Download or read book Deaccessioning and Its Discontents written by Martin Gammon and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-07-24 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first history of the deaccession of objects from museum collections that defends deaccession as an essential component of museum practice. Museums often stir controversy when they deaccession works—formally remove objects from permanent collections—with some critics accusing them of betraying civic virtue and the public trust. In fact, Martin Gammon argues in Deaccessioning and Its Discontents, deaccession has been an essential component of the museum experiment for centuries. Gammon offers the first critical history of deaccessioning by museums from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, and exposes the hyperbolic extremes of “deaccession denial”—the assumption that deaccession is always wrong—and “deaccession apology”—when museums justify deaccession by finding some fault in the object—as symptoms of the same misunderstanding of the role of deaccessions in proper museum practice. He chronicles a series of deaccession events in Britain and the United States that range from the disastrous to the beneficial, and proposes a typology of principles to guide future deaccessions. Gammon describes the liquidation of the British Royal Collections after Charles I's execution—when masterworks were used as barter to pay the king's unpaid bills—as establishing a precedent for future deaccessions. He recounts, among other episodes, U.S. Civil War veterans who tried to reclaim their severed limbs from museum displays; the 1972 “Hoving affair,” when the Metropolitan Museum of Art sold a number of works to pay for a Velázquez portrait; and Brandeis University's decision (later reversed) to close its Rose Art Museum and sell its entire collection of contemporary art. An appendix provides the first extensive listing of notable deaccessions since the seventeenth century. Gammon ultimately argues that vibrant museums must evolve, embracing change, loss, and reinvention.
Download or read book Active Collections written by Elizabeth Wood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, many museums have implemented sweeping changes in how they engage audiences. However, changes to the field’s approaches to collections stewardship have come much more slowly. Active Collections critically examines existing approaches to museum collections and explores practical, yet radical, ways that museums can better manage their collections to actively advance their missions. Approaching the question of modern museum collection stewardship from a position of "tough love," the authors argue that the museum field risks being constrained by rigid ways of thinking about objects. Examining the field’s relationship to objects, artifacts, and specimens, the volume explores the question of stewardship through the dissection of a broad range of issues, including questions of "quality over quantity," emotional attachment, dispassionate cataloging, and cognitive biases in curatorship. The essays look to insights from fields as diverse as forest management, library science, and the psychology of compulsive hoarding, to inform and innovate collection practices. Essay contributions come from both experienced museum professionals and scholars from disciplines as diverse as psychology, education, and history. The result is a critical exploration that makes the book essential reading for museum professionals, as well as those in training.
Download or read book Clearinghouse Classifieds written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Recommendations for Deaccessioning and Disposal of Permanent Museum Collections in the Small Museum written by Gwen Corder and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reappraisal and Deaccessioning in Archives and Special Collections written by Laura Uglean Jackson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-07-26 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archivists and archival institutions are reappraising and deaccessioning now more than ever before. Archival reappraisal and deaccessioning have become vital tools for managing archival collections. Reappraisal and Deaccessioning in Archives and Special Collections is the first book dedicated entirely to the topic of reappraising and deaccessioning in special collections and archives. This edited volume features 13 chapters offering informed opinions, practical recommendations, and valuable examples for reappraising and deaccessioning. Readers will gain important insight into the most important element of reappraisal and deaccessioning: decision-making. Through mostly case studies, the chapters address important issues inherent in these practices including: ethical concerns, donor relations, appraisal questions, and disposition options. The case studies cover collaborative and solo projects, various material types such as manuscripts, records, and artifacts, and a range of scenarios from major projects involving thousands of linear feet of material to ad hoc projects removing single items. Chapter topics include: weeding vs. deaccessioning, getting rid of contaminated materials, donor-driven deaccessioning, and using reappraisal and deaccessioning to improve access to existing collections. Readers will find beneficial information on streamlining workflows, carrying out procedures, creating policies, and implementing these practices locally. Additionally, the chapters cover the intricacies of disposition options, such as transferring to other institutions, returning material to donors, and destruction. This volume can serve as a valuable resource for large and small repositories, experienced and novice archivists, and those working with manuscript and archive collections.
