From Sharks to Sugar: Addressing Conservation Issues of ... - incca

museums are not effective and that roles need to shift. Sterrett referred to
Martha Buskirk’s writing in The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art,
explaining,
... in shepherding contemporary installations into the future,
the complex negotiation, to which Buskirk refers, between a
work’s initial appearance and its extended life distills down to
mediating its variability... managing variability is shifting the way
we keep collections... (Sterrett, 2007)
Like Morton Arase, Sterrett believes that collaboration is key.
She talked about the shift at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(SFMOMA) towards the collections division – the museum merged its
intellectual and physical stewardship functions. Physical stewards-
conservators and registrars, are now working with intellectual stewards-
librarians, archivists, and a team that manages the electronic databases.
The team’s job is to underpin physical and intellectual stewardship. The
museum has been functioning this way for seven years and the biggest
challenges have been in managing the change, “managing the breakdown
in silos of operation. The result is a commitment to something larger.”
(Sterrett, 2007, webcast)
This SFMOMA institutional structure regarding collections
stewardship is timely and conducive to the focus of their collections.
However, until other museums follow this model, it is important to find
37