BY: JENNA SERVIZZI

Throughout my involvement in the Museum Studies Undergraduate Certificate program, I have fallen in love with collections and the idea of working in collections. For my internship this semester, I was incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the Fine Arts and Culture collection at the Indiana State Museum. Part of my work with the museum’s collections department was to help with a deaccessioning project. My project is still in progress, but it has been to work on deaccessioning objects to make one of our museum spaces more functional for our work and future visiting researchers. This project has allowed me to learn more about the deaccessioning process while gaining invaluable hands-on experience and developing necessary skills within the field I hope to work in. As an extension of this project, I worked on a research poster that I presented at the Indiana University Bloomington Hutton Honors College Research Symposium. 

The goal of my poster presentation was to inform the public about the practice of deaccessioning and some of the conversations that happen in the museum world about deaccessioning. The term ‘deaccessioning’ has a somewhat negative connotation because the public conversation around the process is usually within the context of selling objects in the collections to cover museum operating costs. However, it is usually not something that is discussed at all and remains out of the scope of the public’s knowledge about museum operations. It was my aim to highlight deaccessioning as an essential museum process and to share how my personal experience with deaccessioning has helped me to grow as an emerging museum professional. 

My overall experience with the research symposium resulted in mixed feelings. I had an incredible time putting together my poster and reviewing the literature surrounding deaccessioning which included several interesting case studies from around the world. Putting the poster together provided a great opportunity to practice my research and presentation skills. It also forced me to determine what information was the most pertinent to include on the poster and what information could be included in conversation. The process of preparing for the research symposium forced me to find ways to convey the knowledge that I had in a way that would be accessible for everyone and ensure that it was cohesive and coherent. 

This experience did not become stressful until the actual day of the presentation. Driving down to and around Bloomington for the first time on a busy weekend for the university was draining especially because I had never been there before. The process of setting up my poster and actually participating in the event went smoothly and everyone there was welcoming and supportive. I stood with my poster for just over an hour and a half and was able to talk with a few people who had never heard of deaccessioning before and expressed curiosity about it. I was a little disappointed that I was only able to talk with three people during the allotted time slot for the poster presentation, but there were not very many attendees to the event. However, this did not take away from the fact that being involved in this experience provided me with a wonderful opportunity to practice conversing with people about something that I am passionate about and something that will help to build my future career as a museum professional. 

I was and still am incredibly grateful for the experience that I had with IUB’s Research Symposium. It made me realize my capabilities as an academic and as an emerging museum professional. Keeping the public informed about museum practices and ensuring that they have developed an understanding of the work being done allows for greater trust in and support for museums to continue their missions and their work.

Check out my poster below:

Jenna Servizzi is an undergraduate student pursuing a Museum Studies certificate at IU Indianapolis