Collections Care

sample application

PROJECT SUMMARY

Project Title

Sea Mar Community Health Centers
Sea Mar Museum Policy Development Project

Short Description

Set to open in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood by the spring of 2019, the Sea Mar Museum of Chicano/a/Latino/a Culture is in need of professional consultation to assist in the development of effective collections management policy and procedures. This professional consultation will allow the museum to adhere to standard collections care and management practices to preserve and stabilize well over 1,000 artifacts, photographs, film and video collections, manuscripts and oral histories from further deterioration so they can be shared with communities throughout King County, Washington, and the Pacific Northwest.

Project Venue Notes or Comments

The museum’s address is currently under construction but completion for the four-year construction project is expected to be reached by early fall of 2018. The venue will house the Sea Mar Museum, a community center, and a pediatric clinic.

NARRATIVE

Project Description

Over the last decade, Sea Mar Community Health Centers and numerous leaders of the community have conceived, planned, and implemented preliminary administrative, curatorial and construction phases for the development of a long-lived dream to open the Sea Mar Museum of Chicano/a/Latino/a Culture. The museum’s construction phase expects to be completed by early fall of this year and the museum itself sets to open by the spring of 2019. Retired Ethnic Studies professor of the University of Washington- Dr. Erasmo Gamboa- has overseen curatorial efforts for the Sea Mar Museum over the last several years. His efforts have led to the acquisition of a wide range of artifacts centralized and
stored at Sea Mar’s company warehouse. As construction phases for the museum facility is completed, these artifacts along with photographs, video and film collections, manuscripts and oral histories will begin to be transported by Sea Mar staff to be stored or permanently installed for exhibition display at the museum facility by the month of December 2018. To date, Sea Mar staff has inventoried and cataloged 233 artifact objects and 850 photographs into the museum’s PastPerfect collections management software, for now omitting larger museum objects, additional museum items held in temporary custody, and future items to be acquired by the museum. Through ongoing development of the collection, the stories of migrant farm-working families establishing themselves in the region throughout the second half of the 20th century as well as University of Washington Chicano students’ participation in the Civil Rights Movement will come to life and be shared with King County and throughout Washington state.

Currently undergoing the process of shifting priority from construction needs to the preservation and development of the museum’s collection and the assessment of how the museum will function administratively upon opening, the Sea Mar Museum is in need of a professional consultant specialized in collections management and museum policy development to assist in the drafting and finalization of collections management policy and procedures. It is the Sea Mar Museum's vision that professional consultation will assist museum leadership in:

1) Assessing and highlighting collections management needs for the Sea Mar Museum based off catalog and item condition information entered within the museum’s PastPerfect software, the museum facility itself, and the scope of the current collection in conjunction with the museum’s mission statement;

2) Assessing the museum collection’s acquisitions and accessioning capacities based off the museum facility, storage space within the museum facility, and the Sea Mar Museum's mission statement;

3) And collaborating, drafting, and finalizing a tailored collections management policy and procedures document based off the above mentioned analysis of collections management needs and capacities.

The Sea Mar Museum’s operational team recognizes the need for professional consultation to assist in the development of effective museum policy and will work to recruit and hire said professional on a contractual basis. Going further, this need and the acquirement of a professional consultant noted above is largely dependent upon funding and will serve as the foundation towards ongoing collections development, future engagement with communities within King County and across Washington state, and will help solidify the cultural and historical value of the Sea Mar Museum collection.

Project Impact

The Sea Mar Museum of Chicano/a/Latino/a Culture will share the Chicano/a/Latino/a experience and history through a social justice lens to cultivate pride and appreciation for Chicano/as/Latino/as’ significant contributions in the Pacific Northwest. Through this mission, the Sea Mar Museum envisions itself providing an educational space and platform with greater Seattle and broader Pacific Northwest communities that will create an historical legacy to bring to life the stories of Chicano/as/Latino/as in the region. At present, there is no museum celebrating Latino history and culture in the Pacific Northwest. Acknowledgement of this history has largely gone untold and much less shared with the King County community and throughout Washington state.

The development of collections management policy and procedures will safeguard the museum’s collection, influence the museum’s ongoing collections development efforts based from and with the community, and serve as the basis of collection handling practices that will be used by Sea Mar staff throughout the museum’s near future. Developing the foundations to assess preservation needs and capacities through professional consultation and the development of tailored collections management policy and procedures allow for preservation and protection of the museum’s physical items and artifacts. This preservation and protection helps solidify the cultural and historical value of the Sea Mar Museum’s current collection- starting the process of creating an historical legacy that is based upon the museum’s mission and vision. Drafting and finalizing lasting collection management policy and procedures allows the museum to practice effective accessioning, deaccessioning, and collections care methods that instill trust within the community and grants continual community-based development of the Sea Mar Museum’s collection. Through these general long-term effects that professional consultation would provide for the Sea Mar Museum, a more vivid and holistic portrayal of the narratives, history, and contributions the Latino/a community has provided to the region will be developed and shared throughout the Pacific Northwest region and specifically within King County.

Relevant Expertise / Experience / Accomplishments

Curation and exhibition development has been jointly conceptualized by Sea Mar Community Health Centers’ CEO, Rogelio Riojas, and Dr. Erasmo Gamboa, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Washington. Dr. Gamboa has past experience working with the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, the Oregon Historical Society Museum in Portland, the Museum of Three Cultures in Ontario, Oregon, and the Yakima Valley Museum. Members of the museum project planning committee have worked collaboratively with Mr. Riojas and Dr. Gamboa in various aspects of implementing and completing the museum project. Mr. Riojas, Dr. Gamboa, and members of the museum committee will work with the contracted museum professional providing museum collections management consultation to the Sea Mar Museum. The end result of this collaboration will be the development of finalized collections management policy and procedures specifically tailored to the Sea Mar Museum’s mission, vision, and scope and that addresses the museum’s capacity to acquisition items in adherence to professional museum standards and practices.

