into different areas including group work, seminars, practical exercises and hands-on experiences in the Museum.