As far as the article went, there were two directors for the University Museum after the founder passed away. It started as a small, personal collection that happened to be held at the University and only the owner’s friend were invited to view the small collection of art. Once the collection was passed on to Miss Kirkoff, she found the collection too valuable to be hidden away and thought that it should be shared and expanded upon for the greater good of the University. She thought it should be used as a resource for the University’s students and faculty.
Kirkoff made the museum into a learning facility that greatly benefited students and faculty on many levels. They found the museum to be a particularly valuable resource for its users in an educational aspect. However, once Kirkoff retired and the museum was handed over to the new director, whom all members of the search committee approved of, it fell to shambles. He felt that it should be open to the public and not just the University. Though his intentions were good, he failed to keep the audience of the university who said that the museum has become, “too noisy and too ‘sensational’ for students to enjoy the classes and to have a chance to learn.”
The University Museum could be used for many different things. From holding art seminars and teaching classes to opening a world of art to people who, otherwise, may have never had such an experience. Both of the directions had different intentions for the museum so they ran it differently. I believe that the museum did best when Miss Kirkoff was the director.
The Report on Universities Should Require Every Student to Take a Variety of Courses Outside the Student’s Field of Study.
Should student focus on their major or take a variety of courses outside their field of study? would this make such a big difference to one's life? I believe that such decision must be totally taken by the students themselves based on their capacity and desire. The recommendation that students should be forced to study subjects other than their fields of study is extremely unwarranted. Some may ...
She saw the University Museum as an extension of the University itself and that it should be an educational and research facility for the University’s faculty and students alike to continue and expand upon their understanding of art. I understand that the second director found it important that the museum should be public and shared so that anyone who had an interest in art could visit and reap its benefits; but, dragging busloads of young children to a formal learning facility who are loud and scare away those who value the museum and use it to better their education damages the original purpose of it.
If the University Art Museum wants to be effective and useful to its users I believe that it should be kept to the university itself; only members of the University’s academic population should be allowed to use it. It was most effective when Miss Kirkoff was the director. She expended the art collection, added classrooms, held seminars and increased the amount of people that came to and used the museum. As for who should be the next director, I agree with what was said at the end of the article that in order to find a perfect fit for the next director, management needs to come up with some questions, concerns, and missions that they want the new director to follow. The new director needs to know what the members and management expect of him or her in order to effectively run the museum.
