Dear Nina,
 
Have you spoken with the staff of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian?
 
I worked as their architectural consultant in developing the Master Facilities Program for their completed Suitland Cultural Resources Center  (CRC) and their -- now under construction -- Mall Museum.  The topic of your thesis was central to that planning process.  Essentially, the construct of "public" and "non-public" museum space didn't work for their newly forming institution.  The CRC's program, building design and operating policies were developed to not only accommodate but actually welcome visitors to this facility for collections housing and related staff work areas.  The program provided for ceremonies indoors and outdoors, including those which then-typical Smithsonian practice might have precluded or made difficult -- involving smoke, ceremonial feeding of objects, artists working with artifacts, visitors working simultaneously with items from various collections -- artifacts, books, films, recordings etc.  It was also recognized that not all of the museum's constituents would come to DC or Suitland, Maryland, and that the museum would need to support substantial offsite interaction, electronic and physical, from their base at the CRC.
 
One of the NMAI planning activities whose documentation you might look at was a symposium regarding Traditional Collections Care held at the museum's inherited Bronx collections facility -- I believe in 1992.  That discussion and a related survey of tribal museums conducted by James Nason of the University of Washington, contributed to the museum's development of collections housing, care and access approach.  The Smithsonian should have written transcripts of those meetings and various related reports -- you may have to go there to see them.  Debra Nauta-Rodriguez, their architect responsible for managing the design and construction of the CRC, should be able to direct you to the right sources.
 
Good luck on your research!  Please contact me offline if there are specific questions I might answer.
 
 
Ann Trowbridge
      
 
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