Museum Studies @ University of the Arts

		What do students have to say?
		Who are the faculty?
		Where do MEPD Alumni work?

STUDENTS

The mixture of people and their backgrounds is one of the most dynamic aspects of the program. We have a diverse international body of students who have come from Europe, Asia and Canada just to attend the program. Read about their backgrounds and what they have to say.

graphic designers

a taxidermist

a textile designer

a photographer

art gallery installers

a jewelry designer
a sinologist

industrial designers

architects

film producers

art historians

interior designers

a museum financial developer

a kitchen designer
a science historian

museum educators

biologists

exhibit designers

a corporate financier

painters

a high school art teacher

exhibit evaluators
landscape architects

sculptors

a dancer

What do they have to say?

	Davison ...received a B.A in Anthropology of Art from Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Geneva, N.Y. After working in a Fine Art Bronze Foundry in Berkeley, California, he took some "time off," travelling and hitchhiking from Spain to Turkey. It was while visiting numerous museums along the way that the interest in museum exhibition design was planted.		...The great strength of the MEPD program is the people, both students and faculty. We have come from diverse backgrounds, each with our own different skills and perspectives, yet we share two things: enthusiasm for learning, and enjoyment of the creative process. The hours are long, the work is hard, but we support each other and we have fun! We are a dynamic-albeit motley group.
	Tao ... graduated from Interior Design Department at Central Academy of Arts & Design in Beijing China and taught at Beijing Forestry University. Though she enjoyed the challenges of teaching, she decided she needed to enrich her career from a new viewpoint. With the help of her friends in the States, she came to this program.		...I've never had to work so hard before. It's not just the long hours, it's acquiring the myriad of skills necessary to become a competent exhibition designer. There have been many frustrating and frantic moments but in the end I have gotten a sense of fulfillment in producing work I am proud of.

FACULTY

Museum Exhibition Planning and Design (MEPD)

	Jane Bedno Director, MEPD Acting Co-Chair, Graduate Programs in Museum Studies Professor		BA, Roosevelt University
			JD, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary
			Founding director of the Graduate Program in Museum Exhibition Planning and Design.
			Formerly Associate professor, director of the Center for Design Studies, Memphis State University.
			Formely taught at School of Design, University of Illinois, Chicago, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Columbia College, Chicago.
			President, manager, and senior designer, Bedno/Bedno Incorporated, engaged in the creation of exhibits and educational graphics, conceptualizing, designing, and supervising the fabrication of a number of prize-winning exhibits for museums, visitor centers, educational institutions, and corporations. Her experience includes all phases of exhibition planning and design. Bedno's work has received a number of awards, including IDSA/Business Week Gold Medal and AAM Curators' Committee top award for design excellence, and has been featured and reproduced in a number of books and periodicals. Consultant to international and U.S. museums and institutions. Advisor on copyright, trademark, and exhibition and museum-related legal matters. Carried out research and projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the U. S. Information Agency and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Invited speaker and panelist at international, national and regional professional conferences, and author of articles including "Training for a Changing Profession" in Museum International; and "Museum Exhibitions: Past Imperfect, Future Tense", and "Museum Exhibition Education" in Museum News. Other articles include "Creativity in Teams", "Current Literature on Museum Exhibition Development and Design", "Designing for Family Interactions in Museums", "What Fabricators Need to Know When Working with Museums", "Training Museum Exhibition Professionals in a Graduate Program", and a number of reviews of professional publications. She was the invited co-author of Draft Standard for Museum Exhibitions and Indicators of Excellence, sponsored by the SPC Council of the American Association of Museums.

	Ed Bedno Adjunct Professor		BFA, Art Institute of Chicago
			MS, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology
			Formerly Director of Exhibitions, Field Museum of Chicago.
			Formerly Chief of Exhibitions, National Air and Space Museum, Wash., DC.
			Professor of Exhibition Graphics, Museum History and founder of the Graduate Program in Museum Exhibition Planning and Design, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, since 1991.
			Partner, Bedno/Bedno, Exhibition and Graphic Design, Chicago.
			My work in exhibitions and education materials has received over 150 awards of excellence.As partner in Bedno/Bedno, I was engaged primarily in the design of museum exhibitions. Project budgets ranged from $50,000 to $2,000,000. Museums included: Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago Botanic Gardens, Adler Planetarium, Lincoln Park Zoo, Henry Crown Space Center, Pritzker Children's' Zoo, National Archives and Records Administration. Awarded two NEA research grants for the design of audiovisual learning materials. Wrote "Museum Exhibitions: Past Imperfect, Future Tense", Museum News.

