Preserve and promote Ontario culture
Museum curators might need gloves to handle the treasures behind the glass, but it also takes an artful hand to balance the books.
That’s the premise behind Centennial College’s culture and heritage site management program, which launched last year to fill a demand in Ontario’s cultural institutions for leaders with business acumen.
The suite of 12 courses and a field placement — split over two semesters — goes beyond just instructing students on how to dust archives, said Susan Mackie, who was among the first cohort of 15 students to graduate from the program.
The curriculum aims to teach people interested in the cultural sector to court donors, manage endowments, promote exhibitions and devise ways to boost visitor numbers at everything from aquariums to performing arts centres.
“People think of working at a museum and they think of some old lady or old man coming and putting an artifact in a case, and that’s it,” Mackie says. “But there’s a lot more going on. If you go to the Science Centre, there’s always new activities, new programs. Somebody needs to plan all that stuff.”
The 24-year-old program instructor at the Markham Museum was hired halfway through her field placement during her internship there last March.
Part of Mackie’s job is to guide field trips through the museum, teaching children about Ontario’s early settlers. She wants to eventually become a program coordinator and begin introducing and selling new exhibitions to visitors.
Canada has 2,500 museums and related institutions, the Canadian Museums Association says. Most are publicly run or not-for-profit organizations, which could present unique business challenges.
“The job I have now fused my love for history with my love for teaching kids.” SUSAN MACKIE GRADUATE OF CENTENNIAL COLLEGE CULTURE AND HERITAGE SITE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
For example, one of the aspects particular to the culture and heritage sector is its heavy reliance on volunteers, explained Walter Cholewa, a coordinator for the CHSM program at Centennial’s school of hospitality and tourism. “Managing salaried employees is challenging enough. What about when you’re trying to manage peo- ple who are working there out of the goodness of their heart?” he says. “That’s an entirely different ball of wax.” Talk around Ottawa of budget cuts threatening culture and heritage institutions in the coming years also means less money in the kitty from the government, driving the need to find creative funding solutions, Cholewa says. “Outreach is the big thing now,” he says. “To get people coming through the turnstiles, they’re looking at virtual museums, blogging, using Twitter and YouTube, and other innovative technologies.” Mackie counts herself lucky to have landed a job at the Markham Museum, where she has an important role in engaging the public through her tours. “The job I have now fused my love for history with my love for teaching kids, and without me being con- fined to a classroom,” she says.
The internship was invaluable for her, as were the other networking opportunities. Students hobnobbed with museum movers and shakers at a national Canadian Museums Association conference in Gatineau, Que., and sat down with industry insiders for some practical career-advancement advice.
Cholewa stresses that Centennial’s program is not curatorial, as there are already plenty of museology courses offered by universities to address that field.
But while larger institutions like the ROM have enough staff to take care of operating budgets, grants and sponsorship, he argues that smaller museums and historic sites will continue to need people with skill sets that Centennial offers.
“Smaller settings don’t have access to these resources, but by hiring one of our graduates, they can.”