Fragments of the World What about the stored collections

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Fragments of the WorldWhat aboutthe stored
collections?

• Dr Suzanne Keene
• University College London
• Museum Studies

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• Collections have grown to the extent that
  museums have become different organisations, but
  they havent come to terms with this nor begun to
  think how to address these issues.

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Collection from the Royal Aircraft Establishment,
Farnborough (Science Museum)
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Future museums?
Mark Dion, installation artist
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• Too much stuff?
• True or untrue?
• Collections, uses and values
• The research emerging perceptions
• What to do the challenge

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Those awkward questions
I suppose you use the objects to change the
things in the exhibitions?
well, not really - exhibitions dont work quite
like that
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Those awkward questions
Just dont ask how many people ...
I suppose people come and work on the objects for
research?
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Those awkward questions
Ah, theyre the heart of the museum, you see
Why do you have collections when you cant
display them?
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Those awkward questions
But how much does it cost to store them if they
are only useful for a few researchers?
Theyre for the future!
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Is it true?

• Glenbow Museum 1966 - 120,000 objects
• 1999 - 1,300,000

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What are they like? How did we get here?
Archaeology - London
Ethnography - Melbourne
Natural history - Ottawa
Science industry - Wrouighton
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How did we get here?

• Prosperity and manufactured goods
• Exploration of the natural world
• Urban development gt archaeology
• We just love to collect!

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Did we lose the plot?

• The new museology museums are for people, not
  about objects
• Collections still the heart of the museum
  meaning what?
• Debates about cultural value - is it important?

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Why the fuss?

• Large collections
• Rate of increase
• Amount of use - ??

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Does it matter?
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• Cultural value
• the crisis of legitimacy
• John Holden, Demos
• What culture needs is a democratic mandate

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Collections - 1001 kinds

• Art / aesthetic
• functional objects
• archives for research
• places people collections

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1001 collections, 1001 uses ...

• Research
• Learning
• Memory identity
• Creativity
• Enjoyment

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Kinds of cultural value

• Authenticity value
• Symbolic value
• Historical value
• Spiritual value
• Aesthetic value (beauty)

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Research authenticity
eg, authenticating Vermeer depends on 100s of
humbler objects
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Research authenticity
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Memory, identity symbolic value
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Memory identity symbolic value
Chinese Museum, Melbourne
Glenbow Museum
Canadian Museum of Civilization
War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
The Tank Museum, UK
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Creativity spiritual value

• Beware.
• You are entering the climate of a foreign logic
• And are cursed by the hair
• Of a witch, earth from the grave of a man
• Killed by a tiger ....
• from The Pitt Rivers Museum by James Fenton

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Creativity aesthetic value
Lanzardo, Arca NaturaeCollections of the Turin
Museumduring a move
Mrs Janet Knell, drawingGrant Museum, UCL
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Creativity aesthetic value

• These massless bodies have been made visible
• through the effective exploitation of their
  inherent flatness.
• The thin, pentagonal shapes are ... composed
  with both harmony and sobriety ...

Byrne Smith, sound installation, The sculpture
of the Grant Museum
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Enjoyment spritual value
Visitable storage
Open storage
People as curators, conservators,etc
Object focused events
Visible storage (hmm...)
Art based on collections
People contributing
People researching
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Stores tours
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People as ...
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The research

• How much are collections used (in England and
  Wales)?
• Who by, for what purposes?
• Museum attitudes
• What makes a difference?

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Museum survey

• The sample 385 museums represented in survey, of
  2,043

385 represented in survey
2043 museums
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How many visits?

• Poorly recorded low priority
• little attention to who visits and why
• Grossed up -
• gt 1 million visits

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Collections uses users
no. of museum responses total 205
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Top uses and users

• Frequent or some use - among 205 responding
  museums
• Research - academics 52, 63
• Researchers, unaffiliated 37, 63
• Education adult 27, 60
• Memory, identity individual, family history
  41, 67
• Enjoyment special interest groups 43, 84
• Enjoyment Friends etc 25, 58

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Is there demand?
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What do the museum respondents think makes a
difference?

• Important
• sort of collection
• connection with users
• how people find out about collections
• Not important
• Region
• Type of museum
• support of senior staff

• Obstacles to more use
• Limited staff
• Space, physical constraints
• Not obstacles
• Lack of public interest
• Poor documentation
• Low priority

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Is there demand?
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Other interesting observations

• Most popular way to increase access (by far!)
  more displays
• How to find out about collections an important
  factor, but telephone enquiry most common route,
  low on obstacles
• Any problems not due to lack of demand
• Virtually none plan to market access to
  collections

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Digital effects
Australian Museum
ISIN scientific instruments
Museum of London
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Emerging indications

• Enthusiasm and interest from specialist groups
• Passivity in museums lack of serious thought
  about how to justify collections
• Lack of imagination

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• Cultural value
• the crisis of legitimacy
• John Holden, Demos

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Aspects of value
values
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Creating intrinsic value

• Collections with INTRINSIC value - existence,
  option, inheritance, prestige
• Collections with INSTRUMENTAL value - from
  services delivered, experiences, etc

The more they will value this
The more people experience this ...
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What to do current thinking

• Less stuff?
• Loan and exhibit?
• Export the problem -gt collections centres (or
  salt mines)

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• or,
• more uses and more use?

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The challenge ...
The museum needs to be turned inside out the
back rooms put on exhibition and the displays put
into storage.
Mark Dion, installation artist
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A new organisational psychology for museums?

• Guardians of collections
• gtgtgt facilitators of engagement with them
• Storing static collections
• gtgtgt collections as a service (but ... for the
  future, too)
• Different and separate from other institutions
• gtgtgt follow others lead in networks for
  research, learning, creativity, enjoyment and
  leisure

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Is it true?

• Glenbow Museum 1966 - 120,000 objects
• 1999 - 1,300,000

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