Class Exercises: Collections Management
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
Directions:
Working in teams, consider the following scenarios. Prepare to discuss with the class the specific roles various museum staff members may play in the responses to these situations (especially that of the collections manager and/or registrar).
1. You are the collections manager in a medium-sized museum of art. It is 4:45PM on a Friday afternoon and a security officer walks into your office to ask you if you have removed an object from the long-term exhibition upstairs. In order to determined which object he is talking about, you walk up to take a look. In the gallery you find an empty plexi-case case with a slight crack along the bottom edge and no label. What do you do?
2. After completing your NAGPRA summaries and inventories, your museum
has hosted site visits for representatives of the Hopi, Zuni, and the
Navajo tribes among others. During these visits, you have heard suggestions
from the tribal members about certain "comforts" that should be
provided for various types of non-NAGPRA objects in storage but which have
been identified by the tribal representatives as objects that will remain
in your care. The Hopi and Zuni ask that some of the katchinas you have
be "fed" corn meal twice a year; the Zuni ask that certain masks
be given "gifts" of corn pollen at least once a year; the Navajo
feel strongly that their objects not be stored adjacent or beneath Hopi
objects; and the Navajo suggest that some of their rugs stored in drawers
are "lonely" and should be stored adjacent to other Navajo
objects and that they would prefer more light. Talk about your first
impressions to these requests and consider what role cultural bias and
professional standards play in your reactions? Place yourselves in the
position of a collections manager, a tribal member, and even an object
and argue the position for each. Then consider how you can compromise
and what solutions may be available to address these challenges.
(Note: To "feed" or "give gifts" to
artifacts means that a pinch of these substances should be placed at the base
or sprinkled on the objects.)
3. Your marketing director drops by your office to tell you about a call she just received from a producer for an upcoming commercial for a large regional chain of grocery stores. They would like to use your gallery as a location and ask that you also provide a painting that "shows Indians" for an actor to sit in front of while delivering some lines in the commercial. Your market director is wondering which picture you would recommend. What are your considerations before you respond to this question? What policies should be in place and what should they outline? Assuming you have the necessary policies, what are the issues you should be weighing in making the decision to participate in this endeavor?
4. Upon deinstalling a Native American headdress that has been on exhibition for over five years, you notice that the feathers show severe damage from insect "grazing." What actions must you take for the short-term and the long-term to define the extent of and solve this problem? As you list your actions, consider what documentation sources are critical in helping determine the extent of damage to this piece and the potential for damage to other objects throughout the building. (Remember in your deliberations that your institution uses some of its spaces for facilities rental which is considered an important source of earned revenue, and that because your institution lacks a lunch room large enough to accommodate more than 8 people at a time, a number of the staff prefer to eat their lunches at their desks in offices adjacent to gallery spaces.)