Teaching to Foster Museum Literacy and Museum-Going Identities at Our University Art Museum

In 2009, Jacobs et al. critiqued campus art museums as being underutilized in university curricula and disconnected from the student experience outside of art history. Nearly two decades later, this article returns to that conversation to address a new challenge: a welcome increase in visits to the Harvard Art Museums by classes in fields far beyond art history (which we call “interdisciplinary courses”). This case study considers how campus art museums might help a broad range of students, not just self-identified “museum people” or “art people,” feel welcome and empowered to engage. It offers an actionable definition of “museum literacy” and introduces a related concept, “museum-going identity.” It then outlines 10 strategies intended to foster both among students visiting our museum with their interdisciplinary courses and provides some evaluative findings from these efforts.