Museum Studies Commons^™

The Museum Of The Infinite Scroll: Assessing The Effectiveness Of Google Arts And Culture As A Virtual Tool For Museum Accessibility, Megan K. Udell

Master's Projects and Capstones

As technology evolves, the concept of the virtual museum continues to come into focus. Google Arts and Culture (formerly the Google Art Project) has been a leading platform in virtual exhibitions and digital collections since 2011. Arts and Culture presents itself as a democratic platform that allows any museum, regardless of size or resources, access to the same new digital technologies. However, its model tends to favor institutions with more staff time to spend on their virtual presence. By analyzing Google Arts and Culture within the context of larger museum trends in virtuality and interviewing museum professionals responsible for their …

Social Media And The Democratization Of American Museums, Valerie Wainwright

Master's Projects and Capstones

The democratization of American museums has been accelerated by societal changes caused by the development of new, multiway channels of communication created by the Internet and social media. Social media is prompting public participa- tion which has led to a paradigm shift in museology towards public engagement. The rise of vernacular creativity, especially among the younger, digitally native generations who are “curating” their identities by replicating, manipulating and sharing culture on- line, challenges the authority of the museum and curator as arbiters of culture. This paradigm shift also broadens the definition of authenticity from the object to the au- thentic …

The Destruction Of Unesco World Heritage Sites Aleppo And Palmyra In Syria Due To Civil War: Accessioning And Cataloging The Satellite And Drone Imagery Into A Museum Collection, Colette P. Militello

Master's Projects and Capstones

This Museum Studies capstone will discuss the civil war inside Syria, and the destruction of UNESCO World Heritage Sites Aleppo and Palmyra. This paper will examine the historical importance of these sites, and the drone and satellite imagery data used to confirm the destruction. This paper will argue that for full preservation of these cultural heritage sites that this imagery data should be accessioned into a museum collection with the use of professionally-trained registrars. This paper will explore this idea further by arguing that this imagery data collected by companies and governments should be handed over with full copyright to …

Employing Natural History Collections In The Aid Of Conservation: Streamlining An Approach To Model Species Distributions En Masse For The Preservation Of Biodiversity, Alice Fornari

Master's Projects and Capstones

Using species distribution models (SDMs) in Natural History Collections (NHCs) can influence how humans implement conservation changes in flora and fauna communities and ecosystems. Through the use of legacy data (old NHCs and their associated locality/collection information), data correction (background data or pseudo absences added to presence-only data), and the SDM software, Maxent (and its associated geographic information systems or GIS projected models), it has been shown that it is feasible to create a low budget protocol/setup to project the past, present and future of species population changes. This has been done in the past few decades as more collections …

Asian America And Empathy: Understanding The Chinese American Experience Through The Art Of Flo Oy Wong, Brienne Wong

Master's Projects and Capstones

This capstone examines how the work of Chinese American artist Flo Oy Wong could be an impetus for dialogue for creating empathy for the Asian American experience. The capstone briefly discusses Chinese American history as the Chinese are one of the earliest immigrant groups to the United States and Asian American art history which demonstrates the role of art for Asian Americans. It also describes the importance of empathy in society and how some museums today are trying to apply empathy to serve their communities. Within this framework, I discuss artist Flo Oy Wong whose ability to tell stories about …

Renouncing The Universal Museum’S Imperial Past: A Call To Return The Rosetta Stone Through Collaborative Museology, Anna Volante

Master's Projects and Capstones

In colonial times, Western empires used orientalism to justify and perpetuate colonialism and imperialism over countries that they believed inferior to their own. These imperial powers plundered cultural heritage artifacts from the nations they oppressed and took these objects back to their national museums to be displayed as trophies of subjugation. The ownership of cultural heritage remains a point of contention throughout the field of museum studies. Despite cries for repatriation, these artifacts continue to be housed in universal museums today. One of the most well-known cases is that of the Rosetta Stone, stripped from the city of Rashid, Egypt …

Homeward Bound: The Struggle Senior Dogs Face To Find Their Fur-Ever Homes, An Exhibition Proposal, Natalia Chavez

Master's Projects and Capstones

For this capstone project, I created a proposal for an exhibition centering around animal rights that focuses on the rights of senior dogs in United States animal shelters. Homeward Bound: The Struggle Senior Dogs Face to Find Their Fur-Ever Homes intends to raise awareness of the difficulties senior dogs face in being adopted from animal shelters, while promoting individuals to be active and engaged participants in actions to support the needs of senior shelter dogs.

Senior dogs have the highest probability of euthanasia in shelters.[1] Shelters and rescue organizations provide much needed assistance to senior dogs, supporting their …

Nonprofit Hiring And Retention Practices And The Representation Of Women Of Color In Museum Leadership, Breanne Batara

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

This museum studies capstone project centers on the nonprofit hiring and retention practices with an emphasis on the lack of representation of women of color in museum leadership. The literature review encompasses peer-reviewed literature on nonprofit leadership and management and peer-reviewed literature from the museum field as well as secondary sources that encapsulate anecdotal sentiments on this issue. I propose a comprehensive recruiting program that would take place in museums in Oakland, California as one step to attracting people of color, and specifically women, to the museum field.

