Interdepartmental Collaboration (Conference Series - Session 5)

Communicating 'across the silos' is as challenging in cultural institutions as it is in the government.  Fortunately, we can bridge the divide and establish cooperative collaboration between the collections, security, facilities, education and administrative sectors of our institutions for the benefit of the institution as a whole. Brought to you by both security and collections experts to address varying perspectives, best practices, and opportunities for cooperation.

Live Q&A between the presenter and participants is included!

About the presenters: 

Peggy Schaller has more than 32 years experience in working with small museums and teaching Collections Management courses online and in person. She has also been a participating member of IFCPP for 25 years working to bring Collections and Security to the table together so they can work in unison for Collection Protection.Peggy Schaller is the President of Collections Research for Museums in Denver, Colorado. She has a BA in Anthropology with minors in Art History and Geology from the University of Arizona in Tucson, a MA in Anthropology with a minor in Museum Studies from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and is a Certified Institutional Protection Manager II. Collections Research for Museums is a museum consulting firm that specializes in cataloging/collection management training and services.

Mitch McDavid has been working in the field of cultural property protection, first as an archaeologist, then in museum security, for over 12 years. Working his way up from a Gallery Assistant, to the Security Management team, and then Chief of Security, he has been in charge of the safety and security of the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin for over 6 years. At the Blanton, he is not only responsible for the development and implementation of all security, life safety, and emergency preparedness policies for the museum, but also the training and management of the Blanton’s almost thirty security staff members. Having been a member of the IFCPP since 2015, Mitch has had the privilege of presenting for the IFCPP on multiple occasions, focusing on such topics as: protecting controversial artwork, interdepartmental collaboration, and addressing the evolving landscape of training considerations for today’s cultural property security and front-of-house staff.