Caroline Posynick wrote:
>Is the public's (i.e. donor's) "voice"
> incorporated in the initial documentations of collections?
>
> I am interested in finding any criteria for the inclusion of the donor's
> personal interpretation/story in museum files.  I have found in my
> research that this is a priority when museums do an exhibition on the
> community, (snip). . .

When we accept a donation, the donor fills out a form regarding the history
of the donation and their relationship to the material.   This goes into the
accession's file and is certainly used by staff.  We also have an oral
history programme.  These tapes are used by staff and as part of the
Resource Centre are available for public use too.

 It seems that the oral history programme is partly driven by the material
we acquire: "Hey, that's a great collection on such and such, lets get them
to do an oral history".  "Them" might mean the donor or the
artist/organisation the collection represents.  It just depends.  Whenever
possible we will get the person talking about the material in the museum and
thus have "personal interpretation".

Much of the oral history collection, however, is material given to us, not
generated by us (a situation currently being discussed.....) so it is not
neccessarily about material we have.  ie: The interview we have with Jason
Donavan is not neccessarily about the waistcoat he donated to the
collection, because we did not conduct that interview.

We also have resesarch files (available to staff and public).  At present,
the info in the accession filie on the history of the collection is not in
the research file, should there be an appropriate one.  Perhaps that is
something we should consider, with the permission of the source.

To answer Caroline's question, at length, yes, we do have mechanisms to gain
donor's stories of what they donate.  All of that information is available
to staff and is used in exhibition research.  Not all, however, is available
to the public that access our collections for research.

Hope this helps

Claudia

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Claudia Funder
Registrar
Performing Arts Museum
Victorian Arts Centre
100 St. Kilda Road
Melbourne Australia
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