External Email - Exercise Caution
External Email - Exercise Caution
Hi Jeremy,
Like so many other institutions, we are in discussions on how we should go about identifying people, particularly in TMS. I would love to be part of the Zoom meeting as well.
Thanks,
Erica
Erica Prater, Collections Manager
New Mexico Museum of Art | on the Plaza in Santa Fe
107 W. Palace Ave, Santa Fe, NM 87501 USA
Office 505.476.5071 | Fax 505.476.5076
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Munro, Jeremy T.
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2020 12:05 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [EXT] Re: TMS Limitations - Gender identity, preferred pronouns, nationality, ethnicity
Hey Hannah,
Myself and Frances Lloyd-Baynes at Minneapolis were originally going to present at CI on this very subject. In general what we've found is the importance of identifying people
the way they wish to be identified even if your (or your standards) definition for say genderfluid doesn't match the artist or person in question and making sure that gender identity is not something that is just assumed for living persons. We envision questionnaires
to artists to ask questions like "what are your preferred pronouns" or "what is your gender identity" with options to not say.
Additionally, the Smithsonian has an intern to fellowship program and I helped several of the interns collate their work on these questions in cataloging systems into a presentation that hopefully will be at MCN later this year.
I also keep recommending the book
Data + Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein. Though the book isn't exactly about museums, many of its indictments of data oriented around capitalist/white supremacy frameworks apply to museums. The book takes an extremely intersectional approach
and really helped me think about what does a database built for and with the community of your museum look like. Its also important that museums not just focus on data and objects, but also value emotions, experiential knowledge, and people. Especially right
now where many of our institutions are making the decision to privilege objects/donor relationships over their own staff, who are being laid off in record numbers which I find personally, professionally, and morally reprehensible.
Its a really tough subject because I think museums need to be okay with realizing some people might not have entries in this field and that data questions like "how many artists" are X are always imperfect questions (and in my opinion flawed since we know the
answer - collections should have more works by historically under-represented and marginalized groups - white men have had dominance for hundreds of years there really is no way to over-correct on this).
Happy to talk more about this if you'd like - if folks were interested I'd be happy to even set up a Zoom call for people interested in these issues and creating collections databases that dismantle white supremacy rather than reinforce it.
Best,
Jeremy Munro
Database Administrator
National Museum of African Art
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users <[log in to unmask]>
on behalf of Hoffman, Kellyn L. <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2020 1:40 PM
To: ListServ tmsusers <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: TMS Limitations - Gender identity, preferred pronouns, nationality, ethnicity
Interested in hearing more about this, as we are also pondering this as well.
Best,
Kellyn
Kellyn Hoffman
Permanent Collection Database Administrator
Smithsonian American Art Museum
[log in to unmask] | 202-633-8338
[log in to unmask] | 202-633-8370
(she/her)
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users <[log in to unmask]>
On Behalf Of Hoose, Hannah
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2020 1:28 PM
To: ListServ tmsusers <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: TMS Limitations - Gender identity, preferred pronouns, nationality, ethnicity
External Email - Exercise Caution
Hello all,
I am reaching out to see what discussions other museums are having about the limitations of TMS and gaps in accurately recording gender identity, preferred pronouns, nationality (more than one), ethnicity, etc.?
We've had discussions with MoMA staff members about how the data is organized, how we can be more conscious of the way we track this information, how it is shared with staff, and then how the data pulled from the database influences other stats shared by the institution. We have now formed a working group to focus on specific blind spots in cataloguing in regards to database fields and how we report on them, context that is being left out when only sharing data and stats from TMS, and other information we should be capturing (such as gender beyond only 'male' and 'female').
Our department has had many internal discussions of the limitations and wanted to reach out to see how other institutions are addressing these issues with database organization as well as what you may be doing to remedy this - discussion groups, working with GS directly, internal working groups to share ideas and strategies, extra fields that have been added?
Thanks for your consideration! We look forward to hearing from you and continuing this discussion.
Hannah
--
Hannah Hoose
Coordinator, Collection & Exhibition Information (CEI)
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019
Tel: 212.708.9797
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