	Elizabeth Bogle Adjunct Associate Professor		*BA, University of the Arts, formerly* Philadelphia College of Art**
			Principal of Limn Studios.
			Since graduating from this University, Bogle has been actively involved as a professional exhibit designer. In 1977, she formed Limn Studios, a museum exhibition design firm dedicated to providing educational, exciting, and creative exhibits that are high-quality, cost-effective, and meet her clients' needs. She feels that the best exhibits are the ones where she and the client work closely together. Bogle specializes in: visitor centers, historical sites, history museums, natural history museums, science museums, and environmental centers. She has designed and supervised exhibits in the United States, Canada, France, Iran, and Taipei. Bogle has worked on projects that include small regional museums, a major world's fair exhibition, to a renowned international museum with a $20,000,000 design budget. Bogle has received several design awards including: a National Endowment for the Arts grant to research and write a preliminary manuscript on Museum Exhibition Planning & Design, and; from Print Casebook a Design Excellence award for The Thomas Edison Visitor Center, West Orange, New Jersey. She has published many articles and has lectured in the United States and abroad.

	Allegra Burnette Senior Lecturer		BA, Dartmouth College
			MFA, The University of the Arts
			Creative Manager, Digital Media, MOMA.
			Formerly, Media Department Director, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Inc.
			AWARDS: USA Today On-Line, Hot Site Award for www.gamefaceonline.org; ID Annual Design Review - Design Distinction Award for "50 Years of TV and More", Honorable Mention for the Hall of Planet Earth and Hall of the Universe, AMNH; IDSA - Bronze Award for the Steuben Flagship Store; Art Directors Club of New York - Distinctive Merit Award for the Hall of Planet Earth and Hall of the Universe, AMNH, Merit Award for "50 Years of TV and More"; SEGD - Honor Award for "50 Years of TV and More" and the Steuben Flagship Store.


	Eddie Chernoff Senior Lecturer		BA, General Science, Rutgers University
			M Ed., Temple Univeristy
			Lightolier University - Lighting (manufacturer's school).
			Graduate of Communispond Public Speaking School, NY.
			University of Colorado, post graduate work in computer science.



	Alice Dommert Senior Lecturer		BArch, Louisana State University
			MFA, The University of the Arts
			Principal, Dommert Phillips, Architecture, Exhibits, Objects
			Alice Dommert is an exhibit designer and a licensed architect. Her international experience includes interpretive planning, process development, research and content development, design, and project management. Recent projects include a ten-year Visitor Program Plan for the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia and a 15,000 square foot schematic exhibit design for the Mercer Museum, in Bucks County, PA. This exhibit focuses on making connections between the museum’s existing collection of tools and the science of simple machines. She is currently planning and developing an outdoors interpretive signage system for Philadelphia’s Foundation for Architecture. This signage will interpret the urban fabric of Philadelphia for both visitor and resident. Other current work includes a new interpretive signage system for Forbidden Drive along the Wissahickon Creek.

	Anne El-Omami Director, Museum Education & Interpretation Acting Co-Chair, Graduate Programs in Museum Studies Associate Professor		BFA, BA, University of Nebraska
			MA, University of Nebraska
			Ph.D. coursework, History of Art & Visual Anthropology, Northwestern University. Distinguished Fellow of the National Art Education Association, 1999. Director, Museum Education Division, NAEA 1988-1993. National Art Museum Educator of the Year, NAEA, 1992. Western Region Museum Educator of the Year, 1988. Director, Getty Institute for Arts Education Professional Institute for Art Specialists 1990-1995. Division Director, Education and Academic Affairs. Cincinnati Art Museum. Assistant Professor and Curator of Education, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. Curator of Education, Joslyn Art Museum. Consultant to the National Endowment for the Arts. Consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Editorial Board, Journal of Aesthetic Education. Editorial Board, Art Education: the Journal of the National Art Education Association. Coordinator, Creative Leadership Seminars, Hallmark Cards, Inc.

