Who cares? Museum conservation between colonial violence and symbolic repair

ABSTRACT

Recently, museums have been under growing scrutiny. The public debate has focused mainly on two things: The way cultures and objects are presented and displayed in museum galleries and the questions of restitution. However, 80–99% of a museum's collection is and will probably remain in storage. This paper changes the focus from exhibition or restitution to conservation, understood as a set of practices preserving and giving access to art and material culture. More precisely, I study preventative conservation and collection management as political actions. Building upon the unvaluable work carried by conservators in the US and beyond, but also including other voices and alternative gestures, I aim to start a conversation about what conservation could be in a postcolonial museum.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation
• healing
• coloniality
• storage
• collection
• management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See the EU-based project connecting different ethnographic museums around the notion of care: https://takingcareproject.eu/

2 Yaëlle Biro and I speak of “rhapsodic objects,” asserting that the object itself both bears with it and conveys many stories. See Rhapsodic Objects. Art, Agency, and Materiality (1700-2000), ed. Yaëlle Biro and Noémie Etienne (Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022).

3 The Way of the People, volume 1, National Museum of the American Indian, Phase 1, Revised Draft Report, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc., 4236, Main Street, Philadelphia, PA 19127, November 22, 1991.

4 The Way of the People, volume 2, Master Facilities Programing, Phase 2, Final Report, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc., 4236, Main Street, Philadelphia, PA 19127, April 23, 1993.

5 The Way of the People, volume 3, A Detailed Architectural Program, Museum of the National Mall, Washington D.C., Master Facilities Programing, Phase 2, Final Report, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc., 4236, Main Street, Philadelphia, PA 19127, September 15, 1993.

6 The Way of the People, appendix, Washington D.C., Master Facilities Programing, Phase 2, Final Report, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc., 4236, Main Street, Philadelphia, PA 19127, September 15, 1993.

7 The Way of the People, vol. 2, Wendy Jessup Report, “Native American Tribal Museum and Center Survey on Storage, Care and Access,” James D. Nason, May 25, 1992, 42-55.

8 Clémentine Delisse speaks about the “hygienist temptation” (la tentation hygiéniste) in “Formes rapides de restitution,” Multitudes, 2020, 1 no. 78, 186. In the same volume, see also Nanette Snoep, “De la ConServation à la ConVersation. Le pari de la carte blanche,” ibid., 198-202. On the connections between biopolitics, fascism, and the rhetoric of purification through destruction, see also for instance Ruth Ben-Ghiat, e.g., https://lucid.substack.com/p/fascist-biopolitics-empty-cribs-and, consulted September 28, 2021.

9 Sylvena Mayer, “NMAI – Collection Housing, Care, and Access Survey,” in Native American Tribal Museum and Center Survey on Storage, Care and Access, Phase 2, May 25, 1992, without date for the interview nor page number.

10 “Each room will be isolated to limit damage in the event of fire, pest infestation, or mechanical failure. In addition, the fire and smoke alarm systems of each room will be separately controlled to allow for the monitored use of smoke and smudging in ceremonial uses. Open fires will not be permitted to burn within the collection housing areas, and the amount of smoke produced by smudging and other ceremonies will be minimal and controllable. Alarm systems will be isolated and a ‘Fire watch’ established by the Office Protection Services to remotely monitor the smoke produced by a ceremony … Artifacts may also be moved to the Ceremonial Room (with a separate air exhaust system) and outdoor Courtyard area located off the Resource Center for ritual and private use.” National Museum of the American Indian, Master Facilities Program, Suitland, Vol. 2, April 23, 1993, VI. 230.

11 Anna Silas, “NMAI – Collection Housing, Care, and Access Survey,” Native American Tribal Museum and Center Survey on Storage, Care and Access, Phase 2, May 25, 1992, without precise date for the interview nor page number.

12 Edmund J. Ladd, Zuni, in National Museum of the American Indian, Master Facilities Program: Suitland, Volume 2, April 23, 1993 VII. 442.

13 For additional details see https://museumpests.net/solutions-case-studies/solutions-low-temperature-treatments-at-the-national-museum-of-the-american-indian/, Accessed September 1, 2021.

14 Betty Cornelius, “NMAI – Collection Housing, Care, and Access Survey,” Native American Tribal Museum and Center Survey on Storage, Care and Access, Phase 2, May 25, 1992, without precise date for the interview nor page number.

15 “Zuni masks must be fed once or twice per year by their people, male and female, to let the museum’s staff do this would be to neglect our responsibility and would not do any good,” Edmund J. Ladd, in National Museum of the American Indian, Master Facilities Program: Suitland, Volume 2, April 23, 1993 VII. 442.

16 “And storage of the masks is a very important consideration not only from Zuni but from Hopi. I know that we have Hopi masks, the helmet masks that are decorated and kept on the shelf. And they should never be hung on a string or stored in a dark place. They should be on an open shelf where they can breathe … The helmet mask should be upright. And they can be up high. They can be up above our level. But the flat mask, the half mask, and the full-faced mask should be about eye level and lower. And really, they should never have plastic around them or over them.” Edmund J. Ladd, Zuni, National Museum of the American Indian, Master Facilities Program: Suitland Volume 2, April 23, 1993 VII. 443.

17 The talks are available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8FlaBiASbc The panel in question begins at 1’24”.

18 Email correspondence between the author and Denis Pourawa, June 4, 2021.

19 The day’s talks are available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8FlaBiASbc The panel in question begins at 3’01”. I would like to thank Lotte Arndt for pointing out this reference to me. The present paragraph is based on these presentations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noémie Etienne

Noémie Etienne is professor of art history at the University of Bern and a specialist in the fields of heritage and museum studies. Her most recent book is entitled: The Art of Dioramas. Franz Boas, Arthur C. Parker, and the Making of Authenticity (De Gruyter, 2021). Her first book, The Restoration of Paintings in Paris (1750–1815), was published by Getty Publications in 2017. She is currently leading a research project on the colonial history of Switzerland and curated a major show about it in 2020. She is also starting a new research project entitled “Global Histories of Conservation”.