Dear Amy, Laura, Linda and others who are interested,
In March 2013, the college Business Manager, a student intern and I conducted an inventory of all the notable displayed campus art that is the general property of the college. I entered and maintain the item records in our Past Perfect cataloging software. The 2013 inventory replaced an older spreadsheet inventory that the Business Manager had.
We first decided what we wanted to inventory. We decided it was original art currently on display, and not, for example: art department teaching pieces, posters or temporary student displays.
We photographed and measured each art item, created short descriptions and collected the following metadata when known:
Object Type, Title, Other Name, Date, Artist, Medium, Location, Appraised or Purchased Value, Provenance, and Relations to other Artifacts.
We also indexed names of associated people, such as subjects of portraits.
We created short condition reports.
The campus art pieces share the accession code (CA) and are assigned individual item numbers. The college is the default listing for the “owner” and “donor”. We share additional information on donors in notes when known. That is not the best system, but it was necessary to catalog the pieces as one accession group, as we were charged to do.
Overall, the system has worked well! We have a much greater intellectual control over campus art.
A challenge is maintaining the inventory through employee turnover and campus renovations. For example, the Business Manager with who I worked on this project has since retired. People sometimes move art or accept it on behalf of the college, not knowing of the campus art inventory. Fortunately, an art professor here, who is frequently called on to move or take custody of art pieces, knows to consult with me to update the inventory.
Another challenge is that the art department has its own repository of art, and pieces have been transferred there over the years. They do not have an index. Fortunately, our relationship is good with the art department, and we share information on campus art pieces. There has been talk of combining the two repositories into a central campus art storage area but nothing has yet happened with that project.
I hope that helps!
Stephanie
Stephanie Gardner| Library | Special Collections Librarian
Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, Va.
Office phone: 540-828-8018| online: bridgewater.edu
From: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Linda Hassell
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2019 9:33 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] campus art inventory question
I am interested to.
Linda Hassell
Cataloger/Special Collections Librarian
1 University Place
Whitaker Library
Chowan College
Murfreesboro, NC 27855
On Thu, Jan 24, 2019 at 9:30 AM Jacobson, Linda A. <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
We would be interested in this information too.
Thanks,
Linda Jacobson
North Carolina Collection Gallery
UNC-Chapel Hill
From: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Laura Russman
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2019 5:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] campus art inventory question
I would be interested in this as well! I am about to conduct a similar inventory this Spring.
Thanks,
Laura
On Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 1:58 PM Amy Rohmiller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hello,
The university archives I work in has been charged with conducting an inventory of all university owned works of art on campus. We'll have a student assistant to do most of the work. As we gear up and plan, we are wondering if anyone who has done a similar project, or any art collection inventory across multiple sites, has any insights, best practices, or lessons learned they would be willing to share.
Feel free to respond off-list to [log in to unmask].
Thank you!
Amy Rohmiller
Associate University Archivist
University of Dayton
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--Laura Russman
Curator of Collections
Instructor of Museum Studies
Schingoethe Center of Aurora University
(630) 844-7845
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Linda Hassell
Cataloging/Special Collections Librarian
One University Place
Murfreesboro, NC 27855
252-398-6586
"Old catalogers never die....they just get withdrawn from the collection."
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