Join us beginning February 3, 2025 for the 4 week course Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections.The process of securing the collection and making it accessible needs the mindset of a collections manager as well as the one of a project manager. This course helps you to get a grip on your unmanaged collection by developing a plan to tackle it, defining achievable goals by creating logical exits and finding ways to keep the project going even if you are limited in time, staff and money. The course textbook, Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections, will be supplemented by a variety of readings and assignments.
Housekeeping in the museum or historic house is a vital activity. Dust building up on an object is not only unsightly, it will also cause damage. An unkempt museum or historic house is not appealing to the visitor nor is it healthy for the staff and collection. Yet cleaning collections can be risky as well.
This course will provide the participants with a foundation as to how to clean objects and facilities safely. We will explore a variety of subjects, including health and safety for the staff and the objects, cleaning methods for a large variety of collection types common in cultural institutions and the importance of documenting what you do. Join us for this four week course. Join us for Keeping Keeping Historic Houses & Museums Clean beginning March 3, 2025.
Join instructor Helen Wong Smith beginning January 6, 2025 for the four week course Cultural Competency.
Everyone believes they work well with cultures unlike their own and are aware of the benefits of intercultural or Cultural Competency (CC) practice. How you define and incorporate cultural competency in your museum requires the ability to function with awareness, knowledge, and interpersonal skill when engaging people of different backgrounds, assumptions, beliefs, values, and behaviors.
In this workshop you’ll be challenged to examine personal perceptions that might surprise you and strategies that will increase your ability to practice inclusion to your stakeholders including staff, donors, visitors, and communities.
This workshop provides the skills to employ cultural competency and the stages individuals and organizations can implement to improve relations with internal and external communities.
Join us beginning August 4, 2025 for the 4 week course Laws & Collections Management.
This course provides an accessible introduction to the basic legal aspects of managing museum collections by presenting an overview of the legal organization of museums and the scope and significance of key US and international laws and regulations that affect collecting and managing museum collections. The course textbook (A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections) is supplemented by a changing variety of pertinent readings and class discussions.
Join us beginning June 30, 2025 for the 4 week course Policies for Managing Collections. In this course we will critically examine the purposes and functions of collections management policies, including how collections are defined, acquired, managed, used, maintained, and deaccessioned. The course textbook,Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies, Third Edition, will be supplemented by a variety of readings and assignments.
Join us beginning June 2, 2025 for the 4 week course Repatriation Beyond NAGPRA.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) has come a long way in the last three decades, but museums still have a lot of work to do, and repatriation does not begin and end with the mandates laid out in NAGPRA regulations. If this work is to be effective and adhere to the spirit of the law, museum practitioners will need to go above and beyond (what? NAGPRA?) with relationship building, restitution, and authentic storytelling.
This four-week course uses case studies, literature, media, and discussion to delve into the possibilities, complications, and practice of repatriation beyond NAGPRA.