Barnes Foundation and St. Joe’s University launch a degree program together

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The Barnes Foundation and St. Joseph’s University are launching an online graduate degree program in museum education. The program will leverage the museum’s expertise and the university’s resources, making it unique in the region.

It’s the first large-scale project the two institutions have created together since the Barnes leased its original home in Lower Merion to St. Joe’s in 2018.

Barnes Foundation was founded in 1922 as an educational institution but never had a degree program.

St. Joseph’s began as a teaching institution in 1851, but never had a museum education program.

“That’s a real marriage of theory and practice,” said Martha Lucy, Barnes’ deputy director for research interpretation and education.

“Most museum education programs are run out of universities, which is great. Usually, there are internships attached,” she said. “But this one is going to be run out of a university in conjunction with a museum. A lot of the faculty are going to be practicing museum professionals.”

Education is a cornerstone of museum practice. The American Association of Museums considers education as a core standard when it decides to give accreditation to an institution.

But the vocation suffered at the height of the pandemic, as forced shutdowns slashed museum revenue and institutions furloughed or eliminated positions, often gutting their education departments.

“That was a real moment of instability. The first departments to get furloughed and laid off were front of house staff and educational departments,” said Adam Rizzo, a museum educator at Penn Museum who, until recently was president of the museum worker’s union at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

“I don’t think that the field has quite recovered from that,” he said. “There’s a lot of folks who are working in understaffed departments doing work that used to be done by more people. A lot of job creep.”

Museum educators have started coming back to work, but the volatility of the profession became a cause for concern among museum workers.

“Museum leadership asserts the importance of museum education, but when push comes to shove, makes significant cuts to museum education departments,” reads a 2021 study published in the Journal of Museum Education.

Lucy said that, despite pandemic instability, the long-term employment trend for museum education is strong.

“The pandemic hit all areas of the museum world. All museums are building back up,” she said. “Museum education is not going anywhere. It is growing.”

A student in the new Barnes and St. Joe’s collaboration could earn a graduate degree in a year and a half, depending on the course load. The partnership also offers a certificate program that could be completed in just one year, with the possibility of obtaining more credits to complete the full degree.

“We live in a museum-rich region, so a program like this felt like the perfect way for us to contribute to those institutions and prepare people for roles,” said Josh Powers, dean of St. Joe’s School of Education and Human Development.

“It’s part of a larger strategy to grow our portfolio in meaningful ways that can support the region’s economy and support the growth of important institutions,” he said.

The Barnes and St. Joe’s have already started enrolling students for the fall semester. Most of the coursework will be delivered online, plus an in-person component: students local to Philadelphia can interact directly with instructors at the Barnes Foundation; those studying remotely will be required to reach out to a museum close to them.

St. Joe’s has a robust roster of online education options, having developed the technology and techniques for two decades. Powers said St. Joe’s was an early adopter of online instruction.

“Many of our graduate programs are fully online,” said Josh Powers, dean of St. Joe’s School of Education and Human Development. “We’ve learned a lot about how to build online and deliver online education effectively. There are really valuable tools that St. Joe’s brings to the table, and that the Barnes brings to the table.”