Collection inventories are inevitable and daunting events, regardless of the type of collection you manage. This session looks at three different institutions with diverse collections: a civic art collection in the largest US County which has just completed its first baseline inventory; a cultural history museum with 1.2 million archaeological artifacts being catalogued mostly by volunteers over a five year period; and a tribal heritage center that receives and catalogues thousands of donated objects every year. MODERATOR: Clare Haggarty, Deputy Director of Collections, Los Angeles County Arts Commission Civic Art Program PRESENTERS: Angela Neller, Curator, Wanapum Heritage Center, Grant County Public Utility District; Charmaine Wong, Archaeology Collections Manager, Bishop Museum

1. Inventorying a
Civic Art
Collection
when you
don’t know
what you are
looking for.

2. Los Angeles County
est. 1850

3. Civic Art Program, est. 2004
• Civic Art Policy adopted
• 1% for civic art
• Civic Art Program
mandated to manage the
County’s art assets

4. Los Angeles County Civic Art Collection

5. Embarking on L.A. County’s first
comprehensive baseline inventory
of Civic Artworks

6. Where do we begin?

8. County Facilities
Surveyed

9. Field Registrar

10. Fire Station site visit

11. Data Collection Tools

12. Condition Reports

13. Condition Reports

14. Hugo Ballin, Medical
Sciences Fresco, 1932

15. Elena Manferdini,
Inverted Landscapes, 2015

16. Data Collection Form
For Newly Discovered Artworks

17. 825 County Sites Visited 12,696 Miles Driven
868 Miles Walked
1,575 Previously
Uncatalogued
Artworks Found
369 New Contacts Made
198 Condition
Report
Updates
Statistics

18. Chief Executive
Office

19. Probation Office

21. Sheriff Stations

22. Probation Camp

23. Public Library

24. Things we found that are not going to be accessioned…

25. Press!

26. Inventory
on the
Radio!

27. Provenance Research

28. Maintenance
Guidelines

29. Help
Departments
Recognize and
Protect County
Art Assets

30. Advocating for the care of
the Civic Art Collection

31. Clare Haggarty / Deputy Director of Collections
Mhaggarty@arts.lacounty.gov
lacountyarts.org/publicplusart

32. Integrating Collections Management and
Archaeological Research
Charmaine Wong
Archaeology Collections Manager
Bishop Museum, Honolulu

33. The Department of Anthropology
Moai kava kava, Rapa
Nui,
purchased from J.L.
Young, 1920
(Ethnology Collection)
Pearlshell fishhook,
Hane Site, Ua Huka,
Marquesas, excavated by
Y. Sinoto, 1965
(Archaeology Collection)
Repaired gourd fragments,
Kuli‘ou‘ou Rockshelter Site,
O‘ahu, excavated by K.
Emory, 1950
(Archaeology Collection)

34. Archaeology Collections
• Estimated 1.2 million objects and samples
• Just under 4,000 bankers boxes
• 58 standing cabinets
• Wide range of diversity within collections
• Includes archival material, approximately 70,000
items

35. Inventories
• T-boxes
• Artifacts
• Field documents (notebooks, forms)
• Maps
• Photographs and Negatives
• Project Reports
• Department Publications
• Reference Collections

39. Interns Spencer Lambert,
Madison Salomon, and
Stephanie Lambert

47. Interns Jacie
Kaneshiro and
Rebecca
Roelands-Keim
re-housing
artifacts and
samples
Visiting
researcher
Helen Alderson
inventorying
and re-housing
artifacts
Intern Eleanor Grams inventorying ceramic sherds

48. Interns Jacie Kaneshiro and
Rebecca Roelands-Keim with
re-housed fishhooks.

49. Research affiliate Peter Mills
with midden

55. Project Reflections
• Timing is usually never accurate
• Multitasking is a great skill to have
• Flexibility/adaptability is needed as priorities, tasks,
and deadlines evolve or change completely
• Techniques and technologies used can be simple,
reasonable, and effective
• Working with interns and volunteers can be a
challenge on large scale inventory projects
• Multiple ways to connect with various communities via
physical and digital means

56. Mahalo Nui Loa