At the National Portrait Gallery (DC), we enter this information exclusively as a constituent term attribute with the term type “Cultural Affiliation”. This way, the terms are controlled, and we can enter multiple terms for sitters and artists who cross cultural boundaries. We have over 103,000 constituents b/c of all of our sitters and our Catalog of American Portraits research records, and it would be impossible for us to do the necessary research on citizenship to be 100% accurate.

Sue Garton

Data Administrator

Center for Electronic Research and Outreach Services

National Portrait Gallery

(202) 633-8554

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From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Essam, Gillian
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 8:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Culture, Constituent or Both

Hi Ashley,

I have continued a data standard inherited from our printed Complete Illustrated Catalogue whereby anonymous works are linked to a generic Constituent record for the relevant geographic school e.g. ‘French’. Because the collection is rich in works of the Italian school we also specify the city here e.g. ‘Italian, Florentine’. In this way the school is always clear even in a simple attribution and title listing e.g. an image caption. It also helps users to search for the work in A-Z artist browse lists.

We also repeat the school in Culture field for all works, anonymous or not; this field is used or internal purposes only at present.

Gillian Essam

Collection Information Manager

The National Gallery

Trafalgar Square

London

WC2N 5DN

Tel: +44 (0)20 7747 5243

Fax: +44 (0)20 7747 2472

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From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Burke, Ashley
Sent: June/24/2010 12:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Culture, Constituent or Both

Hello TMS Users-

I have a question for you all regarding the preferred placement of culture in TMS.  Although there is a field for culture, I notice quite a lot of people will also insert the culture into the constituent field. For example, an Italian work that is unknown would have Italian in the culture field and then under constituent (object related) would be Unknown, Italian.  What is the best option, culture only or both?  One of my thoughts is that it might actually be better to have it in both places for exportation purposes. I would love to hear what other people are doing and the reasoning as to why you would choose one over the other.

Thanks!

Ashley

Ashley Burke

Associate Registrar

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

5401 Bay Shore Rd.

Sarasota, FL 34243

941-359-5700 ext. 1504

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