Behind every displayed T. Rex fossil, Spanish fort and Apollo capsule, there is a team of museum professionals. For six years, William Bomar, interim executive director of University Museums, has taught a museum studies course exposing students to museum management.

“There are about 18,000 museums in the U.S.,” Bomar said. “Museums have more visitors each year than all professional baseball, football and basketball games combined. Museums employ more than 400,000 Americans and are regularly cited as among the most trusted sources of information. Despite their importance to society, many people surprisingly enter museum work seemingly by accident. This is changing rapidly, however, as most professional museum positions now require, or at least prefer, a master’s degree in museum studies and academic preparation in a traditional discipline.”

Jeremy Davis, a doctoral candidate in archaeology, said the knowledge he gained from taking the course makes him more competitive in the already rigorous field of anthropology.

“Many academics are expected to divide their time between teaching, research and museum work,” Davis said. “I could not compete for a position like that [if I had not taken the class] and would be forced to apply only for the jobs that do not come with museum responsibilities.”

Davis said he was surprised by the amount of administrative work involved in running a museum.

“I think people imagine museum work as just designing exhibits. I know now that that is a relatively small part of the job,” Davis said. “In a way, museum professionals are the middlemen between academia, who often have a hard time communicating with laypeople, and the general public.”

Bomar, who is also the director of Moundville Archaeological Park, said the specific nature of museum work is changing the education model for museum professionals.

“Before museum studies graduate programs became so popular, most museum professionals held graduate degrees in traditional academic disciplines related to the content areas of their museums,” Bomar said. “Museum-specific skills in areas such as collections care, exhibit development and informal learning were simply learned on the job. Museums can’t afford that anymore. They expect applicants who not only have strong preparation in a traditional discipline, like history or anthropology, but also have already learned skills specific to museum work.”

Bomar’s professional life has consisted of a diverse spread of museums, from non-profit to government to university facilities, something he said influences the way his class is set up.

“My exposure to such a diverse array of museums means that the course content does not lean toward a particular type of museum making it relevant to more students,” Bomar said. “It also means that I have a lot of great stories to tell.”

Brooks Mitchell, who took the course in 2012 a semester before graduating with a degree in geology and a minor in anthropology, said the course prepared him for careers not only in natural history museums, where he aspires to work, but in all kinds of community outreach work. Mitchell interned at the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum in Tuscaloosa and now lives in Atlanta, Ga., volunteering at several museums. He has interviewed with a symphony orchestra and currently interns with a Texas museum writing curriculum.

“All the people I graduated with went to go work on the oil rigs,” he said. “I wasn’t really interested in that, that’s kind of the opposite reason of why I got into it.”

Instead, Mitchell chose museum work and was introduced to the wide variety of issues museum professionals encounter through the museum studies class. Since museums are often non profits, they can have teams dedicated to fundraising and advertising, as well as curating and educating. In fact, Mitchell recommended the course to business majors interested in community outreach work.

“There’s a huge difference between non profit management and just regular business management,” Mitchell said. “I think it would be a good class for a business major to take, because you see a different side of things.”

Bomar said the course benefits students interested in any non-profit work because it covers budgeting, grant writing and strategic planning. Those interested in museum work may also be interested in the way the seminar-style course explores ethical issues like the sale of museum collections.

“For the biggest assignment, the students, divided in groups, plan a new museum of a pre-designated type: art, history, anthropology, natural science. They are given parameters such as total budget amount and square footage, then they must develop components of a plan, including a mission, strategic plan, budget, collections policy, public programs and exhibits plans and a floor plan,” Bomar said. “Some of these groups have done amazing work and at the end of the course, they have an impressive finished product to add to their portfolio.”

Mitchell ranks the course as one of the top five he took while at the University and said it greatly impacted his professional life and experience.

“It doesn’t really focus on one particular aspect. It’s a really a well-rounded course,” Mitchell said. “If you think you might be interested, definitely take it. You’ll definitely get something good out of it.”