Preservation of Indigenous Cultural Resources & Collections Online Courses
To learn more please click below for our UCLA Extension Online Courses Brochure:
Preservation of Indigenous Cultural Resources & Collections Courses Brochure
We welcome applications for our online courses on Preservation of Indigenous Cultural Collections, generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. These are graduate level courses available to those seeking opportunities for professional development outside of a graduate program. Ideal participants are currently, or plan to become caretakers of American Indian cultural resources, either in cultural centers or museums. Three online courses will be offered through UCLA Extension with the option of course credit. Courses will follow the UCLA quarterly academic schedule. These courses are intended to teach practical skills, impart confidence in decision-making, and help build professional and community networks. Applicants do not need to be currently enrolled at UCLA or any other institution.
Course descriptions*
Winter 2024 (Saturdays from January 13 – March 16, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm Pacific)
Preservation of Tribal Cultural Materials in Tribal Collections
Topics include cataloging; care and handling for familiar collection items; storage enclosures; policies; and conservation and ethical treatment of Native American collections. Students are asked to identify the types of materials in their own collections, as well as the community values and uses of those materials. The course then covers deterioration risks associated with different collection materials and the methods available to reduce these risks.
Instructor: Rebecca Elder
Founder of Rebecca Elder Cultural Heritage Preservation, Rebecca has nearly twenty years of experience consulting, including over one hundred preservation assessments. She also has experience teaching Library and Archives Conservation at the University of Texas, Austin for ten years.
Fall 2024 (Saturdays from September 28 – December 7, 10:00 am- 1:00 pm Pacific)
Developing a Collections Management Plan for Tribal Collections
Topics include collections management policy (CMP) planning and writing with a focus on indigenization. Students will review and critically examine sample policies and practice case studies. Through conversations with indigenous and non-indigenous collections management practitioners attendees will create an individualized CMP framework that addresses needs specific to each attendee’s institution and/or community.
Instructor: Kara Vetter
Kara Vetter is Senior Director of Cultural Resources at San Diego Museum of Us in Southern California. Previously, Kara was the Registrar at the Museum of Us and worked at the Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites.
Winter 2025 (Saturdays from January 11 – March 15, 11:00 am- 2:00 pm Pacific)
Exhibition Planning for Tribal Repositories with a focus on Collections Care
The course will feature case studies at three diverse institutions that have developed and hosted innovative exhibitions of Native American heritage and contemporary arts.Topics will include public access to important items that may require specialized care and collections management principles for exhibit planning and execution process. Participants will work on projects that address different exhibit challenges including the portrayal of Native peoples in exhibits, creating structurally sound exhibit mounts from archival materials, and learning to analyze exhibit venues.
Instructors: Jeanne Brako and Jack Townes
Jeanne Brako is a conservator and curator, formerly at the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College, and now a principal of Museum Consultants of Santa Fe.
Jack Townes has worked in the museum field for over thirty years. as an exhibit preparator, designer and installer. He is an innovative fabricator with metal, wood, fabrics and other materials used in museum projects.
*Students are requested to work with an actual personal or community collection, and to have identified a junior colleague whom you can mentor. Material packets and course books will be sent to each student.
Application Instructions
To apply for attendance in one or more of these tuition-free courses, applicants must please submit the following:
- a one-page letter of interest
- up to 5 slides with captions showing your collections
- a letter of commitment from a junior colleague whom you have agreed to mentor and who is agreeing to be mentored**.
**Mentee professional status is flexible and may represent any of the following categories: (1) an intern, volunteer, junior staff member, colleague, or supervisor at your organization, (2) a peer or a colleague from your organization; (3) a local student from a nearby college or university; (4) an interested member from a partnering organization or community.
In composing your application, you may consider the following prompts:
- Do you have previous training in care of cultural resources? How will this course support your care for these materials?
- For your slide captions, what kinds of materials are in your collection and what concerns do you have for their housing, documentation, display and care?
Applications should be sent to preservation-courses@ioa.ucla.edu no later than November 10th, 2023 for the Winter 2024 course, June 7th, 2024 for the Fall 2024 course, and November 8th, 2024 for the Winter 2025 course . Please include your name and application in the subject line. Please reach out if you have any questions!
