This project sounds like a typical project for a small town, attempting to focus on an aspect of its history and create an exhibit with community involvement. When doing an exhibit like this, however, which involves the donation and loan of artifacts from the private sector as well as the acquisition or loan of valuable artifacts, it is necessary that the museum, however small, have the necessary skills, resources, and guidelines to properly deal with these influxes.
The first issue that should be addressed is the donation of artifacts. In order for the museum to accept the pieces, they should be included within the mission statement of the museum, must have proper documentation of ownership, must be determined as genuine, and should not be subject to repatriation according to NAGPRA. Seeing that the artifacts come from a nearby site, it is likely that they would fall under the mission statement of the museum, but care must be taken that the objects being donated follow all of the other guidelines. After the object itself has been accepted, the museum must make sure that its storage facilities are able to manage and curate the pieces sufficiently. Lastly, the proper paperwork for transfer of title must be filed, and objects should be assigned acquisition numbers, recorded, observed for a condition report and labeled immediately.
Loan items must also have paperwork describing the length of time for the loan and any payment received for the loan. A condition report should be drawn up at the beginning of the loan to monitor any changes in condition at the end of the loan period.
The “effigy beads” present a unique problem because of their worth. It is unlikely that a small museum has high-tech security equipment to properly guard very valuable items and care must be taken to create a secure environment for the pieces if taken in on loan or donated to the museum. A first step in this process would be the completion of a risk assessment taking into account the acquisition of the “effigy beads” and the specific problems that the display of these might create. Special care must be taken in the construction of the display case for both stability of the objects and security of the case itself as well as the construction of the entire exhibit in order to best protect the rare artifacts from both thieves and other damaging influences, such as environment, temperature and humidity, etc. Because of their rarity, if the museum obtains the pieces, it should consider its educational role in society and make the beads available for study to both the public and other institutions.
In relation to this, the visual recording (photography) of these beads as well as the other objects in the exhibit, needs to be of the highest available quality along with the representations used in both the exhibit and video being produced. The labels and exhibit themselves need to be worded so that the public can understand and learn from them and they must be presented in a way that flows without interruption within the exhibit. Therefore, before drawing up labels, it would be useful to know how the exhibit will be set up as well as what all will be included in it. Thought must also be given to the availability of these materials that are to be collected in the research for the exhibition and the best method of dissemination. Copies of all the fieldwork notes, etc. sent to Mr. Turner should also be made available to the public in some way. Along with this, the creation of take-home pamphlets and the option of selling the video or offering it to teachers would greatly expand the educational outreach of the exhibit.
All of these considerations must be taken into account when creating an exhibit which requires the acquisition and loan of materials.
No comments:
Post a Comment