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  • 1.  Children's Museum Collections Policy

    Posted 08-17-2022 06:13 AM
    Good morning!

    I am working with a soon-to-be open children's museum in the north of Boston area on collecting information about core documents. The museum's focus is on opening, not immediate accreditation. I'm having trouble finding examples of collections policies for children's museums to share with the staff. 

    My background is more connected to historic sites and small museums, so this is a new area for me to explore. Questions:
    1. This new museum won't be actively storing or collecting objects or archives - do they even need a collections policy?
    2. If they do need a policy, can the policy simply be that they are not actively collecting or storing/housing objects and archives?
    3. If you are from a children's museum and have a collections policy, would you be willing to share?
    4. Any other advice about collections in children's museums that I should share?

    Thank you in advance for your help! Feel free to email julie@museumtastic.com or respond here.

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    Julie Arrison-Bishop
    Founder
    MuseumTastic
    Beverly, Mass.
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  • 2.  RE: Children's Museum Collections Policy

    Posted 08-18-2022 10:42 AM
    I believe that all museums should have a formal collections policy adopted by vote of their Governing Board prior to opening. The policy would explain the rationale behind how the institution will deal with donations, objects, gifts, and properties that are created with grants or donor funds.  A non-collecting institution may still have temporary custody of collections from other museums or valuable property for which it must demonstrate duty of care and custodial responsibilities including details on tracking from arrival into a museum to the date the object leaves. When I worked with the Portland (OR) Children's Museum, we were transitioning from a small house museum to a larger building. Over about 50 years, the museum had amassed many games and toys that came to them through donors and as by-product of exhibition development.  Effectively an attic that turned out to have a lot of stuff worth less than $1 on Ebay, and a bunch of iconic games and items that had appreciated in value.  Many were gifts of estates, so the transition from City Gov't to 501c3 meant property transfer, value, and ownership all required clarification, and intent of the donor had real implications for what would happen to this stuff.

    So the simple answer is yes, if you don't have a collections policy, and a donor funds a thing and doesn't like what you do with it, you're looking at lawyers and headaches. Good policy is good donor relations.




    ------------------------------
    John Fraser, PhD AIA
    President & CEO Knology
    Editor, Curator: The Museum Journal (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.)
    Series Editor, Psychology and Our Planet (Springer Nature) 

    Author: The Social Value of Zoos

    40 Exchange Pl. Suite 1403
    New York, NY 10005

    main: 347-766-3399. fax: 347-388-2815
    JohnF@knology.org
    knology.org 
    Twitter: @KnologyResearch
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Children's Museum Collections Policy

    Posted 08-19-2022 10:44 AM
    Hi Julie!

    Adding to John's excellent points:

    A collecting policy - coupled with a vigorous education of the Board - can protect the organization from well-meaning acceptance of rogue donations. It is amazing what people (especially Board members and member-members) can convince themselves the museum "needs", from decommissioned vehicles "for the kids to play on" to arsenic-laced taxidermy.

    In addition, front-line staff need to know to refuse unplanned donation drop-offs and/or to call a manager to the desk. (Trust me, it happens!)

    If the museum ever has any live animals - even a fish tank - they should definitely cover this in the policy. At my last place of employment, people attempted (sometimes in the dead of night) to drop off unwanted pets. While we did sometimes add former pets to our teaching collection, such donations had to go through a formal process with the animal care department, for obvious reasons.

    In fact, this would be a good addition to the policy even the museum does NOT have live animals, because potential donors may have visited other children's museums that do.


    Betsy Loring
    she/her/hers
    expLoring exhibits & engagement, LLC
    6 Farnum Street
    Worcester, MA 01602

    Phone: +1 (978) 618 - 9673





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