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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 A Curator's Viewpoint
 The state of America's collections
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| Author | Topic: The state of America's collections |
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swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 |
posted 06-01-2006 01:27 PM
  
An updated Heritage Health Index Report on the state of America's collections has been issued. The Heritage Health Index is a joint project of Heritage Preservation (the National Institute for Conservation) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (a Federal agency). It points up the precarious condition of many of the Nation's collections -- from Fine Arts to Natural History -- and how few are completely safeguarded. Selected data can be seen on their website IP: Logged |
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FWG Posts: 845 |
posted 06-01-2006 02:16 PM
swarter, thanks for that link. As an anthropological curator and active visitor to museums I can attest to the need to be concerned. All too often institutions receive donations because the owners no longer can or want to care for them - which means they don't come with funds for maintenance. And while major donors are always happy to sponsor buildings and such things that can carry their names, it's much harder to get support for conservation, preservation, cataloging and general collection maintenance. IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 06-01-2006 04:33 PM
My gut tells me this report is a serious indication of a real problem. A problem that will continue and won’t be solved with government intervention or support. This state of things only can be suitably addressed by proper long term management within the institutions and independent endowments. I often don’t agree with the methods used to develop this type report. I am not going to investigate or review their methods as my gut says that at its core the conclusion is true. Also what so often happens with this type of report is that the larger institutions end up getting the attention and the smaller institutions are let out from any benefits the report generates. What I hope would be available with such a report is an analysis of particular large and small institutions all across the nation. Along with specific near and long term recommendation for each institution. This way persons local to institutions might find a way to purposely get evolved. Also what would be helpful is for some of the “research” to result in publishing a guide for persons about volunteering, endowing and managing same. We all are aware of the well intentioned efforts of volunteering and endowments that have gone awry. Now I’ll step off my soapbox. Thanks for listening. IP: Logged |
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swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 |
posted 06-01-2006 05:11 PM
This report was developed via a questionaire distributed to known collections. I helped fill out ours and I saw nothing wrong with the methodology, except that it didn't fit too well a natural history collection, seeming to emphasize "records" over "specimens" (there was some difficulty deciding how they were using "records" - i.e., was it the record of the specimen itself, or was the specimen itself the record). IP: Logged |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 06-02-2006 08:05 AM
Welcome to my world. Conservation is not a "sexy" button for museum fundraisers to push. We certainly, as a museum, participated in that study, and I'd support the findings completely. But that doesn't solve the problem. I'd love to rail about the fact that in this country we only pretend to value our cultural heritage (Why, for example, in Malibu, one of the most wonderful examples of 1920s tiled domestic architecture in California is left to molder while celebs build crappy beach houses for millions?). But the fact is, most of Europe (with a few exceptional museums) suffers the same way. Go to any provincial museum in France and you'll see a lack of conservation that is just as depressing as in the U.S. The bottom line is that it is very costly to maintain collections, whether they be of paper, silver, wood or natural history specimens. Our government, right or wrong, can only do so much. IMLS is beseiged with requests for conservation funds (and Newark has been pretty successful recently)and they do a great deal. True, the big, prestige institutions always get more than their share of attention, because they have the "best" art...but short of forcing the oil companies to devote 10% of their profits to cultural preservation, I don't see any solution other than ongoing public awareness that will touch the hearts and minds of the very rich. Let's carry this on. IP: Logged |
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argentum1 Posts: 602 |
posted 06-02-2006 11:39 AM
I was not aware of the financial pinch until I had the following experience. In the past 1 1/2 years I donated a number of coin silver pieces to our local historical society. Within three weeks I had a message on my answering machine. They returned 2/3 of the pieces but keeping the regional pieces. Returning their call I was told there was simply no place to store/display the material. So my next donation will be a check. It may not be for much but every little bit helps. IP: Logged |
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swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 |
posted 06-02-2006 12:01 PM
There is also the matter of insurance - some old line New England churches have been forced to sell off their historical early colonial silver in part because they couldn't afford the necessary insurance! IP: Logged |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 06-02-2006 03:27 PM
For any significant institution, insurance isn't really a problem; museums enjoy special rates from insurers, because, ironically, we take better care of our stuff than most people (or at least we don't make claims very often, and we do not make claims for long-term conservation, only accidental damage that requires conservation). I would guess that the old churches who have sold off their valuable silver have realized that the silver's value far outweighs its liturgical importance, and thus it isn't worth keeping (does communion drunk from a $500,000 cup really do anything more for the soul?). When one church can generate $3million in endowment from selling a dozen pieces of "dumb old silver," who wouldn't sell it? I happen to be a church warden myself, and if we'd been sitting on all that 17th-century silver I'd have voted to sell it in a shot. IP: Logged |
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