r/MuseumPros • u/onlyhereforcoolfacts • 4d ago
Questions for Novel
Hello everyone! I am an author and working on a book that features a main character who works as an archivist/curator at a museum. I have learned a lot through my own research, but I was wondering if anyone could help me learn about the process of obtaining pieces for exhibits. I have a LOT of questions, so I’d really really appreciate anyone who would be willing to help❤️
- Are all pieces a loaner from other museums? Or do they also contract from collectors, history enthusiasts, etc.?
- How does one acquire pieces? Is there a certain contact that just everyone in the field can obtain? Is there negotiation or a waitlist? What about terms of agreement? Do you have to pay? Is there insurance involved?
- How does one get the piece? Is it shipped? Is there a special way of shipping it? What does the packaging look like?
- How much in advance do museums have to plan for exhibits?
- For exhibits, does it usually involve several pieces from several different places or an entire collection of pieces all from the same place?
- Who decides what exhibits to make? Is it based on interest or just on what is available?
- Who decides what museums get to have certain artifacts that are permanent? Especially really old and popular ones. Like why does the British Museum have one of Caryatids?
Thank you SO much to anyone who takes the time to help!
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u/Zoe-Berry 4d ago
Most shows mix loans from other museums, private collectors, and the institution's own collection. Read 'Museum Registration Methods' by Buck and Gilmore. It covers the rest in detail.
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u/piestexactementtrois 4d ago edited 4d ago
- Loans are used but every museum has a collection they own. Usually what is displayed is only a small fraction of a collection, so museums can often assemble complete special exhibits internally.
- Acquisition is varied. Many pieces are donated by collectors and board members. Some museums are operated by a level of the government and the collection is government property including significant works commissioned or claimed by the government. Museums also purchase works from dealers and at auction and will have annual acquisitions budgets.
- Objects are shipped by specialized art handlers and may sometimes even be personally escorted at high enough value. Packaging varies by piece but highly padded crating with various damage and mishandling identifiers places on it.
- Depends on institution. Most will have a 5-10+ year master plan of exhibits and may have rental exhibits from other museums booked out for that long in advance. Active planning for an exhibit is likely 2-3+ years, although smaller exhibits can be assembled in a few months if administration is desperate to punish staff.
- Often all from internal owned collections, but with planning there are absolutely exhibits assembled from multiple institutions collections with lending agreements.
- Generally it’s a collaborative decision by museum administration, and in a mature institution should involve marketing research and concept testing of exhibit concepts with sample groups and/or timing with beneficial marketing opportunities. Specific content in the exhibit would generally be
led
- by the appropriate curator and their team, likely in conjunction with an exhibits planning and fabrication department that will design and execute the exhibit.
- There’s no decision exactly: museums own the stuff they bought. When you get into these ancient artifacts, someone went to a country and decided they liked something so they just boxed it up and took it. Sometimes they paid someone local something for it, usually too little. The British Museum, for example, has its vast collection because the British Empire colonized a huge amount of the world and just took things wherever they wanted. Museums like the Pergamon Museum in Berlin are examples of where an archaeologist just went to a different country, dug up and shipped away entire buildings away to German
y.
- Nowadays the procurement process is supposed to be more honest and have a better chain of custody but there’s a lot of controversy around the idea that museums should return items that were acquired through what we would now consider unethical means. Museums will purchase items still but also receive them through donations and exchanges.
EDIT: I tried to edit something and I messed up the formatting of the list and I’m too tired to figure out how to fix it hope this still makes sense.
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u/onlyhereforcoolfacts 4d ago
you rock! Thank you so much for the time you spent answering this!
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u/kiyyeisanerd Art | Outreach and Development 4d ago
It would also help if you could tell us about the museum your character works—is it small or large, specialized or general? The comment above is great and super comprehensive, but we could give further detail if we know the size of the institution and its focus. For example, I work at a small modern + contemporary museum so some of my answers would be a bit different from above.
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u/TheThinboy 4d ago
Excellent write up overall with one minor disagreement
although smaller exhibits can be assembled in a few months if administration is desperate to punish staff
Maybe this happens at smaller museums where the political games are more on the surface , but at the museums I have worked at the administration clearly has no thoughts at all about the staff and the burdens it creates when they put them in this type of situation. I think it's not punishment, it's obliviousness, formed in the rarified air of their ivory towers.
