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David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University

Resources for researching works of art in the collections of the David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University

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Welcome to the David Owsley Museum of Art Subject Guide. The purpose is to provide students, researchers, and scholars access to information about the art museum and its collection.

General inquiries may be directed to artmuseum@bsu.edu or (765) 285-5242. See the David Owsley Museum of Art website at bsu.edu/DOMA for exhibition, collection, events information, and more. 

Muncie Arts and Culture Council - David Owsley Museum of Art

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For DOMA collection information and images, search the David Owsley Museum of Art Collection page at https://www.bsu.edu/web/museumofart/collection.  Email artmuseum@bsu.edu with questions.

Citing a Museum Label (from the New School)

  • The Chicago Manual of Style does not provide standards on how to cite museum labels and signs.  
  • Since museum labels and signs are only temporarily on display, and are not easily accessed by other researchers, they (like Wikipedia) are not very good cited sources for academic research papers.  However, like Wikipedia, they can be an excellent source of background information.  
  • Text from museum labels and signs is often duplicated on the museum's website, a collection catalog, or an exhibition catalog.  Use and cite these sources instead of museum labels and signs for a research paper, when possible.
  • If the text on the label or sign is not duplicated elsewhere, and you must cite it, then you may want to include a photo of the label and the object it identifies (if there is one) in your paper or project (in the Appendix).
  • Footnotes/endnotes and bibliographic citations should contain as many elements as applicable:
    • For object labels: Artist, Title, Medium, Date, Accession number.
    • Author of text / Curator of exhibition (if known)
    • Name of exhibition / Name of museum department 
    • Museum name and location
    • Dates of exhibition / Date of visit 

Writing Help

Style Manuals

  • For the Chicago Manual of Style Q&A online
  • For Modern Languages Association (MLA) Style online
  • For the American Psychological Association (APA) Style online
  • For Associated Press (AP) Style online