Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Art Conservation

Reader 1

Piya Chatterjee

Reader 2

Preston McBride

Reader 3

Julia Lum

Rights Information

© 2023 Jenna G Wu-Cardona

Abstract

The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College holds a collection of 16,000 items, about a quarter of which belong to the Native American Collection. Many of these items are seen weekly by local third grade students as part of the Benton's Third Grade Education Outreach Program. Though the program has been in use for many years and changed throughout, there is still a lot that must change in order to clarify the intentions for the program for both interns and the students. Through personal experience as an Education Outreach intern, discussions with museum professionals, and reviewing relevant literature, Wu-Cardona has written about the history of the items, reflections on teaching with and about them, and compared the Benton's practices to two other museums: the Autry Museum of the West and the National Museum of the American Indian. They conclude with a list of recommendations for the Benton including building and keeping relationships with local Tongva/Gablrielino tribal members, repatriation of the belongings previously scheduled for repatriation, public acknowledgement of funerary belongings, more training and open discussion for interns on Native history and relationship to museums, and connecting Native American political and social issues to art.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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