If you’re unable to attend AAM 2013, follow us on Twitter as we live tweet throughout the entire meeting.

Thank you to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Church History Museum, and the Park City Museum for providing us giveaways for our booth!

We’re looking forward to seeing you in Baltimore!

Every workday, Maureen Bourbin, Director of Collections and Exhibits, steps all over her museum’s most important artifact. Her office is on the second deck of the USS Hornet, in what used to be the ship’s TV station room. As one of only five aircraft carrier museums in the country, this museum is its own biggest and most important object.

The entire collection is housed on the ship as well. Staff are constantly climbing up and down ship ladders, and any objects moved in or out of storage must be carried on those ladders. Even emptying a humidifier tray is a balancing act.

But for Maureen, challenges such as these are part of the unique experience of working on the USS Hornet. This was the ship that, in 1969, went to meet the Apollo 11 astronauts when they landed in the ocean after taking humankind’s first steps on the moon. One of Maureen’s favorite artifacts is an original Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) installed on the aircraft carrier’s hangar deck. Sleek like an Airstream trailer, it is very similar to the MQF that quarantined the Apollo 11 astronauts on board the USS Hornet until NASA scientists were sure they were clean of any dangerous lunar germs that might contaminate Earth.

The USS Hornet Museum is located in Alameda, California, and is an Institutional Member at the Western Museums Association. The Museum works to preserve and honor the legacy ship itself—a national historic landmark—and its role in naval aviation, United States’ defense, the Apollo Program and exploration of space. In addition to the MQF and the ship itself, there is also a Flight Avionics Flight Simulator, other temporary exhibits, as well as community events.

The Society of American Archivists (SAA) Museum Archives Section Working Group has been developing an online tool for the museum archives community to aid in the sharing of resources across institutions. Currently, the Working Group is gathering examples of forms, policies, and procedures to populate this online resource. You can view the resources that were gathered last year here.

At this time, the Working Group is trying to improve and expand this online resource to make it more useful to the museum archivist community. Based on a survey completed by Museum Archives Section members, as well as evaluative work, the Working Group has created a list of specific policies, procedures, and forms that it is trying to collect for it’s online resource. Please refer to the more detailed list, here, at the bottom of this post (here will be hyperlinked with an anchored link to the list). It is important to the Museum Archives Section Working Group that the resources selected for sharing represent different types of museums from many regions.

Once these documents are gathered, the Working Group will select examples of best practices to upload those to the SAA standards portal, as well as the Museum Archives website. All documents uploaded to the portal will be available to the public. Please note that not all of the documents that are collected will be uploaded to our site – the Working Group will be selecting diverse examples to share online.

The SAA Museum Archives Section would like to thank you in advance for your willingness to help build this valuable resource for the museum archives community.

Using the subject heading, “Museum Archives Resource Sharing,” please email submissions to melissa.bowling@metmuseum.org .

Requested Submission Documents:

• Social media policies
• Confidentiality or restriction policies
• Reader registration forms from small museums
• Collection development policies that discuss cooperative collecting
• Records management policies or manuals from non-art museums
• Records retention schedules from a public university museum
• Electronic records policies
• Electronic record retention schedules
• Mission statements or statements of purpose for non-art museums
• Preservation policies covering physical materials
• Preservation policies covering digital materials
• Processing manuals
• Standard series examples
• Consortium policies or agreements
• Space planning documents
• Disaster plans or plan sections covering digital assets
• Loan policies and forms
• Repository overviews or descriptions
• Assistant Archivist job descriptions or other job descriptions
• Oral history release agreements
• Access policies
• Digital asset management policies

2012-2013 Museum Archives Section Working Group: Barbara Austen, Pam Spriester Bell, Melissa Bowling, Rachel Chatalbash, Ryan Evans, Caroline LeFevre, Susan Miller, Dawn Sueoka, Lindsay Turley, Jennifer Whitlock, Brian Wilson

