Nicolette Blum Meister
Director & NAGPRA Coordinator, Logan Museum of Anthropology; Faculty Director, Center for Collections Care; Instructor, Museum Studies
Pronouns: she / her Email: meistern@beloit.edu Phone: 608-363-2305 Office: Godfrey 114Nicolette Meister
I earned a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an M.S. in museum studies and anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. My museum experience includes work at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Denver Art Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, and the Pitt Rivers Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology at Oxford University.
My work focuses on administration of the Logan Museum, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) compliance, management and preservation of the Logan Museum’s collections, increasing curricular points of access to the museum’s collections, teaching collections management in the Museum Studies Program, and directing the Center for Collections Care (C3). I authored and implemented over ten NEH, IMLS, and NAGPRA grants to increase the preservation of and access to Logan Museum collections, support C3, and acclerate consultation and repatriation efforts.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Collections Management, Beloit College
Introduction to Museum Studies, Beloit College
Craft Production in Oaxaca, Beloit College (co-taught)
Field Excursion to Oaxaca, Mexico, Beloit College (co-taught)
Storage Solutions, Center for Collections Care, Beloit College
Care of Ethnographic Collections, International Preservation Studies Center
Grant Writing for Collections Care: Federal Grants, International Preservation Studies Center
Featured Publications
2019 A Guide to the Preventive Care of Archaeological Collections. Advances in Archaeological Practice. Vol. 7, No. 3:267-273.
2016 Assessing the Impact of Curricular Collections Use at a Liberal Arts College (with Kylie E. Quave). Museum Management and Curatorship. Vol. 32, No. 1:2-19.
2015 Contextualizing Collections Management in Academic Museums. In: Collections Care and Stewardship: Innovative Approaches for Museums, pp. 43-52. Rowman & Littlefield.
2012 Collections Planning: Best Practice in Collections Stewardship (with Jackie Hoff). In: The Small Museums Toolkit, Collections and Historic Preservation, pp. 108-131. AltaMira Press.
Stories Written on Beloit.edu
- Re-imaging the Logan Museum (Nov 28, 2023)
- Experiencing and documenting why museums matter (Oct 17, 2024)
- Museum Monday: Science, Art, and Anthropology (Apr 29, 2019)
- Museum Monday: Bioarchaeology and NAGPRA at the Logan Museum (Mar 4, 2019)
- Collecting Today (Oct 4, 2015)