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| Contact: | Maria Williams, 277-2286 or Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 277-5915 |
[PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Hernandez and her class will tour UNM's Jonson Gallery on Thursday, April 27 at 1:30 p.m. Hernandez will grant interviews about the Museum Studies Program. The gallery is located at 1909 Las Lomas NE.]
March 28, 2001
UNM CREATING ONE-OF-A-KIND MUSEUM STUDIES PROGRAM WITH NATIVE AMERICAN EMPHASIS
As the number of tribal museums and cultural centers rises, so does the need
for education and training for museum professionals that incorporates indigenous
views in handling and caring for collections.
The University of New Mexico Arts of Americas Institute (AAI), a division of
the College of Fine Arts, has received a two-year $150,000 grant from the Educational
Foundation of America to develop a new Museum Studies Program with a strong
Native American component.
"This will be the only program of its kind in the country," says
Dr. Maria Williams, AAI associate director. "UNM is designing a curriculum
grounded in Western scientific approach, but with a wonderful infusion of Native
American perspective."
"The program reflects Native American philosophy and pedagogy in the physical,
cultural, and spiritual care of collections, and other issues relating to Native
American museum practices," Williams adds.
A minor will be offered for undergraduates and a certificate at the graduate
level.
Non-degree courses will be provided on-site for employees at various tribal
museums and cultural centers in New Mexico. The program also calls for a preservation/conservation
laboratory to be developed and housed at UNM.
A curriculum committee will form this summer with representatives from UNM
Native American Studies (NAS) and Art and Art History - including Dr. Joyce
Szabo, who is co-creating the program with Williams and Hernandez - and local
consultants in the museum field.
Rebecca S. Hernandez was recently appointed to begin coordinating the Museum
Studies Program. Hernandez holds a joint faculty appointment at NAS and the
Art and Art History Department. She earned a BA in Fine Art from the College
of Santa Fe; MFA in Exhibition Design and Museum Studies from California State
University-Fullerton; MA in American Indian Studies, University of California-Los
Angeles; and is completing a Ph.D. in American Studies at UNM.
Hernandez, who is Mexican-American and Mescalero Apache, says sensitizing museum
practitioners and the public to the proper care and preservation of cultural
objects has a global reach: "The same issues affect all tribal cultures
and indigenous arts of the world. The question is, 'how do we do this with sensitivity
and with a level of savvy that has been missing?'"
She helped develop and, last week, began teaching the first course in the program,
"Native American Museum Studies." The eight-week class is offered
for undergraduate credit and examines the museum as an institution with a strong
focus on introducing students to local offerings. "I hope to teach people
how to walk through a museum, to introduce students to the experience of viewing
and the 'how to' of reading a space. To have them ask themselves 'what is the
curator trying to tell us?'" Hernandez says.
In the fall, she teaches "Representation and Accommodation: Native Americans
and the Museum Cultural Center," a more extensive course offered for both
undergraduate and graduate credit. Hernandez says the class will look at the
historical process of museums and should appeal to a wide, cross-section of
students -- from museum lovers to students in UNM's African American and Chicana/o
Studies who have an interest in cultural identity.
"When you address the museum itself, it makes culture and identity easier to talk about. Art is a great communicator, so we can keep coming back to the objects," she says.
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[PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Hernandez and her class will tour UNM's Jonson Gallery on
Thursday, April 27 at 1:30 p.m. Hernandez will grant interviews about the Museum
Studies Program. The gallery is located at 1909 Las Lomas NE.]
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