WIU Museum Studies Graduate Program

WIU Museum Studies Graduate Program will enhance the quality of workforce preparation and expand the range of access to professional development across the Midwest museum sector. Project activities include hosting a series of micro-credential workshops to provide 250 museum professionals with applicable skills in critical areas such as digital collections management, community engagement models, governance and board relations, education programming design, and institutional sustainability strategies. A micro-credential workshop curriculum with session materials, facilitator guides, participant workbooks, hands-on activities, assessment instruments, and case studies will be created and made accessible via an online learning platform. The project also supports paid, year-long apprenticeships for eight graduate students who will contribute to collections, programming, education, and institutional initiatives at four host museums. A comprehensive apprenticeship curriculum that includes partnership templates, mentorship guidelines, assessment rubrics, and sustainability frameworks will be created and shared with partner museums. The project will generate opportunities for apprentices, graduate students, site mentors, content experts, and working museum staff to engage together in shared professional development, while producing environments in which graduate students learn from practitioners, practitioners engage with current research, and all participants build professional networks that extend beyond any single training event.