Open Forum

Hello! What are peoples' thoughts on the need for public notice or disclosure of non-profit art museum deaccessions? Newspaper article, social media post, etc.? Is it best practice or not necessary?

Thank you!

-Lisa Simmons
Associate Curator of Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art

------------------------------
Lisa Simmons
Assistant Curator of Youth and Adult Education
National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson WY
------------------------------

Check with the guidelines in the state where your museum is located. I believe in California, it's three years from the date that you start the process. However, depending on the provenance you do or do not have for each object, you may want to consult with an attorney to be sure you are doing due diligence. It's important to keep the records of each object, including the dates of accession and why the institution feels the need to deaccession the objects (i.e. museum focus has changed and objects do not fit into the scope of the mission). Contact all known family members who have connections with each object to let them know your intent. Be sure to get board approval on the final list of objects to deaccession. Placing the notice on your museums website to alert anyone who may object to deaccessioning the objects is also important, to get community input. Placing notices in newspapers and in social media posts is cumbersome and not necessary in my opinion. 

I hope this helps! 

------------------------------
Kathleen Schlier
Museum Consultant
San Francisco
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-27-2021 03:46 PM
From: Lisa Simmons
Subject: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Hello! What are peoples' thoughts on the need for public notice or disclosure of non-profit art museum deaccessions? Newspaper article, social media post, etc.? Is it best practice or not necessary?

Thank you!

-Lisa Simmons
Associate Curator of Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art

------------------------------
Lisa Simmons
Assistant Curator of Youth and Adult Education
National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson WY
------------------------------

Hello,

This response is being framed in the understanding that you are referring to informal museum/patron outreach and not within the scope of legally required institutional records management practices, as this certainly does not, nor does it intend to, provide any legal advice.  

I would say that it should be done, yes. If you're meaning a small series of objects or simply individual objects, I would imagine that a social media post, or perhaps some temporary signage within the museum space if the objects are still on exhibit, would suffice and then as you said a newspaper article for more sweeping deaccessions, perhaps? I would say that this information could only be welcome and not wrong to provide, especially if the information given includes what objects are going away, why they are being deaccessioned, and where they may be going, as this assists a museum in maintaining transparency about their operations, and may even spark some more visits to the museum if people, say, see this in their social media feed or read about it in the news and decide they want to catch their last glimpse of such and such objects.
For an example, at the library where I work, whenever we are weeding seldom consulted books from our collection to make room for new books, we take the ones to be weeded and change their shelf location in our system to 'Last Chance Bookshelf' then physically place them on that clearly labeled shelf  along with the signage informing patrons that these books are set to be removed from our collection so here's your last chance, and finally, prompt a call to action with 'what do you think, keep or get rid of?' And we have seen some upticks in the circulation logs of books that haven't been touched in several years, as well as gotten helpful feedback from our users about the books and our collection in general. (Now, they have not been touched in years for a reason, and we've yet to get a suggestion to keep any of the last chance books, but it has been an interesting experiment that we plan to continue to do as part of our weeding process from now on regardless, especially since some of the feedback we have gotten from prompting these conversations with patrons has pointed out to us some areas of content in which we happen to be quite lacking).

I would not call it a necessity, however, I would say that the potential for open engagement between a museum and its patrons are worth the extra effort to point out changes in the museums holdings. 

Best wishes,
Avril

------------------------------
Avril Falgout
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-27-2021 03:46 PM
From: Lisa Simmons
Subject: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Hello! What are peoples' thoughts on the need for public notice or disclosure of non-profit art museum deaccessions? Newspaper article, social media post, etc.? Is it best practice or not necessary?

Thank you!

-Lisa Simmons
Associate Curator of Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art

------------------------------
Lisa Simmons
Assistant Curator of Youth and Adult Education
National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson WY
------------------------------

Hi Lisa,
You've received two different answers--both well though-out and useful--to two different interpretations of your questions!  Kathleen answered the question in terms of the necessity of due diligence in reaching out to try to establish legal title to unclaimed objects in your collection before disposing of them.  Avril answered the question in terms of public notice BEFORE disposal.  I'm not sure, Lisa, of how to interpret your question, so I'm going to answer it a third way!  Are you asking about whether or not your institution should provide legal notice of deaccessions to the public after objects are approved for disposal?  (I think that's what you're asking!)  My answer to that question is more transparency to the public is better than less transparency.  We used to have a (rather buried) section on our institution's website where thumbnails of objects that were recently deaccessioned were found, along with very brief information about why the object was deaccessioned.  We didn't want this to become a public forum for discussion about whether objects should be deaccessioned or not.  It was merely providing factual information so the act of deaccessioning was more public without sounding alarms.
Good luck, and best regards,
Leslie Ory Lewellen

------------------------------
Leslie Ory Lewellen
Registrar for Collections
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, MN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-27-2021 03:46 PM
From: Lisa Simmons
Subject: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Hello! What are peoples' thoughts on the need for public notice or disclosure of non-profit art museum deaccessions? Newspaper article, social media post, etc.? Is it best practice or not necessary?

