about

The Cooperstown Graduate Program is proud to be like no other. We train creative, entrepreneurial museum leaders committed to generating programs and services for the public good. Our students learn by doing tangible, useful work on real-world projects. They dedicate themselves to developing institutions that play a central role in their communities, encouraging broad public audiences to use artifacts and the study of science, art, and history as a catalyst for social change. 

Students choose to focus on one of two tracks during their time at CGP: Science Museum Studies and History Museum Studies. Both tracks have a generalist curriculum, so students explore many aspects of museum work. 

Our students benefit from small class sizes and a high faculty to student ratio. This allows students to get to know and work closely with professors, who are leaders and innovators in the field. Although CGP itself is a small program, as an academic division of SUNY College at Oneonta students also have access to the resources of a much larger state university.

We love to connect with prospective students, professionals in the field, alumni, or anyone interested in museum studies! Follow us on Twitter and check out our Facebook page.

our core values define all the work we do

history

Founded in 1964, the Cooperstown Graduate Program is one of the oldest Museum Studies graduate programs in the country. Lamenting the lack of training programs for museum professionals, Louis C. Jones, then-director of the New York State Historical Association partnered with SUNY Oneonta to create the Cooperstown Graduate Program. Jones hired folklorist Bruce Buckley as director, beginning a tradition of community-centric study and programming.

Since then, the program has continued to grow. In 2011, CGP moved into its new home, one of the only buildings in the world designed specifically for museum studies. A few years later, in 2015, the Science Museum Studies track was added to the curriculum in response to the needs of the museum field and larger society. The Science Museum Studies program is the first master’s program of its
kind in the United States. 

The Cooperstown Graduate Program remains on the cutting edge of museum studies. Over 50 years after its founding, CGP continues to have national impact on the arts, sciences, historical preservation, cultural and community programming, economic development, and social change.