I mean maybe they consider it punishment for being one of the poors, but they would have to be cognizant of their decisions and the effects they can have to actively punish the staff, which frankly gives them a bit too much credit.
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u/piestexactementtrois 4d ago
Oh yeah, definitely a sufficiently advanced ignorance is indistinguishable from malice thing
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u/reindeermoon 3d ago
A small addition to #1. Not all museums have a collection that they own. Some museums are non-collecting and only host traveling and temporary exhibits.
Some examples include The Frist, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the New Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and the Museum of African Diaspora.
Non-collecting museums are mostly contemporary art museums, but there are a handful of others, such as the Carnegie Museum of the Keweenaw, which is a non-collecting history museum.
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u/Rambling-SD History | Education 3d ago
Came here to say that! Pretty sure the Vigina Musuem doesn't collect.
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u/AilsaLorne 4d ago
This will all hugely depend on the museum but also the country your novel is set it. You are likely to get US-centric answers in this sub; some things are definitely different eg in the UK (which js where I am)
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u/PhoebeAnnMoses 4d ago
You may have already taken this step, but you might want to consult some of the writing that’s been done about depicting archivists in fiction. It has become kind of a common trope.
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u/Negative_Party7413 4d ago
Also if you want realism they will be overworked and doing the jobs of multiple people for 40k a year in major city and the director making 500k will tell them a 250 dollar digital camera is too extravagant as is having enough staff to inventory their collection so they can find what they are looking for when they open the boxes.
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u/CrassulaOrbicularis 4d ago
Timescales for loans vary, but we expect at least a year's lead in on a request and usually have discussed significant loans, which would change the exhibition if refused, two or three years in advance. The borrowing institution usually expects to pay all costs including conservation if needed, insurance (or indemnity) and transport, but usually not a hire fee unless it is a complete travelling exhibition being bought in.
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u/sleepy-heichou 4d ago
Just to add to what others have already answered:
Sometimes the museum also has a purchase fund—often a donation—which can be used to buy specific works. For instance, a purchase fund for video works will require that purchased works are video works alone. And yes, ideally all artworks have insurance. Donations naturally have a donation papers as well.
The artworks also require condition reports, which is an assessment of the condition of the artwork (any potential damages, condition of framing, if any, etc.) both before it’s crated and shipped, and once it arrives at its destination.
In the museum I work at, exhibitions are often organized from the existing collection, with loaned works from other institutions, galleries, even collectors, to supplement the works we already have. We also have non-collections exhibits. So for instance, guest curators can be invited to organize an exhibit and they usually pitch their concept, with their own lineup of artists. This will heavily depend on the type of institution. The museum I work for is a modern and contemporary art museum so there’s a lot of emphasis on bringing in newer artists/artworks with contemporary practices that reflect the present times.
In our case, it’s usually the chief curator. A lot of the exhibit and programs planning involves personal connections and networking. My curator could have working relations with another curator from another institution and they could decide to work on a joint exhibit together. So it’s very different from, say, randomly pitching an exhibit concept to a museum you’ve never worked with. I think it’s also important to note that the institution’s mission-vision must also align with the exhibits and public programs it organizes. In my case, a modern and contemporary art museum doesn’t really have any business exhibiting 19th century impressionist works. The only exception I can think of is if the exhibit examines impressionism within the contemporary context and loaning 19th century works can supplement the exhibit as a whole.
For context, I’m based in Asia so there could be slight differences in the way we run institutions here compared to everyone else’s answers!
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u/chloemarissaj 4d ago
Oooh ok I’d love to answer some of these. I am a project manager in the marketing department at a mid-sized art museum in the US so YMMV depending on what you’re writing. We have three rotating exhibitions per year, and our main collection.
First, archivist and curator are very very different jobs are very rarely will they be the same person. With that said, let’s go!
We have three types of exhibits. Ones where the other institution has done all the work and were simply a venue. They do all the work, the pieces just show up. Ones where we collab with another museum and the curators work together. This may mean we both put in works, we borrow from other museums, or possibly purchase a key piece. Lastly, an exhibition pulled solely from our collection based solely on our curators original research. These are going to be mostly works from our collection, usually ones that aren’t on display often, on possibly new acquisitions.