On May 25, 2013 the three-story façade of the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM), will be covered by a colossal handmade quilt comprised of thousands of “granny squares” – each individually crocheted by amateur crafters from around the world. A public art installation conceived by the group Yarn Bombing Los Angeles (YBLA) working with the CAFAM, this huge project was conceived to unite the craft community traditionally denied access to museum representation. YBLA is a collective of ‘guerrilla knitters’ staging public installations and performances since 2010. When YBLA put out the call for people to create and contribute a crocheted square for the CAFAM Granny-Squared project, never did they anticipate the massive response – 18,000 of the five-inch crocheted squares arrived over a five-month period from 50 states and 25 countries! The people donating the squares are as diverse as could be, as YBLA “Core Member” Arzu Arda Kosar explained, “We received crocheted granny squares by high-schoolers interested in the ‘handmade’ in the digital age, from seasoned crafters who have been crocheting for decades, and from others who learned to crochet just to participate in this project.” Most people submitted one piece for the project, but 50 people created over 100 squares each, with two individuals coming up with 600 pieces each. According to Kosar, “The overwhelming response to the project turned it into an organism of its own. Opening the packages, documenting and registering each square in a database, posting images on social media, sorting and storing material, and corresponding with participants online and in person became an intense full time job.”

Also developing an unexpected complexity was the fabrication and mounting of the huge quilt on the three-story façade along Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles (LA). The group originally planned to informally mount the squares onto existing hooks and protrusions from the building, with the attitude that, if the City forced the Museum to remove the crochet, this set-back would be considered part of the performance aspect of the work. However YBLA and CAFAM soon developed such a commitment to the 500 dedicated granny square donors that it became evident they would have to take the installation of the project on the building to a more professional level. Kosar explained about the extent some of the crafters had gone to donate squares: because mail from Iran is sanctioned the thirteen granny squares created by ten people in Shiraz got to the US only through a complicated exchange (through non-sanctioned locations) of hands, between suitcases, and friends of friends; a neurologist in rural Turkey had integrated the crochet project into her patients’ physical therapy; and instructors at LA’s Braille Institute had guided the hands of their visually impaired students so they could also participate. With 18,000 granny squares representing every possible worldwide story, YBLA began scrambling to raise funds to properly mount the oversized quilt per LA City building, safety and fire standards – hiring a licensed contractor and structural engineer to develop an armature to properly support the three-story afghan and provide fire retardant covering. YBLA members produced a short promotional video, successfully launched a USA projects campaign, applied for grants, and even took on some part-time jobs themselves.

When the installation is removed on July 1st, the huge quilt will be disassembled into smaller blankets for donation to the homeless residents of LA’s Skid Row.

Any WMA followers interested in helping stitch together the granny squares into the massive afghan will have the last opportunity on May 18, 2013 at CAFAM http://www.cafam.org/education.html.

Submitted by Guest Blogger, Renee Montgomery, Assistant Director, Insurance and Risk Management, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Nomenclature 3.0 for Museum Cataloging

How Can a Museum Adapt Nomenclature 3.0 to Suit its Own Needs?

While museums with specialized collections will appreciate the level of specificity they can achieve when cataloguing, not all institutions will require this level of naming. As Nomenclature points out, museums are encouraged to determine how far they want to go. Catalogers with a collection of carpenter’s planes may decide to use only the primary object term “Plane” or they may differentiate further between “Plane, Leveling” and “Plane, Grooving.”

The lexicon does not include all possible names for all possible museum artifacts. Rather than clutter Nomenclature 3.0 with multiple terms for musical instrument cases (e.g., “Case, Clarinet,” “Case, Trumpet,” “Case, Flute”), the generic primary object term “Case, Musical Instrument” is provided. Institutions with an extensive musical instrument collection can modify the lexicon by adding further specialized instrument cases as secondary terms under the generic primary term.

As long as new terms are added within the Nomenclature 3.0 framework, the reasons for adding the terms are documented, and the additions are made after careful consideration, the lexicon will function properly. When adding terms, it’s best to refer to the definitions given for the classifications and sub-classifications and to review existing object terms carefully to determine if any of them qualify as a broader term for the term to be added by the institution.

How Can You Find out More about Nomenclature 3.0?

As a way to introduce Nomenclature 3.0 to the museum public, the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) has established an online community for users of Nomenclature 3.0 for Museum Cataloging: http://aaslhcommunity.org/nomenclature/.

