This post was written by Varda Khan, who worked for two semesters as a Student Assistant – Descriptive Metadata Writer in the Digital Projects Lab. Varda recently graduated from UNT with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Art History and minors in Arabic and Business Computer Information Systems.

Portal Collection Highlight: Dallas Museum of Art Exhibition Photos

What is the Dallas Museum of Art Exhibition Records Collection?

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) Exhibition Records Collection includes photographs and documentation from various exhibitions that have taken place in the Dallas Museum of Art dating back to the early 1900s to the early 2000s. The pieces displayed in these exhibitions date back to 1200 and possibly earlier. The DMA’s vast collection includes art from many eras and regions: African Art, Asian Art, Design and Decorative Art, European Art, Indigenous American Art, Island Southeast Asia and Oceanic Art, The Keir Collection of Islamic Art, U.S. and Canadian Art and more! The collection includes photographs from the viewer’s perspective and highlights the curation, installation, and chosen display pieces.

Working on the DMA Exhibition Photos Collection

Over the past few months while working on the DMA photograph collection, I have been tasked with adding precise titles, subject words from the Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus, and writing detailed descriptions for the photographs. I have completed around 100 records within the collection. From the collection I have worked on records from the South Asian Sculptures, Island Southeast Asia and Oceanic Art, Art of the African, Asian, and Pacific Rim, Eastern and Southern Africa, Asian Art, American Art Exhibitions. These various exhibitions have allowed me to explore several DMA collections and develop my analysis and description skills for various mediums and perspectives.

A Dive into a Dallas Museum of Art Installation: Island Southeast Asian Art Record

[Close up of Karo Batak Installation in Island Southeast Asia and Oceanic Art Exhibit]

A specific record I worked on and enjoyed was the photograph showcasing the various jewelry and ornaments from the Island Southeast Asia and Oceanic Exhibit. The installation that held the pieces beautifully displayed the pieces against a dark blue velvet background and showcased a black and white photograph of a man indigenous to the ethnic group or culture. Before starting to input information on this record I researched the pieces on the DMA collection and found the jewelry and pieces relative to the textile the man wore in the photograph.

Photos from DMA’s website include

 

Researching the collection allowed me to grasp a better understanding of the pieces I could potentially include in the title, subject or description. I vaguely titled the record based on the photograph and exhibition mentioned. Next, I wrote the description in detail based on what I found in the DMA collection, describing the pieces relative to one another.

_{Image showing metadata titles and description of object titled [Close up of Karo Batak Installation in Island Southeast Asia and Oceanic Art Exhibit]}

Then, I searched subjects on the Library of Congress Subject Headings and Genre/Form Terms, Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus, and the University of North Texas Browse Structure. Through searches on the mediums, purpose, and significance of the pieces, I was able to find 10 subject words (not all shown in the image).

_{Image showing subject headings for the object described above. Click on image to read subjects.}

We encourage you to browse this collection (which includes over 6,900 photos) to find hidden gems from DMA exhibitions past and present!