The second Convening Great Lakes Culture Keepers, hosted by the George W. Brown, Jr., Museum and Cultural Center, took place on October 23 & 24 at Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin. Participants toured the community and, on Friday, participated in hands-on classes on audio digitization, cleaning beadwork, and caring for museum collections.
Thursday evening’s activities included:
- Tours of the George W. Brown, Jr. Museum and Cultural Center, Bear River Pow Wow grounds, and the Mikwendaagoziwag Cultural Heritage Center
- Meal prepared by Teresa Mitchell and family
- Language revitalization discussion with Boycee Valliere, Ojibwe Language Program Director
Friday activities included classes by:
Stacey Baldridge – “Basic Audio-Visual Digitization and Preservation” Stacey Baldridge, Collections Manager at the Alaska Native Language Archives at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks discussed different types of analog audio materials, audio capture machines, the differences between digitization and preservation, and led a hands-on session to digitize materials.
Holly Cusack-McVeigh – “Caring for Your Museum’s Collection: A Team-Based Approach” Holly Cusack-McVeigh, a cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Museum Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, provided hands-on training at the George W. Brown, Jr. Ojibwe Museum and Cultural Center on physical care (object handling, storage, environmental monitoring, pest management, emergency preparedness and preventive conservation).
Nicole Grabow – “Conservation Techniques for Cleaning Beadwork” Nicole Grabow, Object Conservator at the Midwest Arts Conservation Center, led a hands-on introduction to conservation techniques for cleaning glass beadwork. This included a brief discussion of conservation ethics and basic glass chemistry will be followed by a cleaning demonstration. Participants then cleaned and mended study collection bead samples using the techniques demonstrated.
