A literature review served as a guideline for me to identify current issues and concerns in the field of museum training. Based on the scope of the literature review, my primary research question is: Do art-related museum studies programs in the United States adequately serve the staffing needs of art museums as perceived by current museum professionals? In addition, there are four fundamental questions raised in this study:

1. What is the current state of art-related museum study programs in the United States?
2. What do art museum professionals think an ideal art-related museum-training program should be?
3. Do the training programs satisfy the requirements of the current art museum environment?
4. What does the analysis of art-related museum training programs and art museums' needs suggest for research and development of museum training programs in the future?

These questions formed the center of my studies in investigating the relationships between museum studies programs and the actual art museum field in the United States.

Research Problem

The subjects of this research are divided into two groups: (1) art-related museum studies programs' personnel; and (2) art museum professionals.

The first group, art-related museum studies program personnel, were drawn from the existing current art-related museum studies programs in the United States. The total number of museum studies programs in the United States is not certain, but based on Spiess II's (1996b) report, there are at least 130 institutions that offer museum training programs. However, according to AAM's (1999) recent survey, up to January 1999, the total number of museum training programs in the United States is 575. These 575 training sources range from degree or certificate-seeking programs in academic settings, non-degree or non-certificate-seeking workshops and summer camps, to mid-career training programs. Depending on the type of training, programs cultivate students for different museum fields. Some programs are content specific, such as training for a science museum environment. Other programs offer a mixture of general museology, preparing their students for all types of museums.

In order to have an in-depth point of view on the content of museum studies programs and to maintain my primary interests of training for art museums, this study focused on art-related degree/certificate-seeking museum studies programs in universities. To obtain a more up-to-date number of art-related certificate/degree-granting museum studies programs offered in the United States, I used Edson's (1995) International Directory ofMuseum Training: Programs and Practices ofthe Museum Profession, AAM's (1999) 1999-2000 Guide To Museum Studies and Training in the United States and Peterson's Guide to Graduate Programs in Business, Education, Health and Law (2001) to pinpoint additional results. Through this process, I also looked at the geographic distribution of art-related museum studies programs in the United States.

Another group, art museum professionals, was drawn from the art museums. Thirty art museums have participated in this research. To narrow down the study group from the vast pool of art museums, I applied two restricting rules. The first restriction is that the selected 30 art museums must be certified and approved by American Association of Museums (AAM). AAM is the only organization that promotes and assists the entire spectrum of museums in the United States. It "leads the effort to maintain and strengthen professional standards, through activities designed to improve the overall quality of museum programs and operations" (AAM, 2000, Goal, para. 1). Thus, a museum that is accredited by AAM has achieved a certain level excellence in its operation. Second, these 30 art museums are representative of a broad spectrum of art museums. This group of art museums is diverse with respect to their size (small, medium, and large), content (comprehensive and specific, focused in art), and location.

This study focuses on professionals who serve in the five major art museum positions. These positions are executive director, curator of exhibitions, curator of collections, curator of education, and development officer. According to Susan Olsen (personal communication, January 24, 2(00), the former Chief of the Bureau of Historical Museums in Tallahassee, Rorida, as well as a museum studies instructor at Rorida State University, these five positions are the basic and most crucial in managing art museums. I took this approach in the belief that by specifying the area of study inside the structure of the museum, a clearer vision may emerge of the nature of art museum work experience. Although each art museum may name these positions differently, their job content is similar. By looking specifically at the content and experiences of these positions, I expect to find patterns among these positions to investigate the relationship between art-related certificate/degree-granting museum training programs in universities and art museum occupations.