We use nationality independent of object culture, though with known
artists, we leave the object culture field blank as the assumption is
the culture of the object is the culture/nationality of the maker.
There are some exceptions for this, but generally, we count on the
object geography to cover the details.  We use the pick-list search for
Nationality also; it simplifies things for users but slightly
complicates things for me.

 

This dual-nationality is definitely an artist-by-artist decision for us,
and distinguished from the "born in" and "active in" that we use
elsewhere--I wanted an alternative to that and now I have it!  I think
"American and French" is most straightforward and accurate in this
particular case.

I shall celebrate the word "and" like I'm on Sesame Street.

 

Thanks everyone for the input; I knew I could count on you guys to have
my back!

 

______________________ 
Jessica Milby 
TMS Systems Manager 
Philadelphia Museum of Art 
Phone: 215-684-7283 
Fax: 215-235-0035 
[log in to unmask]

 

________________________________

From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Ryan Donahue
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 4:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: dual-nationality

 

If you're not going to be doing anything but duplicating the contents of
nationality in the culture field, you probably ought not be doing it
then.

 

Essentially, you're de-normalizing the data.. Something one should avoid
doing unless performance reasons dictate it.

 

Sure, the culture may be the same as the nationality of the maker in 99%
of the cases, but if, by your business rules, it has to, then problems
can arise based on that assumption.  (There's also no easy way to
enforce that rule, outside of customizations).

 

Different fields, same domain (likely), different values.

 

All of this, of course, IMO.

 

Ryan Donahue

Manager of Information Systems

George Eastman House

International Museum of Photography and Film

 

[log in to unmask]

585.271.3361 ex386

 

 

On Aug 31, 2009, at 4:41 PM, Aylsworth, David wrote:





We use the past tense version "American, born Sweden", and try to be
fairly consistent with it.

 

But I've got a related question:  Does this affect what you consider to
be the culture of the object, then?  We made an almost arbitrary
decision that the culture of the object had to match the nationality of
the artist.  We use the geography fields to denote where the object was
made.  Alfred Stieglitz only makes "American" objects, even when he has
taken pictures in France

 

This hasn't been completely satisfactory, as we have British
photographers who have worked all of their lives in Japan, but who have
maintained their British nationality.  Should these be considered
"British" pictures or "Japanese"?  Putting "British and Japanese" as the
culture seems a little strange.

 

David

 

From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Moxley, Jeri
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 3:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: dual-nationality

 

Our standards include both options, on an artist-by-artist basis,
regularly reviewed for consistency by my department, and reviewed by
curatorial chiefs once or twice a year.

 

For example, we have both:

American, born Sweden

American and Swedish

 

Jeri

 

Jeri Moxley

Manager, Collection and Exhibition Technologies

Collection Management and Exhibition Registration

The Museum of Modern Art

11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019-5497

Tel. (212) 708-9599 Fax. (212) 333-1102

 

 

 

From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Milby, Jessica
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 4:24 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: dual-nationality

 

Hi folks...apologies if we've covered this recently...

 

Has anyone determined a standard for recording the nationality for
artists who are citizens of two countries and need to be noted as such?
We usually say for instance "American (born France)" but I have an
inquiry from a curator wanting the artist's display name to include a
dual nationality without the pesky past tense.

 

Thanks,

Jessica

 

______________________ 
Jessica Milby 
TMS Systems Manager 
Philadelphia Museum of Art 
Phone: 215-684-7283 
Fax: 215-235-0035 
[log in to unmask]