Cooperstown Graduate Program

The Science of CGP

Announcing the Science Museum Studies Master's Program at CGP! Founded in 2015, the Science Museum Studies program provides an environment where participants get hands-on experience in communicating science to the public in a diversity of science venues and organizations.

Project oriented and collaborative in nature, the program facilitates a deep understanding of the process of science and develops the skill sets required for working in today’s science venues. For more information, course descriptions, and examples of projects and content, please visit Our CGP Science Website or contact Carlyn Buckler, PhD. at carlyn.buckler@oneonta.edu.

Who we are

The Cooperstown Graduate Program (CGP) is the premier program for the training of museum professionals in the United States. One of only two programs in the country located on a museum campus rather than a university campus, students have the opportunity to interact regularly with museum professional staff, with objects, and with exhibitions.

Mission

The Cooperstown Graduate Program trains creative, entrepreneurial museum leaders committed to generating programs and services for the public good.

Highlights of the program

Our alumni are prominent and successful in the field, and regularly give back to the program.
The classes are small, dynamic, and interactive.
Our building is the country’s only facility designed specifically for museum studies.
We teach a core generalist curriculum, though with room for personal interests.
Assignments and internships are not academic exercises, but real and varied work in the field.
Classes are complemented by field trips to regional institutions.
Museums are community-based organizations, and CGP mirrors this with a strong focus on community.
We have strong partners in the New York State Historical Association, The Farmers' Museum, and Fenimore Art Museum.
As a small program, students develop strong relationships with faculty, fellow students, and local museum staff.

Why choose CGP?

CGP 50th Anniversary Campaign

Learn about the Institute for Cultural Entrepreneurship, an immersion program for mid-career museum, preservation, historic site and other arts and culture professionals.

Gretchen, Ryan, and Valerie in the exhibit lab

Professor Gretchen Sorin works in the exhibit lab with Ryan Donaldson ('07) and Valerie Aquila ('06).

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For the lastest CGA Forum, the CGP newsletter, click here

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history

In the 1960s, Dr. Louis C. Jones, then Director of NYSHA, lamented the lack of training for museum professionals. He wondered who would staff the growing number of museums, and preserve the objects of our nation's heritage. Encouraged by Stephen C. Clark, Sr., benefactor of the Association, Jones approached the nearby State University of New York at Oneonta with the idea of creating a museum studies program on NYSHA's campus.

Henry Allen Moe, President of the Historical Association board and his friends Nelson and David Rockefeller helped to provide the financial support to launch the experiment. Jones hired talented folklorist Bruce Buckley as the first Director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program, and the two men set about the task of creating museum and folk culture programs that focused on community study, documentation, and cultural preservation. The first students, a group of 28 representing 13 states and one foreign country, arrived in 1964.

Students did more than study museum practices and American art and history. Fanning out across the countryside, they documented traditional music and vanishing rural crafts through the folklore program and intergrated themselves into the community. Graduates quickly entered the growing New York State historic sites system, placing museum professionals from New York City to Buffalo.

As the alumni base grew, students assumed positions in museums, historical sites, and cultural organizations throughout the United States. After 40 successful years, the Cooperstown Graduate Program has had a national impact on the arts, historical preservation, cultural programming, and economic development.

Louis C. Jones at The Farmers' Museum.