Museum Studies Minor | Luther College

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Gain the practical skills and knowledge you need to work in museums and other cultural institutions.

Why Pursue Museum Studies?

Museum studies introduces you to the historical and theoretical foundations of contemporary museums. You’ll gain the practical skills and knowledge you need to work in museums and cultural institutions.

Why Pursue Museum Studies at Luther?

Luther’s museum studies minor is tried and tested—it’s more than 30 years old. The program is a valuable combination of the liberal arts and practical experience. Through it, you’ll shape your education to support your interests and career goals. Your learning will take you beyond the classroom and into local museums and collections.

Fostering a multidisciplinary approach—like we do at Luther, through the liberal arts—is particularly important for museum and archives professionals. Your museum studies courses will also help inform and deepen your major area of study.

Off-Campus Study

Museum studies offers a variety of focused immersion experiences, such as the Lutheran College Washington Semester, and global programs, such as those offered by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.

Guided Projects

Work with museum studies faculty and museum professionals to get experience in preservation technology, collections management, and exhibit development. Guided course projects give you an opportunity to learn while making an impact beyond the classroom.

Internships

Our museum studies internship course provides you with the opportunity to work under the supervision of a museum practitioner in a professional setting. Your internship can occur on Luther’s campus, in your local community, or at cultural institutions across the country.

Kamina smiles at the camera in a sunny room

I came to Luther because it has a museum studies minor, since not a lot of undergraduate programs offer it. I knew the museum studies minor would make me stand out when I eventually apply for graduate programs.

Kamina Gager ’25

History Major, Museum Studies Minor

Read about Kamina's internship at the National Museum of American History

The museum studies program has given me an amazing opportunity to delve into the world of art history.... The department has also allowed me to build my minor according to my interests and really engage with what I'm passionate about.

Keziah Grindeland '16

Hands-on Learning through Collections

Luther is home to five distinct collections, providing you with access to original materials for classroom learning and research.

Together, the Luther College Archives, Ethnographic/Archaeological Collections, Fine Arts Collection, Geology Collection, and the Hoslett Museum of Natural History contain well over a million items, ranging from rare eggs to fine art, ancient fossils to arrowheads, and college memorabilia.

Supervisors of each collection work closely with the museum studies program to provide on-site study and research experiences.