For more than 60 years, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Public Museum have shared a close partnership rooted in hands‑on learning and professional preparation.
One opportunity made possible through this partnership is UWM graduate student participation in the museum’s recent Inside-Out Night, the last Inside-Out Night in the current MPM building. The signature event gives museum members a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into designing museum exhibits.
Students in UWM’s Museum Studies Visitor Experience and Design course spend the semester researching, preserving and interpreting selected artifacts and then translate their research into engaging stories to help the public understand each object’s historical and cultural significance. In the process, they gain practical experience learning how objects are stored, documented and photographed for museum archives.
“We read about and discuss museum theory in class, but being able to apply those concepts to an exhibit that a student designs, and then have the experience of watching the public interact with that exhibit, is an invaluable learning opportunity,” said Jessica Nelson, UWM assistant visiting professor of history.
UWM’s longstanding collaboration with the museum has shaped many museum professionals across the region.
“Every semester, I get to watch students grow in confidence and transform from students to practitioners,” Nelson said. “While normally students are producing work for their professors to evaluate, collaborations like this one mean that their work is going to be evaluated by the public in a real-world application of their skills. It’s often a scary step for students, but incredibly rewarding.”
UWM students have historically showcased objects from the museum’s collections at Inside-Out Night, but this year they presented works from UWM’s Mathis Art Gallery. Among the artifacts presented was a wine vessel from Cyprus that is more than 2,600 years old.
“The jar tells us about maritime trade in Cyprus during the late Bronze Age,” said Emily Barker, a UWM public history master’s student who researched the piece. “It reflects layers of cultural exchange across the Mediterranean.”
For Barker, presenting at Inside‑Out Night was a defining moment. “This was a fantastic opportunity, and one I will remember for a long time,” she said. “I have dreamt of working in a museum since the fourth grade, and this was my chance to achieve that dream.”
The event is one of many hands‑on learning opportunities available to UWM students that are made possible through community collaborations. Since 1963, the Museum Studies Graduate Certificate has allowed students pursuing a graduate degree at UWM to receive specialized training and certification in preparation for a career in museums.
Partnerships with the Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee Public Schools and the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning highlight the value of experiential learning that connects students, institutions and the public through the shared work of preserving and interpreting history.
