Get to Know the Presenters for Gallery Systems’ Premier Collections Management Conference
Ready to say hello to our Collective Imagination 2021 speakers? The wait is over. You can now browse our CI 2021 speakers list and their planned presentations, with additional speakers still to be announced.
This year, Collective Imagination’s seminars are happening from November 17 to 19 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in the stylish Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. We have an exciting array of international presentations lined up, focusing on everything from championing social dialogues within museums to mastering the intricacies of the TMS Suite.
Scroll down to see some of our much-anticipated talks, or open the full Collective Imagination 2021 speakers list. We hope you’ll join us in Washington!
She/He/They/Us: The Intersection of Museums, Documentation, and Identity Politics
Frances Lloyd-Baynes, Head of Collections Information Management
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Jeremy Munro, Database Administrator
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art
As identity politics dominate social dialogue, audiences are challenging museums to express a wider diversity of humanity and lived experience than ever before. We are called out to know ourselves, share our hidden histories, and acknowledge our complicity in forging and supporting white supremacy culture. To move from being part of the problem to part of the solution, museums must up their game. This includes adopting new approaches to documenting and communicating artist/creator identity and expression, and giving voice to individuals often marginalized by historically white cultural institutions.
Our speakers will explore identity politics and intersectionality, diving into the challenges inherent in both capturing a complex data set built around identity and making this information accessible to internal stakeholders and external audiences. Using the example of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, they will address ethical and respectful methods of collecting, standardizing, and expressing data developed in partnership with artists/creators; sharing this data in thoughtful ways; and in capturing and conveying a more nuanced data set to museum audiences, offering attendees tools and ideas on which they can build.
Help Me Help You: Managing Change in a TMS Implementation and Beyond
Adele Barbato, Collections Information Manager
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Kimberly Koons, Chief Museum Registrar & Museum Collections Officer
Presidential Library Museums, National Archives
The cultural and technical change heralded by a TMS implementation is not to be underestimated. Continuing evolution on both the institutional and technical fronts demand proficiency in change management, including facilitation and mediation skills, knowledge of project management, information science acumen, and the ability to think years and decades into the future.
This panel will offer methodologies, tools, and insights for implementing and sustaining intentional and strategic change management, using examples from projects under way at two different types of institutions—the museum programs of the National Archives and Records Administration (TMS for Windows, eMuseum, TMS Collections), and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (TMS Collections, TMS Conservation Studio)—to demonstrate lessons learned, and dynamic areas for ongoing conversation and investigation.
Conservation Studio at the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Rob Morgan, IT Specialist in Data Management and Systems Administration
Smithsonian Office of the Chief Information Officer
Rob Morgan will explore how the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) has configured TMS Conservation Studio for their institution. Included will be examples of their data entry views and related reports, e.g., a Condition Assessment, Treatment Proposal, Treatment Report, etc., and a presentation of how the NMAAHC is utilizing Conservation Studio to document the preservation of its collections.
From Paper to Pixels: Using TMS to Record Due Diligence Checks
Hugo Brown, Collections Information Officer
The National Gallery
The National Gallery uses both TMS and paper-based documentation to manage the provenance and due diligence processes for acquisitions and loans. Hugo will share a project to reconfigure TMS 2016 R2 to fully computerise these processes, introducing Flex Fields to manage the workflows and ensure accountability, and improve Crystal Reports to output the completed checklists and new TMS guidance and training to embed the new procedures.
Hugo will also discuss the successes, challenges, and reception of the project, including how it has informed work to re-configure the Exhibitions module and how TMS and Crystal Reports withstood the challenges of the project.
Time-Based Media at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: A Collections Survey Case Study
Kacie Rice, Assistant Registrar, Incoming Loans
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
As the Museum has increased its acquisition and exhibition of time-based media (TBM) in recent years, the Registrar’s office at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, saw the need to perform a collections survey of its existing TBM collection, which dates to 1963 and includes film, video, audio, kinetic, and software-based art. The collection had historically not been catalogued consistently, and as a result, the MFAH was lacking data on the types of media it owned and its condition. Goals for the survey included creating and implementing effective numbering and tracking techniques, modification of storage facilities, and updating documentation procedures for acquisition and installation, including integration of this information with TMS.
The MFAH team worked within the TMS software to record their gathered data and make it accessible institution-wide, as well as to robustly track multiple components of TBM objects using the Components feature. Their intention is that this survey will be the first step in creating a comprehensive conservation plan for their TBM catalog, and that the use of TMS to record data will simplify workflow into the future. Kacie’s presentation covers a specific solution for the special needs of technology-based collections and will address how the TMS software can be used to track and maintain complex collections.
We can’t wait to welcome you to Collective Imagination 2021 in Washington, D.C. Visit the event’s website for more information.
