Tag Archives: Rainey Tisdale

Can You Tackle Today’s Tough Topics in a Garden?

200731_Longwood_Graduate_Program_Symposium_Fochs_Mackenzie-2_0This year’s Longwood Graduate Program Symposium will examine that issue with a top-notch series of nationally-recognized speakers on Friday, March 4, 2016 at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.  They’ve laid out a challenging agenda for dealing with topics such as environmental action, civic responsibility, and the evolution of public gardens as community assets. Here’s their description:

Public gardens and cultural institutions are centers of community, science, and art. Today’s society is often overwhelmed with debates in all of these areas. In a world where misspoken words amplify in a matter of minutes, how can institutions tactfully open discussion on today’s difficult topics? When and where do they provide research, resources, and opportunities to interact with new or contested ideas?

Sessions include: Continue reading →

Looking to Improve the Deaccessioning Process at Your Site?

collections avalancheThe Active Collections group is developing a new model to streamline the deaccessioning process, but they need information about current practices at house museums and historic sites to figure out how to best go about this.  If you’d like to share what’s happening at your institution as well as your thoughts on the process and impact of decessioning, please take their online survey.  This is part of a field-wide survey, so we really want to be sure historic sites and house museums are well represented.  To learn more, visit ActiveCollections.org.

Hot Topics in Collections Management Tackled in St. Paul

The annual meeting of the American Association for State and Local History always covers a diverse range of topics, but collections management is certain to be among this.  This year in St. Paul was no exception and three very different projects caught my attention.

"Deteriora and the Agents of Destruction" by the Indiana Historical Society.

“Deteriora and the Agents of Destruction” by the Indiana Historical Society.

In a poster session, Tamara Hemmerlein shared Deteriora and the Agents of Destruction, a publication of the Indiana Historical Society.  Presented as a “living graphic novel,” it informs readers about the various ways to preserve collections from light damage, pests, dust, and mishandling (represented by such villians as Ultra Violet, Mass-O-Frass, and Miss Handler) and includes links for additional information.  I’m not sure of the intended audience, but it’s a lot more fun than reading a collections management policy.

collections avalancheChatting in the hallway, Continue reading →