Photographing and Creating Access to Collections of Global Art and Culture at the Spencer Museum of Art

FAIN: PW-50797-11

University of Kansas, Lawrence (Lawrence, KS 66045-7505)
Saralyn Reece Hardy (Project Director: July 2010 to September 2014)

Cataloging of up to 5,800 ethnographic objects including ceramics, baskets, and other Native American materials from North America at the Spencer Museum of Art.

In 2007, the University of Kansas granted stewardship of 9,000 objects of global art and culture, collected continuously since 1890 as ethnographic objects, to the Spencer Museum of Art (SMA). We seek $349,978 from NEH to hire temporary personnel and purchase equipment and supplies to (1) complete our efforts to accession these objects into SMA's 27,000-object permanent collection; (2) collect data and carry out limited research to provide contextual information; and (3) photograph the objects. The resulting information and visual documentation will be freely accessible via the Museum's searchable online database. The proposed project will consolidate, standardize and augment existing object records, and create publication-quality photographs, thus greatly enhancing the collection's research potential; it will also broaden the Museum's ability to interpret and display for the benefit of diverse audiences, exceptional, little-known objects representative of our worldwide heritage.