Acquisition Use Cases

Walker Art Center

Walker Art Center Gift/Acquisition

Phase 1 Gift After a curatorial decision has be reached to accept a work, the registrar issues a deed of gift (example enclosed) to the donor, arranges for the transport of the work to the museum, and enters general data on the piece into a File Maker Pro accessions database (example enclosed) created for each of 8 accession meetings annually.  Upon receipt of the work, the work is photographed, informally, a condition report is written, a loan number assigned (LYear.order.elements), L2009.12.1-.12, in the registrar’s ledger, and a receipt issued to the donor. Acquisition After a curatorial decision has be reached to accept a work, the registrar, arranges for the transport of the work to the museum, and enters general data on the piece into a File Maker Pro accessions database created for each of 8 accession meetings annually.  Upon receipt of the work, the work is photographed, informally, a condition report is written, a loan number assigned (LYear.order.elements), L2009.12.1-.12, in the registrar’s ledger, and a receipt (example enclosed) is issued to the donor. Phase 2 A list of possible accessions (example enclosed) is printed from the accession database for use in presenting the slate of works to the Acquisition Committee of the Board of Directors for consideration. Phase 3 Following formal acceptance of an object by the Board of Directors: Gift and Acquisition An Offer of Gift (example enclosed) or Offer for Purchase (example enclosed) is printed from the accession database for the Museum Director to sign, to serve as the formal document, marking the works entry into the collection. An accession number is assigned to each work, year.order.elements (all numeric), in individual fields to allow for to proper sorting. An accession memo is printed, distributed and filed (example enclosed).  Further data is added to the record before importation to the CMS (see oject entry). Phase 4 Gift and Acquisition An Artist’s Questionnaire (example enclosed) and Request for Non-Exclusive License (example enclosed) is printed from the accession database and sent to the artist or estate of the artist Acquisition

A Bill of Sale (example enclosed) is printed from the accession database and sent to the vendor of the work to formalize the transfer of title of the work. There are 10 attachments to this page, all of which pertain to the acquisition process at the Walker Art Center.

Statens Museum for Kunst

Procedure on arrival of “NEW acquisitions”

This procedure applies to works of art that the museum have bought or received, on first arrival at the museum.

For “Visiting work of art”, “Deposit” and “Incoming loans”, please refer to the respective folders on the intranet under ’Procedures on arrival of a work’.

Before the arrival of a work

1. The Registry Office is informed about the case by SAFO.
2. The Registrar of Incoming Loans makes an agreement with the owner or the responsible person of the work about the arrival of the work to the museum.
3. The Registrar of Incoming Loans seeks tenders for the transport and arranges the transport with a security-cleared transport agent.
4. A museum conservator assesses whether the work shall be transported in bubble wrap or transport box.
5. When we have arranged the transport, the insurance liability often rests with SMK during transportation to the museum.  If the seller arranges the transport, the insurance liability will rest with him. Therefore, before transportation, the value of the work will be disclosed to the Head of Security, who finally decides the insurance liability and the type of insurance.
6. The Registry Office will reserve the gate and distribute a form regarding the arrival of the work. This is sent to: The Reception, FOTO, Art Handling, Control Centre, the relevant curator, the conservator in charge and the relevant conservation unit (this secures backup in case of sickness absence).
   

