Description

The Coe Center (TCC) is embarking on a pilot project through which it intends to begin a comprehensive overhaul of its collections documentation through dialogues that prioritize the knowledge held by Native American source communities. Together with Native American partners–including living artists, relatives, and communities represented in TTC’s collection–project staff will begin by revising the frameworks and existing object records in the current database. Framed as a restorative process that will model best ethical practices, the work will deepen an understanding of provenance and artistic practice and reassert the authorship of Native American artists and community members. TCC see this project not only as the first step in the remodeling of their own work in data collection and archive building, but as a model for other institutions seeking to reconceive what an ethically-established collection archive should be for the communities, visitors, researchers, and scholars they seeks to serve. The proposed grant would support staff, travel and honoraria for Native partners, and costs related to new photography and digitization.