MU7506 - Assignment 1

How should museums decide what to acquire?

For those who crave for museum visits there is always this itch if you have missed a
regular trip or a sense of eagerness when you travel to a new city to see what their
museum is like. It’s a sensation very similar to missing your old friends whom you would like
to catch up with and find out what they are up to, or that excitement when you are just
about to open a present not knowing what’s inside. People go to the museum not only for
the building, but also, and mostly to view the collection on display. “A museum is made a
museum by its collection…” (Taylor, 2004) so who decide what collection will be on display?
How was the decision made?

And let’s not forget, in the face of digital advancement nowadays more changes are
expected to revolutionize museums existence and operation…how, in a constantly changing
environment museums make decision on what to acquire? This paper will touch upon the
different scenarios some varied types of museums are facing while making decision to
collect, and to explore possible adaptations in the interim to cope with the changing
environment.

Too big to fail

Let’s start with the big ones. The Louvre has a total of 460,000 in their permanent
collection with only 38,000 pieces on display (Cuny, 2014); British Museum, last recorded
holding 8 million pieces in their total collection with 80,000 pieces on display
(Britishmuseum.org); The National Palace Museum, Taipei owns over 690,000 pieces (Lin,
2015) in the collection. Their common ground is BIG, all hosting at least half a million
pieces in their permanent collection. The question will then be, do their still need to
acquire any additional pieces in their collection?

Before we explore their collection development plan let’s begin with the question of do
they know their existing collection? Where are they being stored? The condition of every
piece? When was the last time some pieces have been exposed? Simon Knell reminded us
that “the development of a future (collection) strategy can only begin in a coordinated
survey of existing collections.” (Knell, 2004)

Time and manpower will be the core resources required to host such survey. Lord Sloane,
one of the key contributors to the collection which finally formed the initial British
museum used up to 30 years of his later life to catalogue the full collection (Cuno, 2011) .

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Between 1951 to 2012, the National Palace Museum have gone through three major
inventory counts and cataloguing, involving a team of up to 40 professionals in the field.
Each accounting process took 3 – 4 years (NPM.gov.tw, 2011). However, during such
process of full survey museum can also identify where are the gaps in their collection that
needs to be developed, hence directing them to acquire.

Now let’s move from behind the scene to the exhibition itself….how about the collection
being showcased. The sheer size of the collection of big museum also means that they
cannot expose the full collection at any one time. While some star pieces in these
collections can never be removed from public sight (imagine the Louvre without Mona Lisa,
Uffizi without the Birth of Venus and the National Palace Museum without the Jade
Cabbage…) it also means that some objects in their collections will never see the light of
day. At the moment it is estimated in the National Palace Museum each rotation of
exhibition can only display about 1700 pieces which means it will take over a century to
expose their full collection (Guide.com, 2016) Same goes for the Louvre, majority of their
storage are hidden from public at the basement of the Louvre palace building, facing flood
threats of Seine every summer, instead of being featured by tourists on their social
pages.

One solution of such issues would be to develop outreach program. For survey and
cataloguing existing collections, university faculties and interested volunteer would provide
mutually beneficial support. Students will be excited to lay their hands on rare artifacts
beyond school collection while university can provide in depth research to enhance
understanding. Volunteer can always provide necessary manpower to support repetitive and
tedious reporting routine work.

Outreach program will apply also to exhibiting more pieces to the public. Muséum national
d'histoire naturelle is recently working with the Arts & Science Museum in Singapore and
with Van Cleef and Arpels, a French jewellery maison to showcase over 250 pieces of rare
minerals and gems in a co-curated exhibition in Singapore. Such collaboration brings a
whole new dimension to the perspective of those who are expecting to see jewellery pieces
only and uplift the audience experience to an educational perspective.

