Kal demaree

Through many classroom simulations and service learning, I have built a robust skills toolkit for collections care and management. These skills include, but are not limited to, object handling, labeling, housing, information management, cleaning, and condition reporting. Additionally, I have experience with simulated selvage collection.

Through both of my graduate academic programs, as well as my undergraduate education, I have been trained in the logistics and writing that is part of curatorial work as well as exhibition development. My experience began with class assignments, and then expanded to include real life projects with tangible deliverables.

3D Mock up of exhibition for class assignment, created using SketchUp.

As part of their ongoing work with Tribal nations, Connor Prairie held a symposium focusing on partnership between western institutions and Tribal nations. I was invited to attend as a representative of the Indiana University Indianapolis Museum Studies Department. Speakers included Dr. Farina King (Diné) (Horizon Chair of Native American Ecology and Culture and Professor of Native American Studies (NAS) at the University of Oklahoma), and Morgan Lippert (Curator of Exhibitions & Programming, Myaamia Heritage Museum & Archives).

Provided by my then employer, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, I undertook project management training from

INSTEP starts for “Intensive NAPGRA Summer Training & Education Program”, and it is a week long annual training put on by the NAGPRA Compliance Officers for Indiana University and University of Illinois, Drs. Jayne-Leigh Thomas and Krystiana Krupa, in partnership with Dr. Jenny Davis (Chickasaw), and various THPO affiliated guest facilitators.

NAGPRA stands for Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which is federal law in the United States. Passed in 1990, NAGPRA requires federally funded institutions (including museums) to consult with lineal descendants, federally recognized Native American tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations in order to return Native American cultural items, which include human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony.