#ARCSChat Podcast

The Next Generation of Collections Specialists

The new cliché resonating around the world as we make our way through the global pandemic is “the new normal”. Managing our collections has no immunity to this sentiment, so #ARCSchat has asked academic leaders with extensive experience in museum studies and arts administration programs, and charged with educating our next generation, to contribute their thoughts on the subject while hosts John, Amanda, and Robin foster discussion in response.

 

Contributing panelists include:

Elizabeth (Elee) Wood, PhD

Nadine and Robert A. Skotheim Director of Education and Public Programs

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Los Angeles, CA

 

Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley

Interim Vice Provost of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Associate Professor Departments of American Studies and African and African American Studies

The University of Kansas

 

Dr. Rosanna N. Flouty

Interim Director, Program in Museum Studies

Clinical Assistant Professor of Museum Studies

New York University

 

Sixtine Cruchfield-Tripet

Art Director, WiseKey

Developer of the Fine Art International Management MBA

Geneva Business School

#MayDay Gameshow with the C-Word Podcast and Angelica Isa

#ARCSchat returns with its annual #MayDay special. This year we preach from our soapbox by way of a game show! You may or may not be familiar with "Um, Actually", a YouTube show where the host makes a false statement and contestants battle to correct it first. Joining us as panelists and judges are UK-based conservators Jenny Mathiasson and Kloe Rumsey, the hosts of the C-Word Podcast, object conservator, speaker, and educator from Peru Angelica Isa , and our own registrar from the Ringling Museum in Florida Amanda Robinson.

Exploring NAGPRA and the 2021 Proposed Program Changes

Since 1990, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act has been in place to provide for the repatriation and disposition of certain Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. Over the years, adjustments to the program have been made and most recently in 2021, a new draft of proposed regulation updates was published. Listen in with #ARCSchat as the team speaks with Dr. Martina Dawley, Director/THPO at the Hualapai Department of Cultural Resources, to explore these changes, their potential impacts, and how the program can best serve and protect the heritage of indigenous nations within America.

 

Resources:

 

https://americanindian.si.edu/sites/1/files/pdf/repatriation/NMAI-RepatriationPolicy-2014.pdf

 

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nagpra/upload/NAGPRA-Draft-Regulations-Overview-of-Changes.pdf

Hualapai Bird Singers 

https://youtu.be/gdO4oIEO3tg

Hualapai History

https://youtu.be/z2HAM0o3rcg

COVID Color Code System - Public Announcement for the community

https://youtu.be/wT9CqJZLCE8 

Story Map: Walapai Internment at Camp La Paz 

We run the trail each year on April 21

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5c192f51ebe94b9e9dbb76179924f464

La Paz: Hualapai Trail of Tears Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPeqIX6vG_w 

Future-Proofing Intent in Time-Based Media

A painting in 100 years is still paint on its support and hangs on a wall, but time-based media will always change due to evolutions in technology and changes in performers and/or venues. As collections stewards, #ARCSchat will discuss how they actively protect the legacy of the artist and their work as it ages along with the technologies and personnel that present these pieces.

 

Panel:

sasha arden (they/them): Time-Based Media Conservator

Diego Mellado (he/him): Technical Director, Studio Daniel Canogar

Kate Weinstein (she/her): Collections Manager & Registrar, Thoma Foundation

 

Resources:

Guggenheim Time-based Media https://www.guggenheim.org/conservati...

Metropolitan Museum, Time-based Media Working Group https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-m...

Electronic Media Group, AIC https://community.culturalheritage.or...

Matters in Media Art http://mattersinmediaart.org/

Smithsonian, Time-based Media & Digital Art Resources https://www.si.edu/tbma/resources

MoMA Media Conservation Initiative https://www.mediaconservation.io/reso...

NYU, Workshops in Time-based Media (TBM) Art Conservation https://ifa.nyu.edu/conservation/tbm-...

Digital Preservation Coalition https://dpconline.org/handbook/contents

NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation https://ndsa.org/publications/levels-...

Art and Obsolescence Podcast: https://www.artandobsolescence.com/

Data Diversity

Museums have many facets, but one of their key functions is to serve as repositories for histories, cultures, and information. In more recent years, our field has begun to re-evaluate the specific stories museums have collected, and more importantly, amplify those that have been excluded. On February 1st we explored diversifying our data with Frances Lloyd-Baynes, Head of Collections Information Management at Minneapolis Institute of Art.

 

Additional Resources:

AAMC Artist Demographics Consortium

  Judith Pineiro, Executive Director
  AAMC & AAMC Foundation
  judith.pineiro@artcurators.org

 

Slack: TMS Artists Questionnaire Group

Jaye Melino, MoMA (Host)

jaye_melino@moma.org

"Decolonizing Digital Preservation", Monica Montgomery, Founder of Museum Hue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgU3HhzvJuY

On Feb 10, 2021 there was a "DAMS and Museums" one-day virtual conference focusing on digital asset management (images, videos, etc.) in the museum sector. Monica Montgomery, Founder of Museum Hue, gave a really great presentation on "Decolonizing Digital Preservation", which I think is applicable to everyone working in the cultural heritage space, not just folks managing digital assets. The session is now available to watch on the Henry Stewart DAMS YouTube channel. I highly recommend it.

