collection and management re org

8/10/2019 Collection and Management RE ORG

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COLLECTIONS AND MUSEUM

STORAGENatalija osiCentral Institute for Conservation in Belgrade

RE-ORG SEE workshop, 15-25 October 2014, Belgrade


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Museum and storages

Museum as the non profit organization- collects, conserve,

research and exhibit

Storage heart of the museum

Housing the museum collection that is not on the display


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Management- mission statement

Museum mission statement

A written statement of the purpose, scope, uses, desired

outcomes/impact of the museum, its activities, and its collection.

How this reflects to storage?

Without clearly formulated, up-to-

date mission statement and policies,

there may be confusion about what

the museum does, what it collects and

how storage is connected to this.


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Management- collections management policy

Policies- important part of museum management

Defines the scope of museum collection

Defines framework of storage function


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Management- collections management

policy

A collections management policy is a set of policies that addressvarious aspects of collections management, in this particular caseregarding storage they regulate access, function, use etc.

All activities related to the administration of a collection, fromacquisition to disposal (documentation, digitization, handling, loans,de-accessioning and disposal).

This policy defines the scope of a museums collection and how themuseum cares for and makes collections available to the public. A

collections management policy also explains the roles of the partiesresponsible for managing the museums collections.


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Storage and mission statement- brothers in arms

Museum collecting according to mission statement will

directly influence on:

Types of objects

Material Dimensions

Origin

Specific condition

Specific conservation requirements


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Message, storage and mission

Determines significance of an object

Defines subcategories of collection

Position in the storage

Object message may surpass other

messages in an object which can

determine our judgment on the

significance. Also, different types of

heritage- e.g. living vs.

contemporary design collections,

may have diverse impact on

professional decision about object

importance. Therefore, message/s

of the collection are constantly

overlapping and changing their

level of importance. So message

that will be selected and identified

as noteworthy depends on the

museum mission statement and

what museum wants to collect and

which message to transfer.


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Message- object usage

What defines museum object?

Private or personal collections Museum collections


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Accession number

Canadian Museum of Naturehttp://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/


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Mission-collection-message

Collection represents a series of objects which have

the common message


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Collection

A grouping of objects or items held in title by the

collecting organization

Several individual collections

May include the building itself or the site


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What do find in storage

Objects that are part of the collection placed in the

storage

Objects from other collections, not belonging to the

particular storage Non collection items- old publications, boxes,

exhibition paraphernalia, curator personal

belongings etc.


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Collection

Non collectionexhibition equipment

garbage

Gray area other collections

soon to be collection

study collections

copies and replicas


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Study collections, copies and replicas

Study collections as well copies and replicas fall intospecial category of museum possessions.Consequently, their use and placement should bereviewed corresponding to museum mission as wellto the purpose and value of those objects (e.g.documentary value of copy or replacing vanishingoriginal), since number of those object can increaseover years. So if there is no clear policy formanagement of these categories, eventually thiscould lead to overcrowding problem.


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What SHOULD we find in storage

STORAGE COLLECTION


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What to take in account

Space for the collection

Space for the new acquisitions

Space for the objects from the exhibition space


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Requirements

Collection management person in charge

adapted and updated policies

documentation Location to take out and where to place non

collection


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Summary

Clear mission statement

Up to date collection policies

Museum object is an object with the NUMBER

Storage holds only COLLECTION

Non collection items has to be taken out

Always plan in advance

collection and management re org

Documents