Certificate Course Structure

The Certificate Program is held from September to June and is divided into four quarters.

The school is organized into six concurrent sections:

  1. Plenary sessions are held by staff members who cover the basic aspects of the curriculum, listed here. Some of these sessions are held in conjunction with the University of Rochester.
  2. Guest lectures are given by specialists in the field throughout the academic year. The schedule is subject to change according to the availability of individual speakers.
  3. Practicum courses are organized within the Museum on a rotating basis. Each student spends at least one week per quarter with a staff member in charge of a specific area of the motion picture department, sharing all aspects of daily activity and assisting with routine assignments. This rotation method allows students to work individually with each staff member, thus acquiring the skills necessary to perform a wide variety of tasks. Departmental areas to which students are assigned include curatorial, administration, print inspection and handling, cataloguing, programming, preservation, vault management, projection, and film stills archiving.
  4. Team projects are assigned throughout the year. Examples include the preparation of grant applications, print selection, inventory, preliminary cataloguing, and basic vault management.
  5. Field trips to laboratories, research centers, manufacturing plants, and archival facilities are scheduled during the spring.
  6. Individual projects are part of the mid-term and final exams.