Keywords: Diversity, Gender, Hiring, Human Resource Management, HRM, Inclusion, Minority, Museum …

Achieving Access: Designing A Museum Accessibility Consulting Firm, Lauren J. Garnese

Master's Projects and Capstones

This capstone paper explores the need for an accessibility consulting firm to help museums and cultural institutions implement Americans with Disabilities Act policy adherence, universal design and accessible programming that increases the inclusion of people with disabilities in their organizations. The paper begins with a literature review that synthesizes the history of disability legislation and its relationship to museums, explores how museums can go beyond legal compliance and discusses the infrastructure suggested to implement accessibility efforts in an institution. The paper then proposes a project to create an accessibility consulting firm that assists museums in achieving their accessibility goals and …

Creating Exhibits For Small History Museums On A Limited Budget, Annveig Bugge

Master's Projects and Capstones

In this capstone project, I study the process of developing an exhibition for small history museums. Working with the Treasure Island Museum, a small history museum in San Francisco, I explore the different options for developing exhibitions for small history museums, with small budgets, in contrast to the more well funded practice that larger museums have the opportunity to produce. For museums, exhibits are the media used to communicate with visitors, and it is important to install new ones regularly. Being limited by budget and staff constraints this can be a challenge, but I argue that the benefits from the …

Hidden Museum: A Behind-The-Scenes Tour For Contemporary Audiences, Michael B. Glazier

Master's Projects and Capstones

The mystery of what lies behind a museum’s closed doors has intrigued visitors and perpetuated museum mythology for decades. Whether it’s peeking into collections storage, or being guided through rooms off the exhibition floor, visitors want unique access to museum collections. This Master’s Capstone project investigates the topic of behind-the-scenes tours within museums, asks what they look like today, and how they will develop in the future. Using this research I have created a project proposal to film a behind-the-scenes tour that will solve questions of public visibility and collection access for a San Francisco area history museum. A successful …

Riding The Wave: How The Philanthropic Revolution Will Impact Museums In The United States And Canada, Sarah M. Mackey

Master's Projects and Capstones

This capstone project explores the history of philanthropy from 1970 to the present, and presents a strategy for museums to leverage contemporary trends in nonprofit giving. The methods proposed in this project are specifically targeted at engaging new community leaders and the family members of legacy donors. I have researched and created an updated job description and hiring plan for a Transformational Gift Officer. This person would be responsible for identifying, cultivating, and stewarding the donor portfolio outlined in this project. The individual who will be successful in this role will be able to move past institutional silos and collaboratively …

Model Behavior: Using Photogrammetry For Collections Storage Planning, Katherine Sundra

Master's Projects and Capstones

Proper and efficient collections storage is often a challenge for museums. As collections outgrow their facilities, institutions struggle to find additional space, often resorting to hasty moves of their objects into ill-fitting placements. A large-scale collections move is a slowgoing process, requiring manual measurement and countless trial-and-error sessions. An unnoticed support beam, a low entryway, or uneven flooring can derail even the most well-planned collections move, costing an organization unexpected additions in time and labor expenses. Advancements in emerging technologies, however, may soon eliminate this problem. This capstone explores the use of photogrammetry and 3D modeling to plan a collections …

Collections Management Systems At Natural History Museums: A Centralized Approach, Allison M. Pohl

Master's Projects and Capstones

Natural history museum collections are an invaluable learning tool for audiences of many ages. However, learning experiences can be hampered if collections are poorly managed. Inconsistent object numbering systems, scant information associated with a specimen, and differences in records management styles of individuals in the same organization all stem from the lack of collections management standards set forth by some institutions. Natural history museums historically manage their collections in a decentralized manner, with each collections department responsible for its own objects, managing records as the staff sees fit. This report advocates for the unification of collections in natural history museums …

Increasing Access In Art Museums: Teen Programming For English Language Learners, Lindsey C. Stoll

Master's Projects and Capstones

The following paper discusses the need to increase access for English Language Learners (ELLs) and recent immigrant teens in contemporary art museums through the implementation of participatory programming. This capstone project proposes a teen council program for English Language Learners and recent immigrants at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, CA, and was created with the following goals in mind: (1) to increase access for ELL and recent immigrant teens in art museums, (2) to increase participatory programming for ELL and recent immigrant teens, and (3) to foster meaningful relationships between ELL and recent immigrant teens and museums. The …

The Museum Wiki: A Model For Online Collections In Museums, Morgan Schlesinger

Master's Projects and Capstones

Museums increasingly use the Internet, digitization, and social tagging to publicize their collections in online databases. However, these online collections museums frequently lack contextual and interpretive information that objects require to be understood by the general public. Other sources, such as Wikipedia, consistently deliver more in-depth information on artworks than museums. The Museum Wiki proposes a solution for the Museum Studies field to address this information gap by emulating Wikipedia’s framework of interlinked articles for online museum collections. Additionally, this model raises the online visibility of these collections by editing relevant Wikipedia articles with information from articles written for …

Passive Radio Frequency Identification (Rfid) And Museum Collections, Owen Kinser

Master's Projects and Capstones

Keeping a collection organized and accounted for is a never-ending struggle for museums of every type. New to museums and the collections management field, Radio Frequency Identification is a growing technology that museums can implement to keep track of the location, status, condition, and movement of their objects. Objects are labeled with RFID “tags” which enable them to communicate custom information to a reader and ultimately a database. This implementation would save time, money, and stress among collections staff members. Using the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas, as my subject museum, I propose implementing a pilot …