Museum Administration, Finance, and the Law

This course will survey the administrative aspects of museum operations, investigating their critical intersection with outward-facing museum functions in realizing mission-driven goals and curatorial objectives. Understanding a museum’s financial foundations is critical to not only a museum worker’s success, but to the museum’s success as a whole. This course is designed to provide that basic understanding. Using real-world examples, students will explore how Museums finance themselves, how they price services, manage funds, and comply with finance laws and practices. Topics will include how to think about revenue opportunities such as admissions, memberships, food services, retail, and intellectual property. Students will acquire a basic understanding of museum accounting and how it impacts day-to-day decision making. The role of the board is discussed, as are current trends in institutional financing.

Fall, Spring