by
Ana M.T. Labrador, Ph.D.
(Museum Studies Committee, Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines)
(Paper presented at ICTOP 2001, Barcelona, 1 - 7 July 2001)
Abstract
This paper examines issues that became evident during a University of the Philippines workshop on museum studies and the museum practice. It will include a brief narrative of the meeting’s content, particularly since we used as frame for the proceedings the International Committee for the Training of Professionals (ICTOP) Curriculum Guidelines for Professional Development in Museums. I will then link this to the outcome of the seminar and its orientation, including the decision of the participants to form an advocacy group. Among the initial plans of the advocacy group is to lobby for university museum staff positions to become part of career development path within academic institutions in the Philippines. Moreover they suggested that the current pressure on staff for museum qualifications should motivate future plans within the University system to create distance-learning modules on museum training. The participants proposed that a post-baccalaureate diploma in museum studies would be ideal. This would not only respond to the needs of academic members who manage a University of the Philippines museum or a collection in one of its six nation-wide campuses. It may also assist in narrowing the access gap for other regional museum personnel so they too can obtain qualifications in museum professional development.
Introduction
When we were creating the Museum Studies masters degree program, my colleagues and I at the University of the Philippines only really imagined that our students will be coming from outside the university. We expected their career profile to come from private, local government or state museums. The revelation of our limited vision of potential pupils appeared through one of the seminars we organized in November 1999.
During the first University of the Philippines System-wide Workshop on Museum Studies and the Museum Practice, we promoted our new museum studies program to a small group of participants who came from different university campuses. Soon suggestions came up for a program designed for museum managers or curators like them who have obtained the highest qualifications in their discipline but are in pursuit of an advanced degree in the field of museum methods and techniques. Believing that their appointment in those positions more often by accident rather than by design, they envisioned that a proper museum training will at least give them more credibility. Their view revealed to us that they perceive a need to obtain suitable museum qualifications; and they equate these qualifications with learning within an academic context. As specialists in the field, their attachment to and their use of the collection as teaching materials have nevertheless turned them into avid museum practitioners. They also voiced their fears regarding the danger of university museum positions, such as that they are presently holding, may be placed under threat due to whimsical appointments. This, they claim, may imperil the collection and the long-term maintenance of university museums. After that seminar, my colleagues and I had to do some serious re-thinking with regards to the MA museum program and new forms of teaching courses on museum professional development to cater to students with different needs from those we had earlier anticipated.
The First University Meeting on Museums
The University of the Philippines (UP) is a state-funded institution that has six campuses throughout the country. These are the campuses of Baguio (Northern Luzon), Los Baņos (Southern Luzon), Diliman (Quezon City), Visayas (Tacloban, Cebu and Iloilo), and Mindanao (Davao City). In each, there are collections and museums that reflect the disciplinary focus of the campus. For instance, the UP Visayas (in the central Philippine islands) has a strong teaching and research collection related to marine biology and fisheries. Each campus is an autonomous unit with its own chancellor presiding over its residents and territory. But it is the university system’s Board of Regents that has a final word on matters that concern the entire institution. Policies such as what we hope to be created for the university’s museums have to be decided by the Regents.
The primary aim of the museum workshop was to allow an exchange of strategies among academics UP system who are involved in teaching museum courses on the graduate and undergraduate level and those responsible for a museum or a collection. This is relevant to the concern over the care of University collections and the maintenance of museums and other spaces housing those collections. The Workshop was held at the UP Mindanao Cultural Center in Davao City, south Philippines, during the second week of November 1999. Five resource persons from the university system will speak about themes selected from the International Council on Museums (ICOM) Curriculum Guidelines for Professional Development in Museums. The themes included (1) general competencies required of museum workers; (2) museology; (3) management; (4) public programs; (5) information and collections management and care.
Delegates from university campuses brought up issues concerning their collections and museums, as well as problems in teaching museum-related courses. These have given participants the chance to get an overview of the current situation in those UP units. The Workshop also involved the presentation of case studies, methodologies and hands-on training in museum work. Tours to other museums and collections became part of the project’s activities. As organizers of the first university meeting on museums, we are planning to publish a handbook for teaching museum courses and using University collections as teaching resources. A substantial component of this handbook will be taken from the proceedings of the Workshop.