Thank you!

-Lisa Simmons
Associate Curator of Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art

------------------------------
Lisa Simmons
Assistant Curator of Youth and Adult Education
National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson WY
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11/1/2021 9:27:00 AM
From: Leslie Ory Lewellen
Subject: RE: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Hi Lisa,
You've received two different answers--both well though-out and useful--to two different interpretations of your questions!  Kathleen answered the question in terms of the necessity of due diligence in reaching out to try to establish legal title to unclaimed objects in your collection before disposing of them.  Avril answered the question in terms of public notice BEFORE disposal.  I'm not sure, Lisa, of how to interpret your question, so I'm going to answer it a third way!  Are you asking about whether or not your institution should provide legal notice of deaccessions to the public after objects are approved for disposal?  (I think that's what you're asking!)  My answer to that question is more transparency to the public is better than less transparency.  We used to have a (rather buried) section on our institution's website where thumbnails of objects that were recently deaccessioned were found, along with very brief information about why the object was deaccessioned.  We didn't want this to become a public forum for discussion about whether objects should be deaccessioned or not.  It was merely providing factual information so the act of deaccessioning was more public without sounding alarms.
Good luck, and best regards,
Leslie Ory Lewellen

------------------------------
Leslie Ory Lewellen
Registrar for Collections
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, MN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-27-2021 03:46 PM
From: Lisa Simmons
Subject: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Hello! What are peoples' thoughts on the need for public notice or disclosure of non-profit art museum deaccessions? Newspaper article, social media post, etc.? Is it best practice or not necessary?

Thank you!

-Lisa Simmons
Associate Curator of Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art

------------------------------
Lisa Simmons
Assistant Curator of Youth and Adult Education
National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson WY
------------------------------

Having written about deaccessioning over the years, and done it by sale and inter-museum gifting transfer, I like the idea of placing some sort of notification, probably on the museum's website (and not hidden).  I have only worked in history museums but the issue pertains to any museum that does or anticipates deaccessioning.  The legal concerns outlined by previous responders is of the utmost importance.  The implementation of a removal will vary according to an institution's practices and preferences.  Because the vast majority of controversies surrounding deaccessioning have been instigated from sources outside museums, there would presumably be good public relations effects for notifications before such action happens.  We hear a lot these days about how museums tend to be removed from community involvements.  This smacks of privilege and haughty condescension.  The accusation is accurate.  To be sure, there is a slow shift to change the perception at least.  The problems rest on defining community, and, how museums should respond to them.  Since collections define museums and make them the unique institutions they are, how these things are treated must be discussed in a far more open manner than has ever been the case.  This different way of thinking must be expressed openly when collections are deleted.  Explaining the why, how and when of subtractions offers ideal opportunities to foment meanings about a museum's work.  I will add one additional charge if public deaccession alerts are implemented, museums should give a certain amount of time for community responses.

------------------------------
Steven Miller
Doylestown, PA

Executive Director Retired
Boscobel Restoration, Inc.
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-27-2021 03:46 PM
From: Lisa Simmons
Subject: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Hello! What are peoples' thoughts on the need for public notice or disclosure of non-profit art museum deaccessions? Newspaper article, social media post, etc.? Is it best practice or not necessary?

Thank you!

-Lisa Simmons
Associate Curator of Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art

------------------------------
Lisa Simmons
Assistant Curator of Youth and Adult Education
National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson WY
------------------------------

Others have weighed in, but I will also agree that public notice is essential when deaccessioning artifacts. Our studies of trust and legitimacy illustrate that non-disclosure, no matter how insignificant, can result in direct diminishment of trust. Some museums accessioned everything, or were required to accession objects, like massive troves of confiscated ivory dumped on museums by USDA. I can't even imagine what will happen to the hundreds of Robert E Lee statues dumped in the museum's back yard. Public notice should be considered a learning opportunity to explain museum mission, best practices, issues of redundancy or collections policy shifts in priority. it is not benign, but mission central public opportunity, the last gift an object offers to a museum.  And of course, as editor of Curator: The Museum Journal, I welcome research articles on this topic for our publication.