The construction project manager of the museum is José Bazán, who designed the interior renovation for the museum and who is overseeing its construction. Mr. Bazán oversees all construction and renovation projects for Sea Mar Community Health Centers, bringing with him more than 25 years of experience designing and managing construction of facilities such as single-family homes, community centers, multi-family apartment buildings, and clinics. Mr. Bazán will play a significant role working with the museum consultant to assess the museum facility and the collection storage space’s capacity to store items currently accessioned into the museum collection that follow standard museum collections care practices.

Operational coordination for administrative development of the Sea Mar Museum has been led by Sea Mar’s Chief Compliance Officer, Kristina Hoeschen. She has worked with Sea Mar staff across organizational departments to help ensure the general museum project continues based off conceptualizations developed through the museum planning committee. Ms. Hoeschen has more than 15 years of museum and non-profit experience, having served on the team that raised $100 million for the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the start-up team that established the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Her position as Chief Compliance Officer with Sea Mar will help establish the implementation and follow through of the museum’s collections management policy and procedures upon finalization.

The primary candidate to provide consultation towards the development of finalized collections management policy and procedures with the Sea Mar Museum is museum committee member Teofila Uribe-Cruz. Ms. Uribe-Cruz has recently attained a dualmaster’s degree from the University of Washington in Russian Studies and Museology. Through the University of Washington’s museology program, Teofila has studied the history, management, and practice of museums, focusing her studies in museum policy development and the comparison of museum policies in an international context. The program has prepared her for varied careers in and around museums, ranging from curation to archival conservation to grant management.

Project Implementation

This request of $5,000 will support costs for the hiring of a contracted consultant who will work with project leaders in developing a finalized collections management policy and emergency preparedness plan. Acquiring collections management consultation will set the foundations to create an appropriate collections storage environment and set up procedures for receiving, preparing, and displaying cultural artifacts, art, and items of historical significance acquired by the museum to share with King County and the broader Pacific Northwest community. This consultation will also set a baseline for the museum’s acquisitions and accessioning capacities to be used in assessing the limits of continual development and acquisitions for the museum collection.

Past funding sources that supported the preliminary phases towards the development of the museum project include grants from the Washington Department of Commerce, the Washington State Historical Society, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, and previous grants offered from 4Culture. These funding streams will also support the development and specifically the implementation of administrative operations and collections management needs that adhere to professional museum standards and practices. With significant progress made to date, Sea Mar is seeing the entire project take form and develop into reality. While the agency is now working with a combination of grant funds and financing, additional grant dollars at this point will be a significant support, allowing the agency to quickly funnel more resources toward operations as the project shifts its focus from construction needs to the preservation and assessment of the museum’s collection and towards conceptualizing how the museum will function administratively upon opening.

Recruitment of a contracted museum professional to provide consultation in regards to collections care and management policy will be coordinated through museum leadership starting in August of 2018. The established deadline for the hiring of a professional consultant will be on September 30th of 2018. Through the hiring process, Sea Mar’s operational team and the museum professional will work towards clarification and agreement on the contractual obligations of both Sea Mar and of the museum consultant.

Multiple draft reviews, revisions, and workshops aimed towards the finalization of the museum’s collection management policy and procedures will be worked through by the museum committee in collaboration with the contracted museum consultation professional. The expectation will be to begin the development of museum policies that adhere to standards and practices by mid fall of 2018 with a target of beginning this process at the end of October. This phase of the project is expected to be worked through for at least three months to a year. Completion of the phase is dependent upon museum leaders’ ability to recruit and hire a contracted museum professional specialized in collections management or policy development as well as the ability of Sea Mar Community Health Centers to find and provide funding for the general museum project.

PROJECT BUDGET

Project Expenses

  • People - $4,800
  • Other - $5,000
  • TOTAL - $9,800

Project Income

  • Applicant - $4,800
  • 4Culture Request - $5,000
  • TOTAL - $9,800

Project Budget Notes

Sea Mar will contract with a consultant to develop collection management policies and procedures.

SUPPLEMENTAL ITEMS

Board

Name: James Caudle
First Year of Board Service: 2010
Board Position: Community Representative
Professional Affiliation: Retired

Name: Michelle Danley
First Year of Board Service: 2001
Board Position: Community Representative
Professional Affiliation: Latino Advocate & Agency Liaison

Name: Augie Delgado
First Year of Board Service: 2013
Board Position: Vice Chair
Professional Affiliation: Sales Manager

Name: Erasmo Gamboa
First Year of Board Service: 2010
Board Position: Treasurer
Professional Affiliation: Professor

Name: David Gasca
First Year of Board Service: 2016
Board Position: Community Representative
Professional Affiliation: Retired

Name: Katherine Lowe
First Year of Board Service: 2003
Board Position: Patient Representative, Native American Representative
Professional Affiliation: Foster Parent

Name: Gregory J. Ma
First Year of Board Service: 1982
Board Position: Chair, Community Representative
Professional Affiliation: Microbiologist

Name: Diana Savelle
First Year of Board Service: 2004
Board Position: Secretary, Homeless Representative
Professional Affiliation: Retired

Name: Felipe Trinidad
First Year of Board Service: 2008
Board Position: Patient Representative, Migrant Representative
Professional Affiliation: Farm Worker

Name: Silverio Vivanco
First Year of Board Service: 2008
Board Position: Patient Representative, Migrant Representative
Professional Affiliation: Pastoral Outreach Asst.