The Louvre has launched the Louvre Lens project in the North of France in 2012 and the
Louvre Abu Dhabi in 2015 as perfect examples of outreach program. These two outreach
programs plus their object on loan to other museums involve exhibiting up to 2000 pieces
of their collection outside of the Lourve in Paris. (Martinez, 2016)

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The expertise and additional help provided by university researcher can facilitate the
identification of the weak links of an existing collection, hence pointing out a direction to
continue the collecting process. It was exactly during the inventory accounting period from
1967 through 2012 working with external expertise that the National Palace Museum
attracted wide attention from private sectors and the public. Such awareness facilitated
donation, exchange and acquisition of over 85,000 pieces of additional artifacts into their
collection. (Museum.com, 2016)

Authenticity and Expertise

Musee Picasso Paris was inaugurated in October 1985 with over 5000 pieces in their
permanent collection (Paris.com, 2016). So will an art student who worships the works of
Picasso visit this museum then learn everything about Picasso? Is this the only museum
showcasing Picasso’s work? Can this museum represent the sole voice of this legendary
artist? Are all important pieces of Picasso’s work being collected here?

When a museum is named and built after one theme it does develop an expectation from
the audience about their expertise. Such expectation will need to be incorporated into the
development strategy of the museum hence directing their collection strategy.

We can imagine the owner/collection director of the Musee de Picasso Paris to pull
together resources and collaborate with other Picasso museums to grow their expertise,
and there are quite a number of them. To name but just a few, like the Picasso Museum of
Barcelona, opened in 1963; Musee Picasso Malaga, built in the city he was born; and Musée
Picasso, Antibes, the home of the artist himself for 6 months. Exchange and sharing of
exhibits will enhance their collection, be it permanent or temporary. Yet on top of tangible
objects we would expect Musee Picasso Paris as the leading museum in the world
(Paris.com, 2016) for the artist to drive the expertise of non-tangible resources. We look
forward to books and research reports to be published, organization of forum and sharing
of appreciation of the artists work.

Yet in terms of collecting more Picasso pieces this museum however will be facing a much
complex situation, just like any other modern art museums are facing today. The collection
director needs to operate in an open market full of private collectors, art galleries, auction
houses and other national level encyclopedic museums with very likely a much bigger
collection budgets. To break this cycle a thematic museum needs to stand out as the one
true expert of what they represent, not only from the collection point of view but

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knowledge, completeness in the archival function and expertise of authenticity, which will
then attract donation of pieces and other collaboration projects.

Small, but not the Least

SOMDAK represented a very interesting model of collating modern sociological museum

format “collecting today for tomorrow” (Steen, 2004). The problem a community museum
faces is to make meanings of their collection base on a wide context of present experience
and they are alive. Such meaning making “requires museums to create new knowledge…
which enables users to identify with their museum, their history and their own time.”
(Steen, 2004).

As this is about our present life the issue is more complex than museum collecting objects
from the past. “We have already decided that we cannot collect for the future, other than
by collecting the present.” (Knell, 2004). We have the choice to decide what can stay and
deserve a shelf space in such a museum. The question here goes back to the community
this museum wants to represent, in which the decision can only be made collectively.

“If individuals construct their own sets of values, there is no such thing as a
correct decision about what should be collected. The solution then lies in sharing
responsibility for those decisions, developing an informed knowledge
(connoisseurship), involving others (our disciplinary communities) and working within
the constraints of the materials available to us.” (Knell, 2004)

Located in an old community in Wanchai, Hong Kong, the Blue House marked a living memory
of the early colonial history since 1920s (Kong.com, 2016). With the help of a charity
organization and commercial donations a small museum is built to collect objects
representing the local lifestyle, it is named the Hong Kong House of Stories. Since it’s
launched in 2007 the Blue House have become the hub of local cultural activities, including
workshops of local handicrafts, nostalgic movie viewing and “pun choi” dining experience.
However the HK House of Stories still remain a collate of used objects piled up together.
“If museums refrain from deciding what should be remembered from the present, they will
fail in their mission.” (Steen, 2004)

Community museum faces the challenge of shortage of resources in all aspects, be it

funding, professional staff and the lack of a long term strategic plan. For them the
pressure of maintaining operation is as pressing as the time issue they face knowing
records are disappearing. “Museums should record and collect material from the present

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rather than searching for early examples or simply recording what was dying out.” (Steen,
2004)

Those who lived the life of what the community represents are aging and dying. At the
moment there are 12 original residents still living in the structure of the Blue House.
Retrieval of full records of their memories and archives are imminent before they
disappear.

The top priority of collecting for this category of museum is to record, follow by an
objective grading criteria such as the ranking system put forward by Martin Wickham
(Wickham, 2004) to decide which of these testimonials should remain in the collection.

