The University Art Museum Case Analysis

The University Art Museum Case Analysis

Suzana Duran

MNGT 372

I. Relevant Facts/Background

The Art Museum is a building on the university premises that is providing a place for the art collection of a university. The building was given to the university by an alumnus around 1929. The wealthy son of the university's first president served as the museum's unpaid director until his death. He brought a few extra collections to the museum during his service, and while serving as unpaid director, none of the collections was ever shown to anybody except a few members of the university's art history faculty. The university practically gave the position to amateur art supporter, Miss Kirkoff, after the director’s death. She used museum for academic purposes for the university alumni only. Miss Kirkoff cataloged the collections and carried out new gifts. The museum was remodeled to include an auditorium, library, and classrooms. The University Art Museum’s director, Miss. Kirkoff resigned after almost 50 years of working there. In September of 1998 new directorship has been passed on. New director used museum as community resource by which he meant that is open to everyone not just to the students at the university. That was the big problem for the students and the faculty at the University Art Museum. Classes and exhibitions lost interest with the students, and the last director was let go after three years of service.

II. Problem Definition-Issues

The problem with this organization is simply that the university does not know what the organizational goals of the museum and its associated faculty should be. This is a major error in the running of any organization. The museum’s goals had rested with Miss Kirkoff, who has been the most influential individual in the museum’s history. Now that she has retired, and her successor was found to have very different goals for the museum, the university itself needs to take responsibility for the museum. The real issue was not that the new director opened the doors to the public, but the management organization at the University Art Museum. There are three main points as listed by “the elderly statesmen of the faculty” that need to be addressed and clearly defined for the museum: its mission, its direction, and its objectives. These are clearly the focal problems in this case. What the university has to do as a whole is to set organizational goals and develop the plans to accomplish them. The museum is not thriving with the school as well as it has in the past, and the direction of the university is being questioned.

III. Critical Analysis

The later director wanted it to be a community resource as said in the case, and the museum gained bad reputation