[NHCOLL-L:3483] RE: Research collections being used for artistic purposes?

[CAHawks at aol.com]

I'm with you, John. Collections that are not used really do become  
"useless."  
 
Collections use becomes abuse only when collections caretakers don't take  
their responsibilities seriously. If collections staff do as you have done, then 
 the result is yet another demonstration of the incredible utility of the  
materials we hold in trust. 
 
Cathy
 
 
In a message dated 7/3/2007 12:16:02 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
jsimmons at ku.edu writes:

We allow  artists to use our collection to draw fairly often.  However, I 
have also  had experience with research collections as art on a much grander 
scale.   Several years ago, I was contacted by an artist from Dallas, Texas (named 
 Tracy Hicks) concerning a question he had about fluid preservatives.   This 
contact led to Tracy proposing to make art out of our collection of  preserved 
frogs, by making molds using a cold-casting technique.  Tracy  demonstrated 
that the technique would not harm the specimens, and worked in  our lab long 
enough to gain our confidence that his techniques would not harm  the specimens 
and that he treated our scientific collections with  respect.  A colleage 
(Prof. Marjorie Swann) and I eventually got a Museum  Loan Network grant that 
brought Tracy up to Kansas and loan of Asian frogs  down from the Field Museum in 
Chicago and resulted in a large installation  exhibit at KU.  

Tracy has been scrupulous about crediting our  institutions and stressing in 
his art that he is using scientific collections  in a new way.  What Tracy 
does, in essence, is analagous to finding a new  research technique to derive 
information from a specimen--only he derives  beauty.  Check out his 
collection-based art at www.tracyhicks.com.   It is marvelous.

I encourage you to pursue the contact with the  artist.  It can bring a whole 
new audience to your collection (as it did  to ours).  If you have seen the 
work of Rosamund Purcell or Terry Evans  (both of whom make art by taking 
photos of museum collections), then you know  what a fresh and unique viewpoint 
this can bring.  The only caveats I  have are to lay down the necessary ground 
rules to give you a margin of  comfort (for example, how the photos are to be 
credited, how the minerals are  to be handled, etc.).

The experience can be very rewarding for the  collection staff, the artist, 
and the public who benefits from seeing the  art.

--John E. Simmons
Collections Manager, Natural History Museum  & Biodiversity Research Center
and
Director, Museum Studies  Program
University of Kansas
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, Kansas  66045-7561
Telephone (785) 864-4508; FAX (785)  864-5335
jsimmons at ku.edu
www.nhm.ku.edu/herpetology
www.ku.edu/~museumst


________________________________

From:  owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu on behalf of jstolark at gmail.com
Sent: Mon  7/2/2007 3:23 PM
To: nHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:3481]  Research collections being used for artistic 
purposes?


Hello  everyone, 

I just received a call from an artist who is interesting in  using some 
pieces in our collection for some of his work.  Specifically,  he is interested in 
taking photographs of some of our fluorescent  minerals.   Since we are not a 
museum but just a research collection  attached to a University, I don't 
normally get such inquiries.  Does  anyone have any guidelines for allowing 
individuals access to research  collections for non-research purposes?  

Best,  

Jessie






Catharine Hawks
Conservator
2419 Barbour Road
Falls Church  VA 22043-3026 USA
t/f 703.876.9272



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