 

This presentation appears to be available only via the TMS List-Serv (TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU) through an informal sharing via email. Folks might be best-placed to contact the authors directly.

"Building an Inclusive Database: Cataloging Race, Gender, Sexuality and Other Identities", Terri Anderson and Emily Houf, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Collective Imagination 2016 conference

 

Resources:

"Documenting Diversity: How should museums identify art and artists?" Frances Lloyd-Baynes, March 27, 2019. 

https://www.aam-us.org/wire/medium/documenting-diversity/

Data Feminism. Catherine D'Ignazio, Lauren F. Klein. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2020

 

Digital Transgender Archives  https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/

Ethical Questions in Name Authority Control, Jane Sandberg, ed. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2019

Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000

Bodies of Information: Intersectional Feminism and the Digital Humanities. Elizabeth Losh and ‎Jacqueline Wernimont. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2018

Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, How We Collect Data Determines Whose Voice Is Heard (2020)  https://www.schusterman.org/blogs/rella-kaplowitz/how-we-collect-data-determines-whose-voice-is-heard

The Trials and Ethics of Rapid Response Collecting

In April of 2020, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History launched a task force charged with collecting and documenting the impact of COVID-19 on history and culture. At a moment's notice they had to formulate a collecting strategy and begin the acquisition of objects and archives that documented a crisis that even now, almost 2 years later, continues to unfold.

On this #ARCSchat, we spoke with our guests Alexandra Lord and Joshua Gorman, the chair of the Division of Medicine and Science and Head of Collections Management respectively, about how they devised and implemented a collections strategy, and went about the task of documenting a crisis while in the crisis.

As the collection of objects relating to COVID-19 is ongoing and the institution wishes to cast a wide net, if you feel like you have a relevant artifact please contact the museum at inquiry@si.edu.

#ARCSchat Shipping during the Pandemic Pt.2

In April of 2020, #ARCSchat sat down with a large panel of shippers to discuss how we would approach shipping our collections during the encroaching pandemic. That chat marked an important milestone for our entire industry as it was the first of many on the subject by a wide range of institutions.

We will revisit the topic with a similar panel of art shippers from the United States, Asia, Latin America, and Europe to discuss permanent changes to our procedures, laws and regulations resulting from the pandemic, and new best practices (couriers, trackers, PPE, etc), and how sustainability issues animated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The panel will also anticipate other changes (both positive and negative) and provide their experience and insight as to why they will develop and how to adapt to them.

#ARCSchat October 2021: The Future of Museum Funding - Post COVID and Beyond

There has been much ado in recent years about museum funding; from institutions declining support from organizations rumored to conduct unethical business practices, to the temporary expansion of deaccession fund regulations in the field. And gosh, even a little money laundering might be somewhere in the mix! In this episode, #ARCSchat welcomes art lawyer Katherine Wilson-Milne, a partner at Schindler Cohen & Hochman LLP and co-host of the Art Law Podcast, to help us explore what the future of museum funding might look like, and the potential for how it could evolve. 

https://www.youtube.com/c/AssociationofRegistrarsandCollectionsSpecialists

www.artlawpodcast.com

https://schlaw.com/#/about/katherine-wilson-milne

Repatriation and Restitution with Alexander Herman

Like the change of seasons, the arrival of September brings the return of #ARCSchat on the first Tuesday of every month. We begin our new season with Mr. Alexander Herman, Assistant Director of the Institute for Art Law, to discuss and take your questions about repatriation and restitution. Mr. Herman will release his new book, Restitution: The Return of Cultural Artifacts (https://www.lundhumphries.com/product...) in September and will bring to our conversation his keen legal insight and deep research that informs the book.

#ARCSchat May 2021: Virtual Emergency Tabletop Excercise

Join #ARCSchat​, the ARCS Emergency Programming Sub-Committee, National Heritage Responders, and the AIC Emergency Committee as they join forces to bring you a disaster virtual tabletop exercise just in time for FAIC’s annual #maydayprep​ program. Enter the FAIC #MayDayPrep​

Resources: National Collections Program | NCP |  https://ncp.si.edu/​

Implementing the Incident Command System at the Institutional Level - https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/david...​

Exercising Your Disaster Response Plan-https://www.connectingtocollections.o...​

Emergency Preparedness & Response - Wiki - https://www.conservation-wiki.com/wik...​

National Incident Management System | FEMA.gov - https://www.fema.gov/emergency-manage...​

EMI - IS - https://training.fema.gov/is/courseov...