There, visitors can find a tutorial explaining the changes found in the third edition and keep up with the news on such issues as the lexicon’s adoption by software vendors, upcoming presentations, etc. Users can also query experts about the proper name for an object, propose new terms, and find recent updates to the lexicon.

Although many improvements have been made to meet the needs of its users and to reflect changing museum standards, Nomenclature will always be a work in progress. It is hoped that this new edition helps museums improve their data management and provides a firm foundation upon which future editions will be based.

The AASLH’s The Nomenclature Committee also invites museum cataloguers to participate in its Nomenclature Future Updates Survey. Your input is necessary to ensure that the Committee has the necessary input from users in the field.

With Registration now open for the Western Museums Association (WMA) 2013 Annual Meeting, we thought you might also want access to the Preliminary Program. The WMA Program Committee has been deciding on and preparing for the WMA 2013 sessions since January. Let me explain…

POUNDCAKEFRENCHFRIES

It was 9 degrees in Salt Lake, maybe, felt much colder,

Wintery view from the hotel

when 20 brave-hearted souls waded strong-coffee bolder.
They had 75 session proposals, all worthy of note,
sequestered themselves like castaways on a boat.

‘Twas nearly 10 hours of work, till day one was done,
and not a single person faded, no one had run.
Round the table sat a symphony of good-humored pros
from just about every imaginable station within the museum, I suppose.

We called ourselves “shepherds,” because of our action
to make each proposal succeed and gain traction.
Weighed options, added input, then watched the clock
as we gave each session our best, and boy, can we talk.

Imagine if you will, a sort of “Roundtable”
where, instead of landed gentry, sat real people, no fable.
Each opinion well versed and equally respected
at the end of the day, the votes were collected.

Using terms like “gap filling” and “session tracking,”
the Program Committee intends that no one find lacking,
a reason to learn or to connect with the like-minded,
or to explore some new place, go out, be far-sighted.

We met again, this time much less shivered
to dig through our work, a Program delivered.
Striving for balance, for clarity, and depth,
we hope our many members appreciate the breadth.

On a personal note, it has been such a pleasure
to sit round that table of so many of great measure.
Meals and drinks, filled with pints of mirth and merry
in a town like SLC where the opportunities for much never vary.

So to Art, Anne and Carrie, Clare and Irene,
working with you has been supreme.
To James and Jennifer, Jerry and Keni,
your diligence and concern will benefit many.
With Kurt, and Lorie, Louise (who will lead),
we crafted a program and did a good deed.
Margaret and Moya, Nathan and Paul,
were like long lost friends, who were not lost at all.
Sarah and Sean completed the table
where I sat with Steve Olsen, a man far more able.
Jason arranged us, made us all keep on time,
and even allowed me to publish this rhyme.

So when you see those colored ribbons attached to a name,
remember to say hello, because we’re all the same.
Committed to sharing in order to crack wise
just don’t ask what I mean by poundcakefrenchfries.

The Program Committee chose 50 sessions that are grouped into tracks including, business, careerpath/leadership, collections, visitor experience, technology, and community engagement. And like many of our roles at our institutions, these session tracks overlap. Read the WMA 2013 Preliminary Program now!

On behalf of the Program Committee, we look forward to seeing you in Salt Lake City for WMA 2013. Early Bird registration is now open until July 31, 2013. REGISTER now and save!

Steve Comba is a WMA Board member and the Co-Chair of the Western Museums Association’s 2013 Program Committee. He is also the Assistant Director/Registrar of Pomona College Museum of Art in Claremont, California.

The 2013 Preliminary Program is available! VIEW it now!

REGISTER online now and save! Early Bird Registration rates end July 31, 2013.

The official hotel of the 2013 Annual Meeting is the Hilton Salt Lake City Center. A discounted room rate of $135.00 + tax has been made available to WMA 2013 attendees. RESERVE a room online today!

WMA would like to extend a special thank you this year’s Annual Meeting Sponsors and Exhibitors. Click here to view our current list of 2013 Annual Meeting’s corporate partners.

Additionally, there are still many opportunities for companies, individuals, and museums to sponsor or participate in the 2013 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City! Click here to download the Partnership Brochure, or contact Jason B. Jones – wma(at)westmuse.org – for more information.

Register now for Early Bird rates and save!

