Developing a Resilient Colorado Curation Model: The Innovative Solution to Addressing the State’s Collections Care Needs

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Colorado was for many years the center of a curation crisis. In response, Colorado relied on the establishment of somewhat informal partnership institutions such as (Universities, small local museums and local regional repositories) that have now been strengthened by creating rules and procedures that have allowed turnkey, scalable, politically neutral, regional solutions to the State’s archaeology and natural history specimen’s care needs. The State of Texas Curatorial Facility Certification program served as the legal framework model that was modified and applied to Colorado. Instead of a separate certification program, however Colorado relies on national and regional museum “accreditation” and assessment programs to build resiliency within the curation network. The network also hopes to expand the ability for repositories to obtain trained volunteer assistance as well as museum studies students and offer opportunities to museums to obtain grants for re-housing or interpretation. The end goal then is a program that is beneficial to all parties, as it strengthens local museum’s collections care, their access/use and helps to promote a greater appreciation for existing collections.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 30891