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Dear All (particularly those of you who so kindly responded to this straw poll), Apologies for not sharing the responses with everyone. (I thought I had, but evidently not.)

The results of the this poll on gender data capture are attached. For those who responded, we seem to be erring on the side of caution regarding the documentation and sharing of information on an artist's gender and sexuality. In my personal opinion, we will likely need to address this documentation issue more directly in future. It is not likely to go away.

Since sending out the poll I've been doing some reading on the subject and have come away with more questions than answers. For example, in addition to capturing basic biological sex (man/woman/intersex), should we also aim to capture gender identity (transgender/cisgender) and gender expression (gay, lesbian, etc.)? What kind of language should we use? I recently discovered the Homosaurus vocabulary tool, but have not looked at it deeply enough to have a good sense of its contents. I also don't know how 'authoritative' it is considered. It does look a lot more detailed than we want to go, however.

We recently had someone from Outfront Minnesota give a workshop at Mia on 'LGBTQ Equity and Inclusion' that was very helpful. The woman who delivered it is a trained lawyer. She offered to give us advice on the questions we have. I've written to her and am hoping to be able to share her response with everyone when it comes in. The questions I asked are below, in case you're interested.

I know this topic will be one of interest to many as we continue to grapple with how to document our collections and their creators in an appropriate and sensitive way. I'll share whatever I learn and would love to hear from more of you on your approach as well.

All the best,

Frances

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My questions:

How do we sensitively capture the information we want without offending or misrepresenting artists?

What level of detail should we go to in doing so? Do we capture Biological Sex + Gender Identity + Gender Expression?

I automatically assume that our goal should be to let living artists determine how and if they are documented. Should we attempt to contact them all, though? Or is it safe to rely on some (self-?)published source (and if so, which sources are reliable)?

For non-living artists what would be the best approach to discover and capture this information?

We need to use appropriate, consistent language in our descriptions, so what words are best for each of the 'categories' above? (I recently discovered the Homosaurus, but am not sure if this is widely accepted as 'authoritative'.)

Is it better not to display this information on our collections website, but to make it searchable? or should we only give out the information if we are asked directly?

And when should we not capture this information at all?

On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 2:30 PM, Frances Lloyd-Baynes <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi All,

I was hoping to get some quick feedback from the group about the capture of gender for object-related constituents. If you wouldn't mind answering the following questions, I'd very much appreciate it. (It's in response to a query from my director, who is writing an article.)

1. Do you record a 'Gender' for your Object-related Constituents (i.e. artists) in TMS? (y / n)

2. If yes, have you adopted a more extensive term list for gender identity than the traditional male / female? (y / n)

3. Do you assign a gender term only based on an individual's self-assignment? (y / n)

4. Is your recorded artist gender data for internal use only? (y, n or n/a)

5. If it's published online, can website users search or filter your collections by gender? (y, n or n/a)

Thank you for your input! I am happy to share the overall results with the group if you are interested. If you would prefer that your responses remain anonymous, just let me know.

All the best,

Frances

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Frances Lloyd-Baynes | Content Database Specialist
Minneapolis Institute of Art
2400 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404

612-870-3189 | [log in to unmask] | www.artsmia.org

Frances Lloyd-Baynes | Content Database Specialist
Minneapolis Institute of Art
2400 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404

612-870-3189 | [log in to unmask] | www.artsmia.org