Download or read book A Deaccession Reader written by Stephen E. Weil and published by American Alliance of Museums. This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Good museum management requires a carefully considered decision as to whether a regular means of culling the collection serves the museum's best interest. This collection of texts drawn from journals and other professional publications looks at both positive and negative views of deaccessioning. Eleven articles focus primarily on the experiences of American museums, but also provide advice for English institutions, a case history from Canada, and an international overview of legal and professional notions about cultural property and museum collections. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Is It Okay to Sell the Monet written by Julia Courtney and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-10-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Museums have moved beyond exclusively collections-based missions, and the economics of museums have tightened considerably. As a result, the tenor of the discussion around the practice of deaccessioning and use of its proceeds has become livelier, if not strident. While the professional associations continue to expect adherence to their standards, Boards of Trustees are looking at museum collections as assets that can potentially be monetized to support the museum’s mission or ensure its survival. As museum professionals and trustees engage in these discussions and make critical decisions for their institutions, they will benefit from a deeper understanding of the complex and nuanced aspects of deaccessioning, which this book presents anew. Is It Okay to Sell the Monet? provides background on deaccessioning and disposal of deaccessioned objects and a context for changes in the field brought about by expanding missions and contracting resources. It includes an important discussion on how museums might utilize collections in new ways that benefit their visitors and communities. It provides practical guidance on the process of disposing of objects and explores the ethical standards of professional museum associations—examining their history, relevancy, and practical effect. It also delves into the complicated legal issues that sometimes challenge these ethical rules. Finally, it analyzes high profile museum case studies with important takeaways that will be useful for museums faced with similar circumstances.
Download or read book Heritage Futures written by Rodney Harrison and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2020-07-28 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Preservation of natural and cultural heritage is often said to be something that is done for the future, or on behalf of future generations, but the precise relationship of such practices to the future is rarely reflected upon. Heritage Futures draws on research undertaken over four years by an interdisciplinary, international team of 16 researchers and more than 25 partner organisations to explore the role of heritage and heritage-like practices in building future worlds. Engaging broad themes such as diversity, transformation, profusion and uncertainty, Heritage Futures aims to understand how a range of conservation and preservation practices across a number of countries assemble and resource different kinds of futures, and the possibilities that emerge from such collaborative research for alternative approaches to heritage in the Anthropocene. Case studies include the cryopreservation of endangered DNA in frozen zoos, nuclear waste management, seed biobanking, landscape rewilding, social history collecting, space messaging, endangered language documentation, built and natural heritage management, domestic keeping and discarding practices, and world heritage site management.
Download or read book Care of Collections written by Simon Knell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-11-04 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a practical guide to all aspects of collections care including conservation practice, the monitoring of control of light, relative humidity and atmospheric pollution, biological infestation and disaster planning.
Download or read book Cl mentine Deliss written by Clémentine Deliss and published by Hatje Cantz Verlag. This book was released on 2020-07-15 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For quite some time now, ethnographic museums in Europe have been compelled to legitimate themselves. Their exhibition-making has become a topic of discussion, as has the contentious history of their collections, which have come about through colonial appropriation. Clearly, this cannot continue. That the situation can be different is something that Clémentine Deliss explores in her current publication. She offers an intriguing mix of autobiographically-informed novel and conceptual thesis on contemporary art and anthropology. Reflections on her own work while she was Director of Frankfurt's Weltkulturen Museum (Museum of World Cultures) are interwoven with the explorations of influential filmmakers, artists and writers. She introduces the Metabolic Museum as an interventionist laboratory for remediating ethnographic collections for future generations. CLÉMENTINE DELISS has achieved international renown as a curator, cultural historian and publisher of artist's books. In her role as Director of the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt, as a curator, and as a professor and researcher at eminent institutes and academies, she focuses on transdisciplinary and transcultural exchanges. She is Associate Curator of KW Berlin and Guest Professor at the Academy of Arts, Hamburg.
Download or read book Deaccessioning of Museum Collections written by Diane Marie Bryant and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections written by Marie C. Malaro and published by Smithsonian Books (DC). This book was released on 1985 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work covers issues that bear on collection management and that may arise in relation to the acquisition and disposal of objects, loans, appraisals, tax considerations, insurance, and visitor and employee safety.
