Open Forum

Hello from the Indianapolis Museum of Art -
A colleague and I are working on cleaning up records and creating a controlled vocabulary with our Pre-Conquest material. Currently we are inconsistently using creator terms and I wanted to reach out to the museum community at large to see how other institutions address this issue. We title the material in three different ways (for example Colima culture, Colima people, or Colima) within our database, but in our gallery labels we exclusively use the term culture. Our other non-Western collections overwhelmingly employ the term people(s).  All these departments were overseen previously by a single curator and my guess is that he used the terms to divide the material with a continued artistic tradition from the archaeological. This seems arbitrary especially since many Pre-Conquest cultures still flourish and we have examples of modern material, notably textiles, within the collection. I would appreciate any information on how other museums address this issue or if there are any resources you would suggest.
Regards,
Kirstin

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Kirstin Gotway
Curatorial Assistant
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Indianapolis IN
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Good morning, fellow Hoosier! 

I'd recommend contacting your local tribal leaders to get a better idea of a more appropriate term to refer to the Colima and go from there. 

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Claire Aldenhuysen
Museum Education Specialist
National Model Aviation Museum, Academy of Model Aeronautics
Muncie IN
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-01-2017 05:07 PM
From: Kristin Gotway
Subject: Culture v. People(s)

Hello from the Indianapolis Museum of Art -
A colleague and I are working on cleaning up records and creating a controlled vocabulary with our Pre-Conquest material. Currently we are inconsistently using creator terms and I wanted to reach out to the museum community at large to see how other institutions address this issue. We title the material in three different ways (for example Colima culture, Colima people, or Colima) within our database, but in our gallery labels we exclusively use the term culture. Our other non-Western collections overwhelmingly employ the term people(s).  All these departments were overseen previously by a single curator and my guess is that he used the terms to divide the material with a continued artistic tradition from the archaeological. This seems arbitrary especially since many Pre-Conquest cultures still flourish and we have examples of modern material, notably textiles, within the collection. I would appreciate any information on how other museums address this issue or if there are any resources you would suggest.
Regards,
Kirstin

------------------------------
Kirstin Gotway
Curatorial Assistant
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Indianapolis IN
------------------------------

You might want to check out the Registrars Committee Lexicon Task Force, which has been working on these issues. Here's the link to their webpage: http://www.rcaam.org/about/task-forces/lexicon/

Janice

Janice Klein
EightSixSix Consulting
Jkhm116@gmail.com

Sent from my iPad


Original Message------

Hello from the Indianapolis Museum of Art -
A colleague and I are working on cleaning up records and creating a controlled vocabulary with our Pre-Conquest material. Currently we are inconsistently using creator terms and I wanted to reach out to the museum community at large to see how other institutions address this issue. We title the material in three different ways (for example Colima culture, Colima people, or Colima) within our database, but in our gallery labels we exclusively use the term culture. Our other non-Western collections overwhelmingly employ the term people(s).  All these departments were overseen previously by a single curator and my guess is that he used the terms to divide the material with a continued artistic tradition from the archaeological. This seems arbitrary especially since many Pre-Conquest cultures still flourish and we have examples of modern material, notably textiles, within the collection. I would appreciate any information on how other museums address this issue or if there are any resources you would suggest.
Regards,
Kirstin

------------------------------
Kirstin Gotway
Curatorial Assistant
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Indianapolis IN
------------------------------

If you find a recommended answer I would very much like to hear what it is. Our collection at Seton Hall University has a similar problem of changing terminology characterizing objects from native groups. I feel like ours changes were mostly due to what was appropriate at the time the object came into our possession. Similarly to your situation the collection was organized under a single curator.

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Romana Schaeffer
Collections Manager
Walsh Gallery - Seton Hall University
South Orange NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-02-2017 10:38 AM
From: Janice Klein
Subject: Culture v. People(s)

You might want to check out the Registrars Committee Lexicon Task Force, which has been working on these issues. Here's the link to their webpage: http://www.rcaam.org/about/task-forces/lexicon/

Janice

Janice Klein
EightSixSix Consulting
Jkhm116@gmail.com

Sent from my iPad