Museum Studies

Before coming to the University of the Arts, Joseph Gonzales was previously appointed to and served as the Manager of Research and Community Engagement Strategies for the Fleisher Art Memorial from May 2008 to July 2011. During that time he led audience research and institutional initiatives to increase and enhance arts engagement among underserved families in Southeast Philadelphia as part of a Wallace Foundation Excellence Award grant.

Mr.Gonzales has twenty years of experience in the museum field working in education and interpretation, community outreach, development, and exhibition development for art, history, natural history, children’s museums, and commercial agencies in Philadelphia, Texas, California, and Washington D.C. He earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Temple University where his dissertation, Complicated Business: Chicanos, Museum, and Corporate Sponsorship, examined the cultural production and politics in the making and touring of the exhibitions, Chicano Now and Chicano Visions.

He has served as a member of the board of directors of Raices Culturales Latinoamericanas and Taller Puertorriqueño, program chair for the American Association of Museum’s Committee for Diversity in Museums, and is the current president of the Museum Council of Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley.