Program Highlights

George Schwartz, instructor of The Meaning of Things: Interpreting Material Culture, is giving a virtual author talk on Tuesday, May 11. George, Associate Curator at the Peabody Essex Museum, will provide an overview of his book, Collecting the Globe: The Salem East India Marine Society Museum, and answer questions from the audience. George will also share selections from his work related to the exhibition In American Waters: The Sea in American Painting opening May 29.

Tara Young, instructor of Museum Education for K-12 Audiences, has edited a new book, Creating Meaningful Museum Experiences for K-12 Audiences: How to Connect with Teachers and Engage Students, which includes 25 chapters by more than 40 museum educators across the country on a wide variety of topics related to working with school groups in museums. The book, the first comprehensive volume on the subject in more than a decade, will be published in October by Rowman & Littlefield and AAM. It is currently available for preorder on the Rowman & Littlefield website.

Dana Allen-Greil, who teaches Museums and Digital Media in the fall, has been promoted to Vice President of Marketing at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The aquarium reopened May 1 after being closed for 14 months due to COVID. During its closure, the aquarium has been recognized for its use of livestreaming, online courses, Animal Crossing gameplay, Spotify playlists, and joyful parodies to keep audiences engaged and learning about conservation of the ocean.

Cynthia Robinson, museum studies director and senior lecturer, is pleased to announce that the latest issue of the Journal of Museum Education has been published online. Check out her editorial, "Thoughts on the History of Professional Development in Museums." The issue also contains an article written by Amy Briggs Kemeza, a graduate of the museum education program (G'07) and educator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, "Embracing Individualism and Encouraging Personal Style in Gallery Teaching." JME is a peer-reviewed journal.

Ken Turino, co-instructor of the Exhibition Planning and the Revitalizing Historic House Museums courses, spoke at the National Council for Public History's Annual Meeting in Hartford Connecticut on March 29, 2019. He was part of a panel, The Smithsonian Effect in Small-Town America?: "Repairing" Rural Communities through Museum on Main Street.

As part of the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall Ken Turino was part of a panel at the Stonewall 50: Defining LGBTQ Site Preservation symposium where he spoke on Queering New England's Historic Houses on April 6, 2019 at Columbia University.

Professor Andrew McClellan, instructor of Museum History and Theory, was featured in an article in Apollo Magazine titled "Museums Need to Move with the Times - That's Why Deaccessioning Isn't Always Bad News." Andrew explains how museums could make their collections more diverse and reflective of the communities they serve by securing new acquisition funds through the sale of their artwork.

Ingrid Neuman, instructor of Collections Care and Preventive Conservation, published an essay entitled "Gorham Silver Conservation Project" in the exhibition catalog Gorham Silver: Designing Brilliance 1850-1970, edited by Elizabeth Williams and published by RizzoliElectra Press.

Ingrid Neuman, instructor of Collections Care and Preventive Conservation, has just returned from attending the 46th annual conference of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works which was entitled "Material Matters" and was held in Houston, Texas where 1150 people attended. Some of the highlights included taking an all day workshop on "Oddy Testing" which is a vital test that museums perform to evaluate the quality of their exhibition and storage materials on a chemical basis. This workshop was led by a variety of conservators and a scientist from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A second workshop that Ingrid took involved learning how to remove scratches from high-gloss plastic materials which should prove to be very useful in the museum context both for accessioned works of art and exhibition materials such as showcases; also a very specialized area of expertise which was taught by European private sculpture conservators working in New York City. Dozens of concurrent lectures were focused on the conservation of paintings, sculpture, wooden objects, textiles, works of art on paper and photographs, and especially the ever evolving and challenging electronic and time-based media. Issues especially relevant to our class on Collections Care and Preventive Conservation FAH281/HIST291 were: Problematic Materials, Imaging Technology and Disaster Preparedness as well as Sustainability and Storage Tips.  At the Objects "Tips" session, Ingrid presented on a new polypropylene plastic board which may prove to be very useful in the museum field once it has been further tested and vetted by the MFA Boston which is on-going. A particularly stimulating exhibition at the The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where we had our opening reception, was one on infrared imaging of historic oil paintings which revealed artist changes during the production of the art work which are not visible to the naked eye. Next year the AIC conference, will be held at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and the focus will be Collections Care! Hopefully some of our Tufts students will take advantage of that!

The Museum Education Roundtable republished Cynthia Robinson's May museum studies newsletter entry in its blog, Read "Supreme Justice Through a Museum."

Ken Turino, co-instructor of the Exhibition Planning and the Revitalizing Historic House Museums courses, produced the documentary, Rooted: Cultivating Community in the Vermont Grange, which was directed by former Museum Studies student, Charlotte Barrett, who now works for Historic New England and Ken. The film, done in partnership with the Vermont Folklife Center, is part of Historic New England's Everyone's History community engagement project. The film had premieres in April at the two granges featured in the film, East Bethal and West Topsham, Vermont. The film will be shown at granges and community centers throughout Vermont and is being submitted to Vermont Public Television.

Tara Young, instructor of Museum Education for K-12 Audiences, presented at the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) conference on May 7, participating as a panelist in the session "Age: The Forgotten Diversity?" Tara was also selected as a Tufts University Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) Faculty Fellow for fall 2018.

Ken Turino, co-instructor of the Exhibition Planning and Revitalizing Historic House Museums courses, participated in a panel Engaging Programs = Engaging Communities at the American Association for State and Local History annual conference in Austin Texas this month along with Max van Balgooy of Engaging Places and the Seminar for Historic Administration, Christian Cotz, Director of Education and Visitor Engagement, James Madison's Montpelier and Dawn DiPrince, Director of Community Museums, History Colorado. There was a standing room only live session and then the session was repeated as a webinar which is now available on the AASLH web site. The session with this addition of Ana Nuncio of the House of Seven Gables will be offered at the NEMA annual meeting in Falmouth this October.

Ken was also the featured speaker at the AASLH Historic House Committee Breakfast where he spoke on the most exciting trends in interpretation in Britain and the US.

Ingrid Neuman, instructor of Collections Care and Preventive Conservation, was awarded a Naum Gabo Trust traveling scholarship to attend the 50th anniversary ICOM-CC (International Council on Museums - Conservation Working Group) meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. This meeting's theme was connecting the Past to the Future. Over 1000 conservators form 60 countries attended throughout the five-day conference. Included with the travel grant was the additional opportunity to visit museum collections and colleagues who specialize in the conservation of contemporary art in both Copenhagen, Malmo and Stockholm. While Ingrid was in Copenhagen, she also met with fellow international colleagues who are involved, as is she, in the Getty's APPEAR Project to create an international database on ancient Egyptian Fayum portraits which included examining 8 more portraits located in Copenhagen museums. Ingrid was also invited to visit the Royal Danish Conservation School which was a special opportunity. In Stockholm, Ingrid was able to visit the VASA Museum and plans to incorporate this unique conservation/collections care preservation effort, of this 333 year old wooden ship, into her course this spring. She reports that there is nothing like visiting our international museum colleagues, there is so much to learn and share!

Cynthia Robinson is pleased to announce a new issue of the Journal of Museum Education (42.3). The guest edited section, called "Does Museum Education have a Canon?," includes articles from museum professionals in Vienna, Copenhagen, and Oxford, as well as the U.S. The issue also contains a thought piece by Melanie Adams of the Minnesota Historical Society, on "Deconstructing System of Bias in the Museum Field using Critical Race Theory." JME is available both online and in print through Tisch Library. Cynthia is the Editor-In-Chief of JME.

Cynthia Robinson has received the 2017 John Cotton Dana Award for Leadership, presented by the Education Committee of the American Alliance of Museums. The award recognizes individuals outside the field of museum education who exhibit outstanding leadership and promote the educational responsibility and capacity of museums. Award judges noted Cynthia's commitment to helping museum educators write and publish in the peer-reviewed Journal of Museum Education, and to inspiring students to be activists who open museums to all audiences. One judge said that, "She has been a strong advocate for the educational responsibility and capacity of museums." Cynthia will receive the award at the AAM conference in May, and will participate in a panel discussion about leadership. The John Cotton Dana Award is conferred on an occasional basis, and was last awarded in 2015.