Committee Report | February 2011

Cultural Education Committee

February 8, 2011

Time: 8:10 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.

Location:  Seminar Room, 5th Floor, EB

REGENTS COMMITTEE ON CULTURAL EDUCATION

Regent Roger Tilles, Chair of the Cultural Education Committee, submitted the following written report.

Your Committee on Cultural Education Committee had its scheduled meeting on February 8, 2011.

In attendance were committee members: Regents Tilles, Bendit and Rosa

Absent:  Regents Dawson, Brooks-Hopkins and Phillips.

In addition to CE Committee Members, in attendance were:  Chancellor Tisch, Valerie Grey, Carole Huxley and Anne Ackerson, Executive Director of the Museum Association of New York.

ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION

Chair’s Remarks: Regent Tilles welcomed everyone and opened the meeting   Regent Tilles remarked on a recent editorial in the New York Times defending libraries and library services.   Regent Tilles also remarked on the need for greater collaboration between cultural institutions and K-12 schools and commented on his desire to see the development of a specific model for collaboration between a K-12 school and a cultural institution such as a museum to achieve school turn-around.  The entire committee participated in a lively discussion of the opportunities for collaboration and the challenge to cultural institutions in having sufficient capacity to support the efforts required to achieve school turn around.

CE (A) 1 – Amendment of Regents Rule §3.27, Relating to Museum Collections Management Policies

Regent Tilles introduced Carole Huxley, Chair of the Board of Regents Ad-Hoc Advisory Committee on Deaccessioning.  Huxley introduced Anne Ackerson, who was a member of the Ad-Hoc Committee.  Both Huxley and Ackerson commented favorably on the diversity and expertise of the members of the Ad-Hoc committee.   Regent Tilles remarked that the committee agreed that it would defer for later discussion, issues relating to deaccessioning of collections in colleges and universities and libraries.  Huxley and Ackerson commented that there is a remaining concern about the ability of the Department to provide oversight of Museums and there was universal agreement among the committee members that museums must have guidance from the Department regarding the Regents rules on deaccessioning and other regulations governing  the operation of Museums.

Regent Tilles called for a vote on the proposed amendment has been recommended by the Ad-Hoc Committee and endorsed by Department management to protect collections held by museums and historical societies.  Approval of the proposed amendment will make the proposed rule available for public comment.  The proposed amendment would apply to chartered museums and historical societies authorized to own and hold collections under Rule §3.27, and would:

• Enumerate nine specific criteria under which an institution may deaccession an item or material in its collection.
• Specify that proceeds from deaccessioning be restricted in a separate fund to be used only for the acquisition of collections or the direct conservation, protection or care of collections.

If the Board of Regents approves the proposed amendment as written, it will be presented for adoption at the May Regents meeting, after its publication in the State Register and expiration of a 45-day public comment period.

Motion to approve: Regent Bendit.

Seconded by: Regent Rosa

Unanimously approved.

CE (D) 1 –Curriculum Support for Teachers from Office of Cultural Education Programs

Liz Hood, Director of Educational Television and Public Broadcasting, discussed with the committee a Departmental team called the OCE/P-12 Collaboration team.  Hood reported that the team consists of approximately 25 members from throughout P-12 and OCE.  The group hopes to provide in June some specific recommendations to the Cultural Education Committee regarding opportunities for partnership.  One specific area for collaboration is seeing ways to include appropriate language in the upcoming RFPs for Race to the Top to provide incentives for cultural institutions to partner with schools to apply.  The committee actively discussed the benefits of the OCE/P-12 team, encouraged Hood to report back to the committee routinely and to invite Regent Tilles to participate in upcoming meetings.

CE (D) 2 –The New York State Museum’s Vertebrate Paleontology Program

Dr. Robert S. Feranec, the State Museum’s curator of vertebrate paleontology provided an update on the current research and collections acquisition and stewardship in vertebrate paleontology at the State Museum.  Dr. Feranec focused on climate change in his presentation, providing the committee with examples of his research, collection stewardship and outreach activities.  He educated the committee on Bergman’s Rule and informed the committee of the range of his publication activities, which include Science Magazine as well as Scholastic publications for the K-12 audience.  The committee commented on the opportunity to develop a model of collaboration between the OCE, especially the State Museum, and Albany region K-12 schools and encouraged OCE to develop a model program, similar to the model that was suggested by Regent Tilles in his earlier remarks.

Meeting adjourned at approximately 9:40.