The newly instituted MA in Art Studies (Museum Studies) administered by the Department of Art Studies, U.P. Diliman, has marked the beginning of museum professional development in the Philippines. There are other departments within and outside the Diliman campus that are also offering museum-related courses. While we are now in a position to provide training for future museum professionals, we proposed the workshop to assess the professional standards within which the University museums’ practices are expected to operate. This Workshop also anticipates the creation of the International Committee of University Museums and Collections of the ICOM. Since the ICOM Advisory Committee’s Working Group is still studying it, the proposed specialized committee will feature benefits that are in accord with the long term goals of ICOM for 1998-2007. They include: (1) specific, directed action when an individual university collection is found to be in danger of serious neglect or capricious disposal; (2) development of partnerships between university museums, and between university museums and other institutions; (3) lessening of the isolation felt by many curators of university collections; (4) promoting the relevance of university collections in fast-changing times; and, (5) sharing scarce resources among university museums (Stanbury 1999).
Although the university system’s collection and museums are growing there is no network and coordination among campuses regarding the management of collections nor standardized teaching requisites for museum courses. As a response to the discussions during the Workshop, the participants created guidelines to create a body in charge of administering the University’s collections. They suggested that lobbying the University’s Board of Regents will put this initiative on their agenda. The proposed group will be responsible for copyright guidelines, maintenance of collections (including cataloguing and conservation measures), creation of a System Collections Policy and advise professional museum training requirements to those managing the University collection.
The Workshop’s objectives were: (1) to create a framework for teaching undergraduate and graduate museum courses in the University of the Philippines; (2) to establish guidelines for a U.P. System Collections and Museum Network to administer the University collections and oversee standards in museum practices; (3) to adopt of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Code of Professional Ethics and subscribe as institutional member of the ICOM; (4) to create a handbook for teaching resources; (5) to define standards for maintaining University collections and museum practices; and, (6) to initiate the establishment of links with other university museums in the Philippines and abroad. Only the first three objectives were achieved. The participants felt that the last three objectives could be taken up in future meetings.
With this project, we hoped to raise the profile of university collections, "an often overlooked component of national heritage" (Stanbury 1999). Through the teaching of museum courses and granting related degrees, professional standards on care and maintenance of University collections will be established. In the process, the Workshop group began to think about guidelines for professional standards of management, staffing and museology for university collections. This approach, they believe, will encourage greater access to university collections. Better research, teaching and public outreach may contribute to increased social and cultural development, leading to the increase in regional and international contacts (networks) accelerated by every autonomous units’ facility for information technology.
Outcome of the Workshop
As I mentioned above, the first three objectives of the Workshop were achieved during the five-day meeting. This mainly comprised of an exchange of strategies among the academic-participants who are either managing a University collection and museum or are involved in teaching museum courses on the graduate and undergraduate level. We have all agreed that the development of care of collection should go with the improvement in teaching museum or related courses.
The six resource persons spoke about themes selected from the draft ICOM Curriculum Guidelines for Professional Development in Museums. Due to financial constraints and research concerns, only one delegate from each UP campus (except Diliman) joined the Workshop. They were nevertheless forthcoming in bringing up issues concerning their collections and museums, as well as problems in teaching museum-related courses.
The opportunity to speak about their anxieties has given the participants an overview of the current situation in their campus. The Workshop involved the presentation of case studies, methodologies and hands-on training in museum work. Among the museums and collections and museums discussed were: the UPLB Natural History Museum (particularly the herbaria), UPV Fisheries Museum in Miag-ao, UP Manila Medical Museum, proposed UP Mindanao Museum (contemporary and traditional Mindanao art), proposed UP Northern Luzon Museum (ethno-archaeology), and the UP Diliman museums (Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, H. Otley Beyer Anthropology Museum and proposed Lim Museum of Fine Arts) as well as collections (zoology, botany and ethnomusicology). Tours to Davao museums and collections gave the participants some interesting insights to their presentation, care and management.
The Workshop participants have voted for three resolutions: (1) Creating a framework for teaching undergraduate and graduate museum courses in the University of the Philippines, including instituting in the distance learning program a diploma or certificate in museum studies for teaching enhancement; (2) Establishing guidelines for a U.P. System Collections and Museums Network, including a working group, the Association of University Museums and Collections (AUMC), to study this proposal; and, (3) Adhering to the ICOM Code of Professional Ethics, including its dissemination and creation of a specific university code of conduct.
