AASLH will host a webinar on deaccessioning for history organizations. Whether your site is small or large, every organization can benefit from reviewing your collections, finding better homes for artifacts you don’t need, and developing clear deaccessioning procedures that make sense for your mission and your community.
Date: Thursday, June 26, 2025
Time: 3 – 4:15 p.m. ET
Location: Online
Price: $25 for members, $45 for non-members
From AASLH:
Is your organization running out of shelf space? Do you want to add new items to your collection but struggle to properly care for the ones you’ve already got? Are there artifacts you wish you could get rid of, but don’t know how to without ruffling feathers? In a private home, you can “Marie Kondo” a space, saving what brings you joy and getting rid of the rest. For museums, the process is more complex. Art museums have made headlines in recent years for deaccessioning key works to raise funds, which can be contentious, but deaccessioning at history organizations has largely occurred under the public radar. Sometimes the public or even our boards don’t understand why we can’t just keep it all!
Join staff from the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia, to learn about their multi-year deaccessioning process to refine their collection and make room for new stories. Collections staff will share in-depth details about the institution’s planning process, refinement philosophy, ranking system, disposition methods, policies, staffing plans, board engagement, public relations, and outcomes. This webinar will also delve into setbacks and unplanned opportunities throughout the process.
Learning outcomes
During this webinar, participants will learn about:
- Planning strategies to consider before beginning a deaccessioning project
- Tactics and decision-making frameworks for deaccession decisions
- Staffing plans for workload allocation and physical object processing
- Costs (both time and money) associated with deaccessioning
- Ideas for communicating with internal and external audiences about refinement initiatives
Find out more and register at the link below.
