I Challenge Tradition
Museums must continue to change as society changes. Sustainable collections care requires professionals to ask questions about current practices and look to new research for answers. I am an advocate for environmentally sustainable collections practices and constantly look for better ways to manage collections.
I Center Collections Around People
When doing collections work it can be easy to forget that at the heart of objects are people. People give objects a purpose. The people who made, used, collected, stole, loved, and hated these objects are a part of the object's story. I want to provide opportunities for museum visitors and communities members to help tell and connect with those stories.
I Put Collections To Work
Whatever the collection is I believe that collections were created to be used! Objects have the power to communicate to people in powerful ways. As a collections professional I believe that objects can be used beyond research purposes and can enhance programming and events, to teach, empower, and shock visitors.
Hello! I'm Rebecca
I'm a museum professional dedicated to connecting people to museum collections. I am a proponent of using contemporary collections practices to transform the role of collections in the 21st century museum.
Please visit my page to see the work I have done that exemplifies leadership, community collaboration, and teamwork.
Rebecca Jacobs
Museum Professional
Phone:
(812)-606-5148
Email:
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Current Positions:
Metadata Cataloging Assistant
Indiana Historical Society
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Contractor
Collections Management
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Research Topics:
History, Anthropology, Metadata, Sustainable Collections
Community Outreach and Collaboration
Learning NAGPRA
I have worked with students, archaeologists, museum professionals, and professors to create educational materials to help students learn about NAGPRA. This project has lead to many opportunities including a panel presentation that will take place at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in November.
Eagle Creek Ornithology Center
I was able to use my preventive conservation skills and work with a group of students to help clean ornithology mounts at the Eagle Creek Ornithology Center. Not only did this help me practice my skills but I was able to help the Center care for the collection so that the mounts could continue to provide education and enjoyment to visitors. We also cleaned during open hours so that visitors could ask us questions about preventive conservation.
Community Collaboration and Curation
I helped design a course that culminated with the class visiting the Ziibiwing Center to help them with exhibition rotation, housekeeping, and cultural resource management. I along with other students spent 3.5 days working in the museum and learning from the staff about Anishinabe culture. This experience taught me the importance of relationship building and the rewards that can come from collaborative projects.
I was able to work with the Learning NAGPRA group to create educational materials about NAGPRA and repatriation for students.
I am pictured cleaning ornithology mounts with colleague Christina Cichra for the Eagle Creek Ornithology Center.
This image shows the staff of the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Lifeways and Culture with IUPUI students after our collaborative project involving collections care and management.
Values
Professional Association Memberships
Additonal Skills
ContentDM - Advanced
Past Perfect - Advanced
Photoshop- Proficient
TMS The Museum System - Proficient
Metadata - Advanced
Box Making - Proficient
Work Samples
IUPUI Teaching and Research Assistant
As a teaching and research assistant I have been able to put my values to practice and model contemporary collections practices for my students while also teaching them Collections Care and Management skills. Serving as a mentor has allowed me to reflect on and practice being the kind of professional I want to be.
Collections Management
I have acted as a Collections Manager for a collection held by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Through this process I have worked on both tribal and international repatriation projects, and have trained others in collections management practices. Through my collections internship at the Indiana Masonic Museum I worked to make collections more accessible and experimented with finding objects to communicate stories of Hoosier Freemasonry.
IMLS Museum Studies Convenings
As an IUPUI student representative at the first IMLS Museum Studies Convenings I was able to work with a group of students, professors, and museum professionals to brainstorm trends in Museum Studies and ways to best support the next generation of museum professionals.
2017-2018
Internship
This image shows a fez storage room at the Masonic Library and Museum of Indiana. I worked with objects like these to tell the history of Hoosier Freemasonry.
My students show the storage boxes they made after a box and mount making lab I lead with colleagues Christina Cichra and Rebekah Ryan.
Professors, students, and museum professionals gathered to discuss what future students will need to be successful in the museum field.
My students the storage boxes they made after a box and mount making lab I lead with colleagues Christina Cichra and Rebekah Ryan.
Professors, students, and museum professionals gathered to discuss what future students will need to be successful in the museum field.
ContentDM - Advanced
Past Perfect - Advanced
Photoshop- Proficient
TMS The Museum System - Proficient
Box Making - Proficient
Teamwork
Collections Salvage at the Kinsey Institute
During my time at the Kinsey Institute the art ad archives collections suffered severe water damage. I was able to bring my skills I learned from my classes to help staff assess, inventory, and move collections so that there was not further loss of physical or intellectual control of the collections.
Strategic Planning for Seymour Museum
I worked with a group of IUPUI Museum Studies students to create a strategic plan for a start-up museum. Through this process I learned how to work closely with a group for an extended period of time and to use each person's strengths to produce a product that represented our best efforts.
Quest for the West Art Show and Sale
Sometimes collections work becomes a solitary effort. Working with collections staff at the Eiteljorg I learned that working with a team and communicating constantly is necessary to make sure that the prep work needed to make an exhibition happen goes smoothly and that the objects are cared for.
This image shows a gallery during the collections move. During this time I was in charge of creating a temporary inventory so that collections would be available for traveling exhibits and researchers during the salvage.
This image shows my wonderful team who worked together to create a five-year strategic plan for the start-up museum.
This image shows myself and IUPUI students and alumni after volunteering for the exhibit opening and auction for Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.
Leadership
ContentDM - Advanced
Past Perfect - Advanced
Photoshop- Proficient
TMS The Museum System - Proficient
Metadata - Advanced
Box Making - Proficient