This semester, UNMAM launched a new course developed in collaboration with the UNM Museum Studies Program, offering students a snapshot of professional careers in art museums. Designed to bridge classroom learning and museum practice, the course introduces students to the roles, responsibilities and contemporary questions shaping the field today.

Contemporary Perspectives on the Art Museum meets Friday afternoons and has enrolled its first cohort of seven graduate and undergraduate Museum Studies students.

The one-credit course features weekly guest speakers, many of whom are UNMAM staff members, including Director Arif Khan, along with curators, collections managers, educators, exhibition designers and communications specialists. Field trips to area galleries and museums provide behind-the-scenes learning from working professionals, several of whom are UNM alumni.  

Loa Traxler, director of UNM’s Museum Studies Program, serves as instructor of record, with Christina Cook as teaching assistant. Cook is a graduate assistant to UNMAM Director Arif Khan and a Hibben Fellow in the UNM Museum Studies Program. 

Learning the Museum from the Museum 

The course expands curriculum-based professional opportunities for Museum Studies students by grounding learning directly in museum practice. 

“The idea is that since we have such a great art museum on campus, it makes sense for students to learn directly from the institution rather than only thinking theoretically about museum practices,” Cook says. “They should be able to talk to people who are doing the job right now.” 

While completing a practicum is a degree requirement for UNM Museum Studies students, identifying the right placement can be challenging. The course helps students better strong understand the range of museum roles available and imagine what hands-on practicum experiences and ultimately, professional careers, might look like. 

We want students to get a taste of jobs in contemporary art museums and to see that meaningful professional opportunities exist right here. By opening up our museum as a classroom, we’re investing in a pipeline of emerging professionals and reinforcing UNMAM’s role as a teaching museum, one that supports students not just academically, but professionally. –UNMAM Director Arif Khan

Opening Doors to Professional Futures 

Throughout the semester, students will explore current best practices and key questions in the field, including how museums approach access, collections care, curation, interpretation and community engagement today. The course includes visits to 516 Arts in Albuquerque and to the Museum of International Folk Art and Art Vault in Santa Fe, N.M., along with a planned roundtable featuring nationally recognized museum professionals who have UNM or New Mexico ties.  

Contemporary Perspectives on the Art Museum is designed to help students begin building professional networks as they move into practicums and careers. It reflects UNMAM’s broader commitment to cultivating museum professionals locally and positioning the region as a home base for long-term careers in the field.

 “This course reinforces what we believe at UNMAM,” Khan says. “That museums are not just places to visit, but places to learn, work and imagine a future.”