The Hawai`i Museum Association (HMA) held its 2013 Annual Meeting on April 5, 2013 in Honolulu. The meeting was hosted at the Queen Emma Summer Palace, and 34 members attended this afternoon event.

We had a lovely location for our meeting. Hānaiakamalama, or Queen Emma Summer Palace, is a historic landmark and museum located on the Pali Highway in Nuuanu Valley. The site was a summer home and retreat for Queen Emma, her husband King Kamehameha IV, and their son Albert. Siding for the Greek Revival structure was cut in Boston and shipped to Hawai`i where it was assembled in 1848 by John Lewis, a part Hawaiian businessman. In 1860, it was sold to Queen Emma’s uncle who willed it to his niece in 1857. Although she lost her son in 1862 and her husband in 1863, Queen Emma maintained this residence from 1857 until her death in 1885. When the Provisional Government of Hawai`i threatened to build a park on the site, the Summer Palace was purchased by the Daughters of Hawaii and preserved as a historic site.

Prior the Annual Meeting, members had the opportunity to take self-guided tours through the Palace before gathering in a stone meeting hall connected to the Palace by a breezeway. The museum houses an assortment of Victorian, fusion, and Hawaiian artifacts and memorabilia that illustrate the close ties of the Hawaiian monarchs to Great Britain, as well as to Hawaiian tradition. The buildings sit on a hill overlooking a valley, and are surrounded by lawns and foliage. Once there, it is easy to understand why the high chiefs and monarchs of Hawai`i preferred to escape Honolulu’s summer heat for this beautiful, breezy location.

Topics covered during the meeting reflected some of the unique circumstances and challenges faced by museums in Hawai`i, as well as issues common to other regional organizations. Members of HMA are spread out among several islands, so cultivating diversity in the organization includes ensuring that not only the various islands are represented, but also the variety of museums and cultural organizations. Current board members come from Maui, Kaua`i, Hawai`i Island, and Oahu. Travel between islands has recently become more expensive with fewer flights per day, so bringing all of our board members or our membership together for meetings is challenging. For the same geographical reasons, upgrading and maximizing the potential of social media was also an important topic of discussion.

We capitalized on our host location by including an interesting talk by local author and historian Barbara Del Piano about the seminal role The Daughters of Hawai`i played in establishing historic preservation in Hawai`i. Originally started as a small social club whose members could all trace their origins to missionary descent, the Daughters grew to include relatives, friends, and Hawaiian elite. With a primary focus on preserving the history of important sites and correct pronunciation of the Hawaiian language, they installed the first historic plaques in the islands. When they assumed control of Queen Emma Summer Palace in 1917, they established the first historic house museum in the Territory of Hawai`i. Today these “pioneers of historic preservation in Hawai`i are now 1300 strong and manage both Queen Emma Summer Palace and Hulihe`e on the Island of Hawai’i, another retreat for Hawaiian monarchs. They also do charity work.

The meeting was adjourned with a reminder from President Jane Hoffman (from Kilauea Lighthouse on Kaua`i) that we will be starting early to plan a mini-conference at our Annual Meeting next year.

Heather Diamond is the curator at `Iolani Palace as well as adjunct faculty at the University of Hawaii where she teaches Museum Studies and other courses. She received her B.F.A. and M.A. at the University of Houston and her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Hawai`i. She is a board member of the Hawai`i Museum Association.

Big government is usually equated with bureaucracy, red tape and ineffective spending. But occasionally big government gets it right…very right. Case in point is the Heritage Music Education and Exhibition program at the William Grant Still Art Center, a bureau of the City of Los Angeles, located in the multi-cultural West Adams/Crenshaw district of Los Angeles. Currently featured at the Center is the Arkestry of the Cosmos: The Universe Language of Sun Ra, an exhibition of the archives, art, and interviews of legendary musician Sun Ra and members of his “Ark.” The exhibition is the fifth in the Still’s African-American Heritage Exhibition series, celebrating the life of African-American composers. Prior exhibitions at this community center have featured such jazz legends as Charlie Minkus, Thelonious Monk, and partners Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach.

