Museums are evolving. In a cultural moment in which institutions are called toward self-reflection, inclusivity, and accountability, the question remains: what does collaboration mean for museum and community, institution and individual? How can ethical action drive our work?
Every year SAR publishes its Annual Report, which describes accomplishments and acknowledges supporters over the previous fiscal year. Our 2019–2020 report is no different, and yet so much has changed, as President Michael F. Brown explains.
Learn more about how the SAR Guidelines for Collaboration are transforming the teaching practices at one university in this guest post by Jen Shannon, curator and associate professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder,
In 1977 Doug Schwartz, who was then the president of SAR, hired Art Wolf to be the curator of collections. Wolf’s task was to oversee the building of the facility that would become the IARC, which now stewards a collection of nearly 12,000 artworks.
For Felicia Garcia, SAR’s new curator of education at the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC), one of the most exciting reasons to be at SAR is a proven dedication to community that drives much of the work at the IARC. We spoke with Felicia about what makes the IARC unique, the importance of land acknowledgement practices, and how the education department fits within the organization. Listen to the full interview and explore highlighted excerpts.
The School for Advanced Research (SAR) is pleased to announce the publication of the Guidelines for Collaboration, theoretical and practical guides to building successful collaborations between Indigenous communities, museums, and other collecting institutions. The Guidelines are the product of several years of critical discourse between over sixty Native and non-Native museum professionals, cultural leaders, artists, and scholars experienced in collaborative work in various institutions in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Available only in limited release until now, the Guidelines are already being used by internationally recognized institutions including Chicago’s Field Museum and University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) in collaboration with the Getty Conservation Institute.
Sophie Hunter, the former Samuel H. Kress fellow with the Museums of New Mexico conservation unit, shares how the IARC Guidelines for Collaboration helped develop a conservation plan for a large collection of Jicarilla Apache pitch-coated baskets at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
See how the internationally-recognized Field Museum is implementing the Guidelines for Collaboration in their work. Guest post by Jamie Kelly, Head of Anthropology Collections & Collections Manager at the Field Museum’s Gantz Family Collections Center and Jamie Lewis, Anthropology Collections Manager at the Field Museum’s Gantz Family Collections Center.
Ellen Pearlstein, Professor of Information Studies at the UCLA/Getty Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials shares how the IARC Guidelines for Collaboration is helping shape her students’ understanding of working with source communities and Native American collections.