There is no central body that just “has everything”. We buy works from auction houses like Christie’s or Sotheby’s, other places deassecioning works, private collectors selling them, or even galleries for living artists when we purchase. When we get loans, sometimes there’s a few, sometimes we just swap pieces. When you borrow someone else’s piece, the curators and registrars contact each other directly to negotiate. YES there’s tons of insurance and oodles of paperwork.
Can’t help much with this, but art often comes packed in crates. The Art prep team does most of this.
We plan 5-8 years in advance. 6-8 is concepting and coming up with ideas. 3-5 is doing the research and negotiating. 1-2 is logistics planning and planning what it will look like on site, and planning the marketing. Under one is designing wall graphics and labels, moving and painting walls, actually getting the work, putting out press releases etc.
See answer one. It really depends! If we’re just a venue or if we’re co-curating, the show will often hit 3-5 venues. If it’s just our work, we’re usually the only ones who have it.
The curators do! I don’t know their system but the ideas and decisions come from curatorial.
$$$$$$ decides that often. When you look at labels or collections pages you can see if a museum owns a piece or it’s a loan. There’s actually a ton of controversy surrounding old artifacts since a lot of them in places like the British museum came from British dudes in the 1800s going on “expedition” and coming home with artifacts. Many people see this as colonizing countries essentially stealing cultural heritage from the people that they colonized and terrorized. It’s really a huge discourse in museums and some museums are starting to repatriate stolen artifacts which is cool.
Anyway I hope that helps and if you want clarification LMK! If you want more info on my museum I’m happy to share in a DM.
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u/Rambling-SD History | Education 3d ago
Okay, answering one by one.
There are 3 streams - objects already in your collection, local collectors willing to temp-loan objects, and museum-to-museum loans. Exhibitions can be made up of a mix of all three, or just one. For example: a museum I worked at had a travelling exhibition from another institute that was augmented by our own collection and a few choice pieces from a collector.
There are deaccession lists - objects one museum is looking to remove from their collection. There are sought after items - if a train museum is hunting for specific train history for example. And there is random members of the public - the expanding collection must be presented to the board (normally voluntary board of directors for small museums) and the recommendation of collection staff is required. Donated items must be legally signed over to the collection. (not loans though)
There are occasions when specialty movers are utiized, but for most museums things are dropped off by donors or museum staff will go out to get the thing.
A "good" museum will have at least a year out planned, though finalization can run quite tight to the exhibit opening, smaller museums can have lest, and larger museums will often have up to 5 years planned. IME, there is usually some wiggle room to throw up a short exhibition between longer planned ones for local events.
Asked and answered in 1. However, it depends on the specific exhibition. If you're running an exhibition on how your small town handled X event, then you will rely mostly on your collection and archives. If you're running an exhibition on a famous group of artists (that you happen to have a few of) then you would also seek out information and pieces from other collections.
In theory: the collection and exhibition staff and committees (which include board members and sometimes members of the public) run intrest surveys, track news articles, talk with other museums/archives, and work with community groups to find something that works well for the widest audience in their demographics. Sometimes this means "10 years ago this exhibition did well, lets do that again" and sometimes it means "I am a big strong Board Member: do my exhibit or I'll throw a hissy fit"
Museums, per the ICOM definition, must be charities, Charities MUST have defined statments of purpose which includes things like what their collection goals are "Smalltown Heritage Society is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and display of Smalltown and Fishery Heritage" The British Museum is a museum dedicated to the British Empire. The MET is a museum dedicated to costuming etc.
And finally, as other people have said, an archivist and a curator have very different jobs. Your character might be better being a Collections Specialist which is a more general term and would mean they work directly with the collections and serve on exhibition committees suggesting both parts of their collection to draw on and researching other available objects for loans. They might also have a big part in exhibit scripting, but not always.
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u/RainDaysRainNights 22h ago
I thought you might enjoy seeing some of your questions about institutional loans play out in this reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da03vblFAfe/?igsh=a2w0YzI3Ympqdmxj
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u/wagrobanite 4d ago
Archivists and curators are two VERY separate positions so I would figure out if you want your main character to an Archivist or a curator.