August Newsletter

August 15, 2024

Hello Curationist Community!

We hope you are having a wonderful summer! We’ve been busy here at Curationist and are pleased to share some highlights and upcoming events in this newsletter:

- Invitation to the Curationist Fellows and Critics of Color Residency Closing Celebration. Get all the details on the webinar on August 22!
- Gearing up for the Metadata Learning & Unlearning Summit this fall
- Introducing Curationist Museum Services! We’re seeking small museum partners who want to make their digital collections open and free to access on the web.

Continue reading below to learn more about these projects and how you can get involved.

Happy August!

The Curationist Team

A Sneak Preview of Curationist Museum Services

We are thrilled to share with our community that we are in the process of launching Curationist Museum Services. Our goal is to provide the technical support and expertise needed to share digitized collections on the web.

What We Offer
Curationist will provide your institution with comprehensive technical assistance in metadata and open sharing, ensuring your digital collections are open licensed and accessible not only on your institution’s website but also on other open repositories like Curationist, Europeana, WikiCommons, and more.

Pilot Partners
We are looking for museum partners who want to make their digital collections open and free to access on the web using Creative Commons licenses. In this new pilot program, organizations with digital collections will receive support to:

Understand different types of Creative Commons open licenses and determine which is right for your collections and institution
Work with your existing schema or develop a new one to share your collection metadata online
Share digitized collections on your institution’s website, the Curationist platform, as well as other open aggregators like WikiCommons, Europeana, etc.
Find funding to support this and future work
Expand your network with other institutions and partners within the Curationist community

Email us if you are interested in being a pilot partner!

Upcoming Events

August 22: Critics and Fellows Residency Closing Celebration

Mark your calendars for Thursday, August 22nd, from 8:30-10pm ET, for our Closing Celebration!

This webinar is an opportunity to hear directly from our Fellows and Critics as they share their research developed over the 6-month residency session. Each participant will introduce their work and published essay, followed by questions.

We can't wait to celebrate their work with you and showcase the thoughtful perspectives they've brought to cultural heritage. Join us for an evening of inspiration and community!

September 19th: Metadata Learning and Unlearning Summit

We’re excited to announce our upcoming Metadata Learning & Unlearning Summit will take place on September 19th! This online event will bring together metadata experts and enthusiasts to advance our vision of providing open access to cultural heritage through a social justice lens.

Last year’s summit sparked wide-ranging discussions on the colonial and imperial legacies in metadata and explored values and practices to address these issues. This year, we’re focusing on the integration of Wikidata—both as a source of controlled descriptive vocabularies and as a potential template schema for our metadata, which primarily comes from museums.

All are welcome to join this engaging conversation. More details, including the date and time, will be shared soon. If you have experience with Wikidata integration and are interested in sharing your learnings at the event, please email us at community@mhzfoundation.org.

We look forward to your participation and insights!

Support Our Work

Investing in digital heritage is an investment in our society and cultures.

Your support of Curationist is crucial in our mission to enhance metadata and sustain transformative programs like the Fellows and Critics of Color. These initiatives enrich our understanding of cultural heritage by adding vital information and diverse perspectives rooted in social justice.

With your help, we can make cultural items easier to find and broaden the ways we access and appreciate our shared heritage. Every donation, no matter the size, makes a significant impact. Please donate online today and join us in creating a more inclusive cultural landscape.

You can send a check to;

MHz Foundation
2920 W Broad St
Ste 80
Richmond, VA 23220

Wonder how you can participate? Share, engage, and amplify our content on social media. Your involvement contributes to expanding accessibility, sparking conversations, and fostering a community dedicated to inclusive cultural narratives.