The Still’s exemplary Heritage Music Education and Exhibition program focuses on an influential musician, opens with a related professional performance, and then utilizes the famous musician’s oeuvre as the basis for the Center’s low-cost youth music lessons. For instance, the current Sun Ra exhibition was launched in February to a SRO audience with special one-time performance of alumni from The Arkestra and other noted local musicians. Sun Ra (1914-1993) was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, and synthesizer, whose music, poetry and performances was based on a “cosmic philosophy” and quest to expand minds, music, and the souls through musical experimentation. Famous for his eclectic and quirky music and lifestyle, Sun Ra led an ensemble called “The Arkestra” – and other names as Sun Ra’s music constantly changed and grew. Music aficionados consider Ra’s influence to be great, because of his many technical music innovations and reaffirmation of music rooted in black history, mysticism and spirituality. The Center’s rollicking opening concert included former Arkestra member Dale Williams with Dwight Trible, Edwin Livingston, Bobby West, Marcus Miller and Derf Reklaw. In addition to the public music lessons, the Center supports “The William Grant Still Youth Ensemble,” comprised of local youth musicians ages 11-14, most of whom began their music education with the center as young children. The Ensemble made their public debut in 2012 at the South LA Summer Power Festival and at LAXART gallery as part of the “Made in LA” series. The Ensemble has also been learning about Sun Ra – performing on April 20-21 and again on April 26.

Featuring artwork by video art pioneer Ulysses Jenkins, Ramses, Norm Maxwell, Samuel Pace, and murals by Aise Bourne, the exhibition is comprised of over 150 rare photographs, videos, articles, important highlights from The Arkestra’s vinyl discography (33-1/3’s, 45’s, and 78’s) plus original concert posters pulled from local collections. This exhibition and integrated music program is especially relevant to neighborhood audiences seeing that Sun Ra’s first appeared in Los Angeles at the Dorsey High School Auditorium in 1969, just blocks from the Grant Still Arts Center.

The Center is named after William Grant Still, a prominent African-American classical composer and the first Black to conduct a major American symphony. Decorating the Center’s exterior is a poignant wall mural depicting Still’s opera entitled The Troubled Island.

The Sun Ra exhibition will close on April 27. The William Grant Still Arts Center is located at 2520 W. View Street, Los Angeles, CA 90016 (323) 734-1165

Submitted by Guest Blogger, Renee Montgomery, Assistant Director, Insurance and Risk Management, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Please help spread the word about the upcoming Queering the History Museum Symposium on June 8, 2013 at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle, Washington.

On June 8^th Queering The Museum Project (QTM) and the Museum of History & Industry are joining forces for the Queering the History Museum Symposium. This symposium will feature the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History based out of New York, and include a variety of breakout sessions to discuss issues of representation, inclusion and the role of museums in forming social norms around gender, race and sexuality. After the symposium we will host a reception on board the historic Virginia V steamship!

QTM is designed to be a community-based project that works to engage individuals in the administrative, historic, and creative components of museums, and this symposium is no different. We are requesting proposals from historians, artists, activists and community organizations to lead sessions during the symposium. Each session will be between 60-90 minutes in length. We welcome non-traditional session proposals that feature creative, interactive or performance-based activities.

We welcome a diverse array of presenters, including those:

• Of both Queer and non-Queer communities
• Of different levels of experience
• Both professionals and non professionals
• From community groups or individuals

In particular, the Community Advisory Committee is interested in proposals that accomplish one or more of the following:

• Feature diverse practices in historical, archive and museum work
• Incorporate performance based sessions
• Are relevant to our region and beyond
• Draw upon exhibits at MOHAI or other local museums
• Are based or supported by current research
• Stimulate and foster creative thinking
• Highlight links between the local and the global

The symposium will address themes, such as Presentation of Museums, Where’s the Queer, Future of Queer, and Community Engagement in museums.

Session proposals should include the following information:

• A 100 word description of the proposed session activities
• A 100 word explanation of why you think this session is a good fit for the symposium
• A brief biography of the session leaders
• Required equipment needs

Please submit proposals to queeringthemuseum@gmail.com by 5:00 pm on May 1, 2013.

For more information please visit our website, www.queeringthemuseum.org.

Interested in attending? Tickets are on sale, please visit MOHAI’s website to purchase your ticket today.