On arrival of a work

1. The Reception checks the registration number and the names of the drivers, which are mentioned on the arrival note from The Registry Office.
2. When the work is handed over to the museum, the hauler and the museum sign for the delivery of the work on a form which is handed over by the Registry Office or found on the intranet under “Procedures for arrival of a work’. This is the documentation of the arrival of the work to the museum. A transport agent’s transport note is also a valid form of documentation of the transfer. The receipt is handed over to the Registrar of Incoming Loans.
3. The reception must always contact Art Handling, or outside normal working hours, the Out of hours Guard who, together with the hauler, arranges the placing of the work in M1.
4. Art Handling arranges a time for unpacking as soon as possible after the arrival by agreement with SAFO and KONS. This is (among other reasons) necessary for a potential insurance liability. (Usually a climate box can only be unpacked after 24 hours, unless otherwise agreed upon with the owner or responsible institution). At the time of unpacking KONS assesses the condition of the work and composes a status report.
5. KONS instructs Art Handling regarding handling and hanging. Three representatives for SMK must be present at the unpacking (an art handler, the relevant curator and a conservator).
6. The curator in charge assigns a KMS or KKS number to the work.  Reference is made to this number if the work is moved at any point.  Art Handling coordinates this with the relevant curator.
7. Together SAFO and KONS plan a possible conservation/mounting/remounting.
   If time allows or if there is a need for conservation, transport between FOTO and KONS is arranged (cf. Point 9). Where time does not permit, conservation will be taken care of later.
8. The following applies to works from KKS: KKS arranges for storage space where the work will await mounting by PAPIRKONS; only after mounting will it be placed in KKS´ storage folders and made accessible to the public. 
9. Art Handling arranges photography in agreement with FOTO. The photographers notify Art Handling and SAFO when the work has been photographed. In cases of installation and works which can not be photographed immediately, SAFO will arrange for the procurement of photos, if possible.
10. Art Handling arranges for storage  and communicates the location to REG.
11. All moves /placements are communicated to The Registry Office by form or e-mail with reference to the KMS or KKS number of the work.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Accession process

Deeds of gift

Deeds of gift are printed from CMS, sent to the donor for signature, and added to the work's hardcopy record.

Invoices

The finance department processes invoices for purchases after the board of trustees approves acquisitions.

Accession numbers

Importing accession numbers

The registrar exports object information from CMS to an Excel spreadsheet then enters any multipart numbers in the spreadsheet, along with several other fields that change when works are accessioned. The spreadsheet data is imported into CMS.

Cataloguing and documentation

Staff add any further information (e.g., exhibition and reproduction histories) received from the donor or vendor at the time of acquisition to the work's CMS record, as well as information from hardcopy records as appropriate. Staff continue to expand these records, including collaborative review and expansion of information captured in any earlier accession summary, as appropriate.

Images

Staff may capture additional digital images of the work after its acquisition. Images are linked to CMSrecords and added to DAM.

Rights and licenses to reproduce images

The intellectual property associate contacts self-represented artists or their estates seeking a non-exclusive license for the museum to use images of the acquired work in various non-commercial ways. For all works, the associate creates a copyright record in CMS after assessing rights in or related to a work.

Rights and licenses related to time-based works

Staff refer to Matters in Media Art guidelines when negotiating rights and licenses related to preserving and displaying time-based works.

History of Art Visual Resources Collection, UC Berkeley

New Accessions to the Shared Collection Created In-house: When the Image of an Object is the Collection Object

Faculty requests new scan from books, serials, continuous tone photographs, or original objects.

VRC staff evaluates the quality and the source of the image to be scanned and determines the copyright status, if possible.

Records for each image source (i.e. each book, each photograph, each object, etc.) entered into the CMS. Order record and individual order item records created for each source. A six-digit accession number is then generated by the CMS for each order item (i.e. each image.) This process links the new accession to its source.

Order materials sent to the photographer along with an order memo for each source that indicates the accession number pre-assigned to each requested image. Photographer creates digital images via direct digital capture for each order item and uses pre-assigned accession numbers for image file names. Order materials returned from photographer to VRC staff for cataloging.

VRC staff enter descriptive metadata about works of art depicted in the digital images. Descriptive metadata includes information about the creators, cultures, dates, locations, repositories, measurements and materials associated with each work of art. Each "work" record receives an individual work id and this work id is linked to one or more images (accessions) that depict that work. The relationship between works and images (accessions) is a many-to-many relationship; i.e. many works may be linked to a single image and many images linked to a single work. Entry of descriptive metadata values is guided by the use of the 3 Getty Thesauri (AAT, ULAN, and TGN) but other sources of terminology are used to add subject terms.

Quality-control check of tiffs returned by photographer done by VRC staff, and derivative jpegs are created and loaded into collection OPAC. Archival tiffs are loaded into campus Media Vault. Original order materials returned to faculty requestor.