	Aaron Goldblatt Senior Lecturer		BFA, Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts)
			MFA, Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers University
			Museum Design, School of Design, Harvard University, August 1999; Non Profit Financial Management, Wharton Cultural Management Project, spring 1998; Museum Management Program, University of Colorado at Boulder, June 1995.
			Adjunct Professor, 1982 to 1992 - University of Vermont, Burlington, VT; University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
			Assistant Director, Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia, PA.
			Vice President Exhibits, Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia, PA.
			Director of Exhibits, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA.
			Set Designer/Fabricator - Designed, fabricated and installed sets for commercial film and video production. Developed technical designs and supervised fabrication and installation of sculpture in public and private sites.
			Author - "The Importance of Playing Earnest: Our Ambivalent Attitude Toward Play" in Hand to Hand, AYM 1998; Introduction to "Museums: Can and do they Make a Difference?" by Stephen E. Weil, 1998; "The European Mix: The role of Culture in Shaping Museum Programs and Exhibits" in Hand to Hand, AYM 1996.
			Speaker at national conferences - Association of Youth Museums (AYM); Mid Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM); American Association of Museums (AAM); "Interaktiv" Conference, Munich.

	Nathan Knobler Professor		BFA, Syracuse University
			MA, Florida State University
			Formerly, Head of the Art Department at the University of Connecticut.
			Formerly Dean of Academic Affairs at the Philadelphia College of Art, now a unit of The University of the Arts.
			In addition to an extensive exhibition record showing his works in painting, drawing, sculpture and prints throughout the country, Nathan has had a long career of teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. He is the author of The Visual Dialogue, which was published in three English editions as well as three foreign language editions.

	William Marston, AIA Senior Lecturer		BArch, Cornell University LEED Accreditation 2000
			Principal, MMA Facilities Design & Consulting
			Bill says he has been making buildings and spaces since he was about 6 years old. Using acorn caps, twigs and bark then, he now concentrates on ‘green’ energy-efficient and resource conserving design. He has designed many public schools, hospital departments and master plans, as well as academic labs & animal facilities (barns & auction pavilions). He helped found several organizations where design matters: Schuylkill River Development Council, AIA Pennsylvania COTE, NJ Sustainable Business Alliance and High-Performance Building Design Working Group. Bill has juried student designs and lectured at numerous professional conferences. Digital tools have been of special interest for him: he established the first architecture Web site in the region, created the first PM database for a 75-member A/E firm, beta tested the AIA’s national web service in 1994, and was one of the very few early adopters of 3D/object-oriented integrated CAD software (MiniCad, ArchiCAD).

	Larry Mitnick Associate Professor		BArch, The Cooper Union
			MArch, Harvard University
			Formerly Chairman of Department of Architectural Studies, University of the Arts
			Visiting critic at Harvard University, Lehigh University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Internationale Somerakademie Fur Bildende Kunst Salzburg, Austria, Ecole Polytechnique Federale of Lausanne, Switzerland.
			He has exhibited architectural projects, paintings and graphic work as well as published his poetry. His work has appeared in Progressive Architecture and Boulevard, a literary journal. Publications include: articles sponsored by the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University; student work featured in a publication sponsored by the EPFL of Lausanne Switzerland; article in Journal of Architectural Historians; co-authored a project funded by NEA grant entitled "John Hejduk: Riga Project" and an article in an accompanying publication. In addition to his academic work, he continues in private practice.

	Carol Moore Director of Summer MFA Programs Assistant Professos\r		BFA, Tyler School of Fine Art, Temple University
			MFA, Tyler School of Fine Art, Temple University
			From a printmaking and drawing background, Moore continues expanding the concept of the narrative, producing text-based installations based upon the sonnets of women poets of the Italian Renaissance. She has received project grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Leeway Foundation. Her work has been shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Chicago Art Institute, in Brazil and Italy, and is represented in collections of the Library of The National Museum of Arts, Washington, DC and the Federal Reserve Bank, Philadelphia.

	Tom Porett Professor		BS, University of Wisconsin
			MS, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology
			Synthesizer techniques, Philadelphia Musical Academy
			Tom has been published in seventeen books on photography and digital media including: Art of Photography and Frontiers of Photography (cover) -- a Time/Life photography; Art of the Electronic Age; Digital Visions; The New Photography; and Vision and Expression. He has exhibited nationally and internationally including eight Siggraph art exhibitions, the 8th and 9th New York Digital Salons and other seminal photographic and digital art exhibitions. He has produced multi-image presentations for the Philadelphia Museum of Art and has been a consultant for the Port of History Museum and the Lincoln Project, Sangamon State University, Springfield, Illinois. He has been a consultant and producer of numerous computer mediated medical trade show systems.

	Portia Hamilton Sperr Adjunct Associate Professor		Diploma in Pedagogy, Assoc. Montessori International
			BA, Barnard College
			Founding Director of the Please Touch Museum.