------------------------------
John Fraser PhD
President & CEO. Knology
Editor-in-Chief, Curator: The Museum Journal (Volume 64 Issue 4 now available online)
New York NY
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-01-2021 03:49 PM
From: Steven Miller
Subject: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Having written about deaccessioning over the years, and done it by sale and inter-museum gifting transfer, I like the idea of placing some sort of notification, probably on the museum's website (and not hidden).  I have only worked in history museums but the issue pertains to any museum that does or anticipates deaccessioning.  The legal concerns outlined by previous responders is of the utmost importance.  The implementation of a removal will vary according to an institution's practices and preferences.  Because the vast majority of controversies surrounding deaccessioning have been instigated from sources outside museums, there would presumably be good public relations effects for notifications before such action happens.  We hear a lot these days about how museums tend to be removed from community involvements.  This smacks of privilege and haughty condescension.  The accusation is accurate.  To be sure, there is a slow shift to change the perception at least.  The problems rest on defining community, and, how museums should respond to them.  Since collections define museums and make them the unique institutions they are, how these things are treated must be discussed in a far more open manner than has ever been the case.  This different way of thinking must be expressed openly when collections are deleted.  Explaining the why, how and when of subtractions offers ideal opportunities to foment meanings about a museum's work.  I will add one additional charge if public deaccession alerts are implemented, museums should give a certain amount of time for community responses.

------------------------------
Steven Miller
Doylestown, PA

Executive Director Retired
Boscobel Restoration, Inc.

Original Message:
Sent: 10-27-2021 03:46 PM
From: Lisa Simmons
Subject: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Hello! What are peoples' thoughts on the need for public notice or disclosure of non-profit art museum deaccessions? Newspaper article, social media post, etc.? Is it best practice or not necessary?

Thank you!

-Lisa Simmons
Associate Curator of Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art

------------------------------
Lisa Simmons
Assistant Curator of Youth and Adult Education
National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson WY
------------------------------

The question and these responses have coincided with my thinking about writing an article: Inclusive Deaccessioning.  I would discuss why and how to invite community participation in deaccessioning.  If anyone is interested in sending along their thoughts, I would welcome them.

Thanks so much,

Steve

sh.miller2@verizon.net

------------------------------
Steven Miller
Doylestown, PA

Executive Director Retired
Boscobel Restoration, Inc.
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-02-2021 10:22 AM
From: John Fraser
Subject: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Others have weighed in, but I will also agree that public notice is essential when deaccessioning artifacts. Our studies of trust and legitimacy illustrate that non-disclosure, no matter how insignificant, can result in direct diminishment of trust. Some museums accessioned everything, or were required to accession objects, like massive troves of confiscated ivory dumped on museums by USDA. I can't even imagine what will happen to the hundreds of Robert E Lee statues dumped in the museum's back yard. Public notice should be considered a learning opportunity to explain museum mission, best practices, issues of redundancy or collections policy shifts in priority. it is not benign, but mission central public opportunity, the last gift an object offers to a museum.  And of course, as editor of Curator: The Museum Journal, I welcome research articles on this topic for our publication.

------------------------------
John Fraser PhD
President & CEO. Knology
Editor-in-Chief, Curator: The Museum Journal (Volume 64 Issue 4 now available online)
New York NY

Original Message:
Sent: 11-01-2021 03:49 PM
From: Steven Miller
Subject: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Having written about deaccessioning over the years, and done it by sale and inter-museum gifting transfer, I like the idea of placing some sort of notification, probably on the museum's website (and not hidden).  I have only worked in history museums but the issue pertains to any museum that does or anticipates deaccessioning.  The legal concerns outlined by previous responders is of the utmost importance.  The implementation of a removal will vary according to an institution's practices and preferences.  Because the vast majority of controversies surrounding deaccessioning have been instigated from sources outside museums, there would presumably be good public relations effects for notifications before such action happens.  We hear a lot these days about how museums tend to be removed from community involvements.  This smacks of privilege and haughty condescension.  The accusation is accurate.  To be sure, there is a slow shift to change the perception at least.  The problems rest on defining community, and, how museums should respond to them.  Since collections define museums and make them the unique institutions they are, how these things are treated must be discussed in a far more open manner than has ever been the case.  This different way of thinking must be expressed openly when collections are deleted.  Explaining the why, how and when of subtractions offers ideal opportunities to foment meanings about a museum's work.  I will add one additional charge if public deaccession alerts are implemented, museums should give a certain amount of time for community responses.

------------------------------
Steven Miller
Doylestown, PA

Executive Director Retired
Boscobel Restoration, Inc.

Original Message:
Sent: 10-27-2021 03:46 PM
From: Lisa Simmons
Subject: Public notice of deaccessions - yes or no?

Hello! What are peoples' thoughts on the need for public notice or disclosure of non-profit art museum deaccessions? Newspaper article, social media post, etc.? Is it best practice or not necessary?

Thank you!

-Lisa Simmons
Associate Curator of Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art

------------------------------
Lisa Simmons
Assistant Curator of Youth and Adult Education
National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson WY
------------------------------