CONTACT: hannahjasper@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail), piper_prolago@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail)
The Museum as Method working group aims to provide an intellectual home for Berkeley graduate students engaged in emerging and exploratory conversations surrounding museum decolonization, practicing theories, and new socially engaged practices, in conversation with established interdisciplinary curators in the greater Bay Area. In our current political climate, public institutions that provide spaces that ground and center educational and generative intellectual curiosity are essential. Though historically wrought, the contemporary museum is a space where academic research and public engagement meet. The Bay Area alone is home to a wide range of museums—over fifty in San Francisco, over twenty in Berkeley, and upwards of thirty in Oakland. UC Berkeley Art History Graduates can be found at the leading institutions in the Bay Area, such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and the Oakland Museum of California. The Museum Studies Working Group aims to provide a deeper understanding of museum practices, foster thoughtful collaboration, and support meaningful engagement with museums across the Bay Area.