ABSTRACT
Stored collections have become a hot topic in today’s challenging economic climate, as museums face mounting pressure from funders to make more effective use of these costly resources. In the UK and elsewhere, museums are increasingly turning to visitable storage as a means of making their collections more accessible. Rather than bringing objects out of store, this approach invites the general public into backroom areas formerly reserved for staff and specialists. Yet in the absence of empirical data to support this inverse approach, the well-trodden paths of lending and disposal have remained the preferred means of tackling underused collections. This chapter seeks to redress the balance, by considering what visitable storage has to offer beyond access.
A threefold model is put forward, comprised of serendipity, transparency, and wonder. Each, it is argued, constitutes a measurable benefit and a significant step towards shifting the current balance of power favouring the institution as sole producer and disseminator of knowledge.
The analysis draws upon original data collated from three sources in order to ascertain the impact of this particular brand of museum experience, and the ways in which stores may function differently from curated spaces: audience evaluation from public events at two very different museum stores, direct observation of a further six in-store events, and a UK-wide survey of museum professionals implementing physical public access to their stored collections.
Persuasive evidence of qualitative values for both visitor and organisation are uncovered, including possibilities for self-discovery, transformation and dialogue, which together demonstrate how access to stores, as much as stored collections, can be valuable. Visitable storage is thus presented as a challenge and an opportunity: to trial innovative forms of interpretation; to illustrate the purpose of stored collections and justify their preservation; and to communicate the wider role of the museum.