The NEO museum – Museums without a collection

And while we dealt deeply into the collection matters of the conventional museums…those
that have a building, hosting a collection and responsible for research and exposition of
objects…the new genre of museum is quietly on the rise. They bear the name of “museum”
but do not possess any collection of their own, they host exhibitions of other’s collection
and provide a venue of eductainment to their target audience. The only difference
between this new type of museum from a gallery is that they do not participate in
transactions. The MOCA in Shanghai, Art & Science Museum in Singapore, D Museum in
Korea are only some of the examples.

For them they do not need to consider the question of acquiring nor collecting objects,
neither will they need to provide the function of research and expertise. Yet they manage
to build a reputable brand name of their own and have constantly proven their popularity
amongst a new group of audience, especially the younger generation. Will this be one of the
future developments of museum? That collection will be hosted by one type of institution
for example the Asian Art Archives (Archives, 2016), while exhibitions to be handled by
this kind of “NEW” museums? Flexibility and variety of exhibition is guaranteed with this
new format. They are like the Uber of the cultural world, which sounds like a great idea
but somehow we all sense that there is something wrong with it which we are unable to
verbalize.

What we know for sure is the constantly changing environment of the museum world. Not
noticing such change and not reflecting the way to run museum will only result in
marginalization. The same goes for acquisition of collection. Simon Knell mentioned that

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“the collecting policy of today will not fit with tomorrow, but perhaps the collecting policy
itself has had it’s day anyway.” (Knell, 2004)

Outreach projects and collaborations with other museum and education institute may serve
as doors museums can open to shape their collecting direction. At the end of the day it
should begin with knowing one’s own identity as a museum. What is their mission? What do
museum want to achieve by running this institute? Who is their target audience? Answers
of all these would be reflected in their strategy and practice of collection management,
including what to acquire in a collection. “We need museums to remain those object-
centred oases in a world of change, but in order to achieve this they too must change.”
(Knell, 2004)

Archives, A. A. (2016). collection. Retrieved from http://www.aaa.org.hk/: http://www.aaa.org.hk/

Britishmuseum.org. (n.d.). Fact sheet. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from www.britishmuseum.org:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/fact_sheet_bm_collection.pdf

Cuno, J. (2011). The Enlightment Museum. In J. Cuno, Museums Matter, In Praise of the Encyclopedic
Museum (p. 11). Chicago: The Universitty of Chicago Press.

Cuny, C. (2014, September 18). "Pyramid" Project Launch, the Musee du Louvre is improving visitor
reception (2014-2016). Paris, France: Press Department the Musee du Louvre.

Guide.com, T. C. (2016). Taipei National Palace Museum. Retrieved Mar 31, 2016, from Travel China
Guide: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/taiwan/museum.htm

Knell, S. (2004). Altered values: searching for a new collecting. In S. Knell, Museums and the Future of
Collecting (pp. 1-46). Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Kong.com, D. H. (2016). The Blue House. Retrieved from Discover Hong Kong:
http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/see-do/culture-heritage/historical-sites/colonial/the-
blue-house.jsp

Lin, Z. y. (2015). Meet the New National Palace Museum. Taipei: Acousti Guide.

Martinez, J.-L. (2016). www.louvre.fr. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from www.louvre.fr:
http://www.louvre.fr/en/missions-projects

Museum.com, N. P. (2016). Old Collection and new addition. Retrieved march 31, 2016, from
www.npm.gov.tw: http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/Article.aspx?sNo=03001513

NPM.gov.tw. (2011, June). Inventories of the collection. Retrieved from National Palace Museum:
http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/Article.aspx?sNo=03001525

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Paris.com, M. P. (2016). the collection. Retrieved 2016, from Musee Picasso Paris.com:
http://www.museepicassoparis.fr/en/the-collection/

Steen, A. (2004). Samdok: tools to make the world visible. In S. Knell, Museums and the Future of
Collecting (pp. 196-204). Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Taylor, M. (2004). What is in a "national" museum? The challenges of collecting policies at the National
Museums of Scotland. In S. Knell, Museums and the future of collecting (pp. 165-178). Surrey,
England: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Wickham, M. (2004). Ranking Collections. In K. Simon, Museums and the Future of collecting (pp. 222-
234). Surrey, England: ashgate Publishing Limited.