#ARCSChat Podcast

This episode features guest co-host, Samantha Forsko, Vice President of the ARCS Board, and four members of the IDEA task force (Co-Chair Renee S. Anderson, Ph.D. [she/her], Shiori Oki [she/her], Janet Chen [she/her], Tiffany Charles [she/her]).

In this discussion we explore the themes of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion within our field, discuss the creation of the ARCS IDEA task force and their work to date, as well as the future of the IDEA group.

For more information of the IDEA task force, its members, and its work, please follow the attached link: https://www.arcsinfo.org/content/documents/arcschatmarch2021descriptionbios.pdf

Couriers are the moment's big unanswered question sitting on the tips of the tongue of museums all across the world. We dared to tackle it in December, but ended up with an onslaught of questions and ran out of time. As a result, we return in this podcast with a special "Ask Me Anything" episode designed specifically to answer audience questions directly from our listeners. 

To help address your questions, we brought in two experts from the great windy city:

Cayetana Castillo, the Executive Director Collections and Loans at the Art Institute of Chicago

Tiffany Charles, the Head of Exhibitions Registration at the Field Museum in Chicago

Resources discussed in the podcast are linked below:

As we begin the new year, #ARCSchat continues with the second part of our "Career Perspectives" series by talking to those just beginning their careers. Thus, we will chat with several emerging museum professionals about how they got into the field, and see if the year 2020 talked them out of it! More importantly, we'll see how their generation views the profession of collections stewardship and discuss their perspectives regarding its future.

Joining for the talk are Baylee Hughes from the Denver Museum of Natural Science, Michelle Kennedy from the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City, Carolyn H. López from the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in Los Angeles, Elizabeth Denholm, Associate Registrar at the Delaware Art Museum, Sophia Brocenos, Assistant Registrar at the National Portrait Gallery, and Rachel Smith, Collections Assistant, Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, City of Waco.

Deaccessioning is not new but it has reached new levels of controversy in the current state of economic hardship facing our institutions at the moment.  In the first episode of Season 5 of the podcast Revisionist History titled “Dragon Psychology 101”, Malcolm Gladwell asks the question, ”Why not just sell something to pay the bills?” and proposes that museums are just hoarding if they refuse to sell amidst trying circumstances that result in mass layoffs and financial hardship.

#ARCSchat has solicited the help of two experts to react to the episode and directly address this challenging question. Robin Cooper, the Manager of Curatorial Affairs at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, joins to represent the curatorial and cultural interests at play. Nicholas O’Donnell, Partner at the law firm Sullivan & Worcester in Boston, who argued on behalf of the museum membership in the now landmark Berkshire Museum deaccession case and recently presented in front of the US Supreme Court will provide legal insight. 

#RevisionistHistory

(@pushkinpods)

(@Gladwell) 

Episode homepage and audio link

http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/42-dragon-psychology-101

"Fire, water, and government know nothing of mercy." – Proverb