act-dog

Public museums exist for two main reasons: to educate the public and provide stewardship (legal and²⁶ ethical management, care, documentation, and use)²⁶ of their collections. Unfortunately, due to space constraints, a typical museum only exhibits about ten percent of the items in its collection; the other ninety percent remains in storage. When displaying²⁷ such a small portion of artifacts severely limits public access and therefore public education. Furthermore, maintaining such a large number of artifacts in storage while acquiring additional items makes finding enough suitable storage space difficult, especially for delicate items. [ A ]

To remain true to the goals of education and stewardship, museums should dedicate public access space to visible storage. [ B ] Also known as open storage, visible storage provides²⁸ ways to display many items in small or irregular spaces, allowing more artifacts to be on exhibit. [ C ] as a whole.

In a traditional museum display, each artifact is labeled and positioned at eye level with plenty of space between it²⁹ and the other objects. Subsequently,³⁰ artifacts in visible storage spaces are placed close together and are often displayed from floor to ceiling with few labels. Areas of a museum that cannot house a traditional display, therefore, might be ideal for a visible storage display. Ceramic pottery where it³¹ might otherwise be positioned in individual glass cases might be lined up on shelves behind a glass wall. An antique fork and spoon fastened to a large informational board might instead be part of an entire set of silverware arranged under glass in pull-out cabinet drawers. [ D ]

While some artifacts can never be displayed @, many pieces that can—and should—be³³ viewed are not. Whereas³⁴ a museum designates areas for visible storage, it uses space efficiently, providing safe displays for artifacts and allowing visitors greater access to independently study the works that make the museum unique.