ACRA Webinar: Principles of Curation for Cultural Resource Professionals

Professional archaeologists have ethical, legal, and contractual obligations to curate the materials recovered during cultural resource management investigations. Curation of artifacts and project records at a qualified museum or repository ensures the long-term preservation of these materials and makes them accessible for research and public education.

Despite the importance of professional curation, archaeological repositories often encounter CRM projects in which the curation process was delayed, neglected, and/or under-funded due to a lack of knowledge and poor planning for curation requirements. Instead, CRM professionals can better meet their ethical, legal, and contractual obligations to curate by considering curation preparation during all stages of a CRM project.

This 1 hour course offers an introduction to the principles of curation for CRM professionals from the perspective of a certified archaeological repository. The learning objectives of this course are:

• To understand the ethical and legal importance of curation for CRM projects
• To introduce the types of curation facilities available to CRM professionals
• To provide guidance for curation planning and budgeting
• To provide an overview of the curation process
• To review common curation submittal requirements at a sampling of facilities across the US
• To introduce the principles of artifact and records preservation, including common types of archival-grade storage materials and labeling methods

Note: This webinar will occur on Eastern Time

Presenter

Kelsie Hart

The expert provider for this course is Kelsie Hart, a curation professional with over 5 years experience working in museums and archaeological repositories in California, Utah, and Texas. Kelsie holds a bachelor's degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley and a master's degree in anthropology from California State University, Chico. Kelsie currently serves as the Collections Manager for the Center for Archaeological Studies, a certified curatorial facility at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.