Curator & Collector

Tom Thomson Pine Island image taken from the McMichael Collection I just finished a most fascinating account of the controversy over the McMichael Collection (“Case Notes: One Premier’s Obsession? The McMichael Legislation in Ontario,” by Kenneth R. Cavalier in International Journal of Cultural Property 11:1 (2002) pp. 65–79). The McMichael Collection began as a gift [...]

I just finished reading Jeanette A. Richoux, Jill Serota-Braden and Nancy Demyttanaere’s article “A Policy for Collections Access” (Museum News Vol. 59 No 7 (July/August 1981), pp. 43-47). It was interesting, but at the stage of my career, when I neither need access to stored objects nor am in a position to make decisions about [...]

In Things Great and Small — Collections Management Policies, chapter 2 “Compiling Collections Management Policies,” John E. Simmons gives an overview of how museums and galleries can establish collections management policies. For obvious reasons, Timmons cautions against merely copying another institution’s policies; Timmons then recommends that the language to be used in the policy manual [...]

Some days ago, I read a rather long article by Eva Schulz entitled “Notes on the history of collecting and of museums in the light of selected literature of the sixteenth to the eighteenth century” (Journal of the History of Collections, 1990, vol. 2. no. 2). The article was quite interesting, but one part stood [...]

Writing in the New York Times back in 2001, Michael Kimmelman issues a helpful reminder that museums need to remember their values. It is not enough to get large government grants and build huge buildings without regards for the artworks or artefacts contained therein. No, museums operate in a realm of “rational entertainment,” and seek [...]

…the politics of museums displays. In “Dealing with the Past,” (Museums Journal Jan. 1992), David Jones discusses the politics of museum displays. He offers a welcome reminder that while not “every display should be a political statement,… many older displays were just that, and … it is necessary to be aware of their hidden messages [...]

…on a museum article. In “Developing a Working Definition for the Museum Collection,” (Inside Line, Fall 2002) Emily G. Nicholson and Stephen L. Williams discuss the differences between “non-collection assemblages” (e.g. shirts in a store), private collections, and museum collections. They note that “a major difference between assemblages of merchandise and collections is that the [...]

In “Collecting Reconsidered,” (Museum Languages: Objects and Texts, ed. G. Kavanagh), Susan Pearce categorizes collections into three general categories: souvenirs, fetishistic collecting, and systematic collections. Pearce uses the first term in a peculiar way: “souvenirs are samples of events which can be remembered, but not relived…. Souvenirs discredit the present by vaunting the past…Souvenirs, then, [...]

For various reasons, I am now reading a number of different readings on museums. I’ve created a new category, “Museum Literature,” to give me a place to put my thoughts on these readings. My purpose in writing responses here is not to produce exhaustive critiques; it’s simply to allow me the chance to try to [...]