The AUMC, as the participants would like to be now known, hopes to obtain funds to publish a handbook for teaching museum courses and using University collections as teaching resources. A substantial component of this handbook will be taken from the proceedings of the Workshop. By linking with the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the AUMC will obtain institutional membership and work actively with the International Committee of University Museums and Collections. The members have also planned for the another meeting next year to be hosted by UP Baguio in Northern Luzon.
Responses to the ICOM Curriculum Guidelines
By providing the paper readers with a topic each from the proposed ICOM Curriculum Guidelines, it was interesting to note the specific areas that they focused on. Taking the cue from the proposal that sees the "guidelines…as a work in progress, evolving in concert with the field" (Fuller et al., 1998), the UP meeting has shown its possible use as an indicator of perceptions of those in the academe and involved in the care and management of university collections. For instance, during our meeting, I noticed that the speaker who was assigned the area of general competencies, Regina Cruz, MA, Professorial Lecturer of the Department of Art Studies, focused on professionalism. In her paper, she emphasized on the need to fix standards for museum work in the country. She stressed on this in the context of securing our country’s cultural and artistic heritage.
On the other hand, when I spoke about museology competencies, my concern was on community museology. In my paper, I stressed on the importance of having a balance between theory and practice in museum training. I cited cases where museums are most often built without carefully planning the maintenance of museums. Without community support, I believe museums and collections may be placed in peril.
Both speakers on management competencies chose separate but related areas. The paper of Maria Araceli Dans Lee, Director, UP Mindanao Cultural Center (UPMCC), underscored the business and operational management of museums. Her paper dealt with the proposed U.P. Mindanao Museum. She described the plans in the context of the five-year development plan for the UPMCC. The issues she raised provoked a debate over procedures of creating cultural institutions within the university system.
Meanwhile, Wilfredo Ronquillo, MSc, focused on human resources planning and management. He is Professorial Lecturer of the Archaeology Studies Program and Department of Anthropology, U.P. Diliman, and head of the archaeology division at the National Museum of the Philippines. His focus was the current re-organization stipulated in the National Museum System. In his paper, he also brought up the issue of the need of museum staff for further training and professional qualification.
Delfin Tolentino of the Division of Humanities, UP Northern Luzon was concerned with discussing public programming competencies. He opted to draw attention to visitor service and public relationships. His paper, University museums and its communities centered on museums as human constructs. In this context, he asserts that university museums can do more for their communities if programs also focused on museum visitors and permanent study collections.
In terms of information and collections management and care competencies, Maria Victoria Herrera of the Department of Art Studies, U.P. Diliman, decided to emphasize on the need for collections management. In her paper, she gave a comparative and hands-on cataloguing demonstration for different types of collections. The importance of documenting collections cannot be overly stressed, as she reminded as that records provide research and security information. As a response, the group discussed the teaching of collections management and creating a university collections policy. It revolved around how university collections can be managed when space and finances are limited. A collection policy must be created to ensure a focused collecting activity for the University.
Conclusion
I believe that with some slight modifications, the ICOM guidelines could potentially be used to assess the perceived need of institutions in teaching museum professional development. Their choices may have been derived either from the need to develop an aspect of museum work in their particular contexts or put emphasis on the strength of an area of museum work from their own practices.
In this sense, the curriculum of a museum development program can use those focused selections as priority areas to further develop or maintain. It could then encompass other areas of each competencies, using as reference those weaknesses or strengths of their museum practices. From our assessment of the Workshop meeting and observations using the ICOM guidelines, we may employ these indicators as a way of determining perceptions of university museum teachers and practitioners when responding to the needs of future students of museum professional development.
Bibliography
Anya-Petrivna, L., ed. 1998. Museum Training and Cultural Diversity. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University.
Fuller, N. et al. 1998. "Proposed ICOM Curriculum Guidelines for Professional Development in Museums and Other ICTOP Projects". In Museum Training and Cultural Diversity (ed.) L. Anya-Petrivna, 115-139.
International Council of Museums. 1987. Statutes: Code of Professional Ethics. Paris: ICOM.
Stanbury, P. 1999. Personal communication (who headed the International University Museum Group proposing the Committee for University Museums and Collections, now the first Chairperson of the new ICOM International Committee - UMAC).