Board News, Ask a Collections Steward, ER Book Club The Feather Thief August 20, 2024 7pm ET ARCS Update Vol 9 Issue 14
July 22, 2024 | ARCS NewsBoard of Directors Feature
Meet ARCS New Board Member
Grace Weiss Civic Art Collection Project Manager,
San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco,
California, United States of America
1. What is your favorite movie centered in a museum?
My favorite movie centered in a museum is Jim Henson’s Please Don’t Eat the Pictures, where the Sesame Street gang gets stuck overnight in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Henson partnered with the NEH on this amazing kids special, which is essentially museum theory for children. I rediscovered the movie while in grad school for Museum Studies, and I am pretty sure my childhood love for this movie set me on this career path.
2. What is your most memorable courier trip?
My most memorable courier trip was for the Nam June Paik retrospective install at Tate Modern. It was my first courier trip, and included four pallets of loans, installing five complex media installations, and countless memories in English pubs with treasured media colleagues.
3. What is your favorite/least favorite airport?
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is definitely my favorite! Not only is it my local airport, but it is also home to an incredible selection of public artworks from San Francisco’s Civic Art Collection, which I now manage with my team at the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC). I work at SFO so often that sometimes it feels funny to be there for travel instead of work!
4. Fun fact about you?
I grew up in Hawaii!
5. Fun Fact about your work/institution?
SFAC is one of nine municipalities to receive a grant from the Mellon Foundation as part of “The Monuments Project.” This grant is funding SFAC’s “Shaping Legacy” program, a multi-year commitment to critically examine the monuments and memorials in our Civic Art Collection. Our team is in the first phase of the project, undergoing an Equity Audit of the Collection. It will be exciting to see how the forthcoming artist-led activations and temporary installations will engage the community to reimagine the role of monuments and memorials in San Francisco over the next two years and beyond.
6. Why do you volunteer with ARCS?
I volunteer with ARCS because I love meeting and working with the amazing network of registrars and collections specialists that make up our membership. The knowledge sharing that happens across specialties at ARCS’ many thoughtful programs is something I am very passionate about, so I am grateful to have the opportunity to deepen my commitment to this work as a new Board member.
7. Mac or PC?
Mac at home, PC at work.
News from the Board
The ARCS Board of Directors has established an IDEA Working Group as part of their continued efforts to implement the multi-year IDEA Plan of Action. The mandate of this working group is to work towards implementing all the recommendations set forth in the ARCS IDEA Plan of Action at the Board, Committee, and Member levels. As of right now, this working group is composed entirely of members of the Board of Directors, but will expand soon to include individuals from the wider ARCS membership. One of the first action items that the IDEA Working Group is tackling is to finalize an IDEA statement to be released by the organization. This statement is currently in rough-draft form, and is being reviewed and commented on by our contracted IDEA inclusive strategies firm, The Inclusion Firm (TIF).
Upcoming Programs
Ask a Collections Steward Starting July 23, 2024
We want to hear from you! Starting July 23, we will be kicking off a new social media campaign called Ask a Collections Steward where we want to hear about your experiences in the collections field. To get things rolling, we will be starting with a simple question: Why did you join ARCS?
Our community is encouraged to ask questions on social media tagging @arcs4all and using the hashtag #AACS. Followers can then share their answers with us in any way they choose! They can submit a video response, a photo of their work, or even text responses. These will then be collated and shared by our team so everyone can learn from this great ARCS community.
Emergency Sub-Committee Book Club August 20, 2024, 7:00 p.m. ET
The Feather Thief
The Emergency Sub-Committee is excited to announce our next ARCS book club event on Tuesday, August 20th at 7:00 p.m. ET. We will be discussing The Feather Thief by Kirk W. Johnson, a captivating true crime story about the audacious theft of rare bird specimens from a natural history museum. This intriguing story delves into the motivations behind the crime and the lucrative market for exotic feathers.
This is a fantastic opportunity for some fun summer reading and engaging conversation. Registration is free, but required. We look forward to seeing you there!
Conference Updates
Want to see what’s planned for the 2024 Virtual Conference? Take a look at our newly updated Schedule At A Glance!
2024 Virtual Conference Sponsorship Package
Sponsorship opportunities are now available for our virtual conference being held December 2, 4, & 6, 2024.
Call for Committee Members
ARCS is again seeking interested and motivated collections professionals to serve as volunteers on ARCS committees and task forces as we continue to provide new opportunities to benefit our members. We welcome all members interested in contributing their time and effort to advance our mission and to further the development of the collections profession to apply. Please visit the link below for a list of current committee openings and to read about the benefits of being a committee member:
