#ARCSChat Podcast arcschat4all

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

#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.

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 

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/

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

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.