Download or read book Code of Ethics for Museums written by American Association of Museums and published by American Alliance of Museums. This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Ethical codes evolve in response to changing conditions, values, and ideas. A professional code of ethics must, therefore, be periodically updated. It must also rest upon widely shared values. Although the operating environment of museums grows more complex each year, the root value for museums, the tie that connects all of us together despite our diversity, is the commitment to serving people, both present and future generations. This value guided the creation of and remains the most fundamental principle in the following Code of Ethics for Museums."--
Download or read book Deaccession Standards Practices in Local History Museums written by Jane Grossman and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deaccessioning (permanently removing an object from a museum’s collection through sale, donation, or disposal) has often been a lightning rod for controversy, especially in recent years. It can also be an opportunity, particularly for local history museums, to dispose of objects that do not add educational, historic, or monetary value to their collection, thus creating more space and time to provide adequate care for the rest of their collection. Local history museums were oftentimes founded by amateur historians or local citizen groups who did not necessarily have a defined vision or scope for their collection. Many history museum collections today are inundated with objects that do not benefit the public and do not serve the museum’s mission, making it more difficult to properly house and care for the collection as a whole. One such museum is the Elmhurst History Museum (EHM), a small regional history museum located in the western suburbs of Chicago. EHM’s permanent collection has been long overdue for a large-scale deaccession; many of the objects within the collection do not fall within the collection’s scope, do not relate to local history, and do not have any educational or monetary value. In winter 2023, the museum was tasked with getting their storage facility up to fire safety code, which required the removal of dozens of shelves and the relocation of hundreds of objects. This task isn’t as simple as picking an item off a shelf and moving it to a vacant spot; EHM has an overcrowding problem. Almost every square inch of shelving is occupied by artifacts, textile boxes, furniture, and other objects relating to Elmhurst history. Large-scale deaccessioning is an opportunity for EHM to create more space at their off-site storage warehouse, thus allowing the collections staff to adequately care for the collection and ensure fire safety protocols are observed. Using the Elmhurst History Museum deaccession project as a case study, this thesis reviews the best practices for deaccessioning and offers recommendations for museum professionals facing similar dilemmas within their collection.
Download or read book Exchanging Objects written by Catherine A. Nichols and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an historical account of the exchange of “duplicate specimens” between anthropologists at the Smithsonian Institution and museums, collectors, and schools around the world in the late nineteenth century, this book reveals connections between both well-known museums and little-known local institutions, created through the exchange of museum objects. It explores how anthropologists categorized some objects in their collections as “duplicate specimens,” making them potential candidates for exchange. This historical form of what museum professionals would now call deaccessioning considers the intellectual and technical requirement of classifying objects in museums, and suggests that a deeper understanding of past museum practice can inform mission-driven contemporary museum work.
Download or read book Museum Collection Ethics written by Steven Miller and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-03-19 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collection ethics – the third rail of the museum profession. What are the encompassing issues museum face regarding how they acquire, keep and work with their collections? Museum Collection Ethics discusses the complexities inherent in preserving and interpreting the extraordinary range of culturally significant objects entrusted to museums. The book presents an encompassing look at every aspect of the intellectual and stewardship duties museums by definition assume. The differences between ethics, laws, customs, and expectations are discussed. They are not synonymous. Ethics vary widely and are fluid. Essential factors include: Defining a museum as an ethical pursuit The role of museum governing authorities regarding ethics The ethics of collection authority: who is responsible for collection truths How museums collect and how ethics influences that activity The ethics of assuring collection authenticity The ethical access to collections, be it physical or digital Ethics and conservation Exhibition ethics The ethics of collection removals be they voluntary or involuntary This is the first book devoted solely to the ethical concerns museums face regarding their collections.
Download or read book Valuing Your Collection written by Freda Matassa and published by Facet Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-10 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the issue of valuing objects in cultural collections, ranging from high-value to low or no-value and featuring a range of collections including fine art, archives, science and photography. Practical advice is given on how to assign values and best practice examples are drawn from museums, libraries and archives. The subject of valuation has always been challenging for museums and public collections and is becoming more urgent as monetary values of many items continue to break records. There is an increase in lending, with more loans requiring a value for insurance. Cultural collections and exhibitions are expanding to all corners of the world, while, at the same time, lenders are becoming more risk-averse. Valuing Your Collection will address the issues and offer some solutions. Content covered includes: questions of valuing public and private cultural collectionsassigning values to individual objects or an entire collectionlegal and ethical considerationsdiscussion of authentication and attributionthe insurance business and valuationguides to valuing different types of collectionsa range of case studies showing valuation across multiple sectorssample templates with criteria for valuing different objects. This book will be useful for curators of cultural collections, professionals in museums, libraries and archives, cultural heritage students, private collectors, those involved with art insurance, art business and anyone requiring practical guidance on valuation.
