Our interdisciplinary program sits within the College of Arts & Letters at MSU, where we value and enact a Culture of Care. Aligned with this atmosphere of respect, compassion, and kindness are our program’s mission, vision, and values, which are embedded in all we do. From daily interactions to admissions processes to course activities and more, these serve as central guides, enabling our program’s participants to affect change in practice toward greater flourishing through museums and the arts. As a highly interdisciplinary program, we also value perspectives from a broad range of fields and experience, believing that this diversity greatly expands and enhances curricular learning.

Our mission is to cultivate capable, reflective, and compassionate leaders in the arts, cultural, and museum sectors.

We envision a world…

…where our audiences, professionals, and communities flourish

…where we nourish interconnections within and beyond our fields

…where heritage, creativity, and performance are cherished by all as valuable assets

Our Core values include:

  • Flourishing —We believe the arts and museums can help everyone thrive. We strive to enable human flourishing in our program, in our fields, and in the world around us.
    • We value: thriving, facilitating meaning, doing what matters, enabling curiosity, being intentional, reflection, and compassion
  • Interconnectedness —We recognize that everything is linked, from the systems within a single person to the larger systems across time and space. Our program honors the networks and relationships that exist within and among our fields.
    • We value: relationship-building, collaboration, integration, embracing diversity, equitability, coherence, harmoniousness
  • Resilience —Flexibility, versatility and adaptability are vital skills for survival in today’s world, and together they enable resilience. Our customizable program builds in resilience while at the same time, teaching it.  
    • We value: customizability, flexibility, adaptability, innovation, relevance, ethical being, freshness, trusting in emergence