Hi David,

I used to be at the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University, and
their outdoor collection is enormous and continuing to grow. Their policies
would likely be of use to you.

Also make sure to keep the fact that outdoor sculpture is expensive to
maintain in all discussions. Either as a budgeted item, or perhaps as a
separate line altogether, your new outdoor sculpture must have care. The
cost will be small at first, but as a collection grows and objects are
outside for years, so do the inherent problems with leaving stuff outside
develop. It will eventually outstrip the ability of staff to care for,
requiring conservators, which becomes that much more expensive.

Mark Janzen
Director of Museum Studies, University of Central Oklahoma

On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 8:33 AM David Lewis <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello Museum-Listies . . .
> I'm involved in helping a mid-sized, community, historical museum grow and
> develop a plan to collect and exhibit outdoor art and sculpture.  This is
> relatively new territory (for both of us), and so we could (both) use some
> help.
>
> The museum has always included art in their collecting plan, and they have
> a great collection of two-dimensional works and some smaller pieces of
> sculpture.  They organization has now moved into a new larger campus,
> (several acres) and they are interested in collecting/exhibiting larger
> outdoor sculptures.
>
> I would love to see examples of collecting plans, policies, guidelines
> from other museums and outdoor sculpture parks. How much of your collection
> is "permanent" vs. "temporary/loaned" works? How does the selection
> criteria work? How about selection placement decisions, are those made by
> staff of by the collections/curatorial department?
>
> Ultimately I wonder, is large outdoor sculpture classified and treated the
> same as say an oil painting?  One is relatively easy to collect, move,
> exhibit, store, preserve/conserve --- the other is a bit more difficult.
>
> Currently the museum has a collections committee which makes
> recommendations (based on our mission and collecting plan).  However,
> because of the size and inordinate amount of responsibility to store and
> care for these large, outdoor, works, the museum's full board has been
> given the responsibility to make the ultimate decision -- and this is
> fraught with the potential for the board to make (personal) ascetic
> choices.  Choices in what the museum collects, and where these pieces will
> be exhibited. . .  At a recent board meeting I literally heard, "You want
> to put -- THAT [expletive] -- in our front yard?!" .
>
> Again I'm mostly on a fact-finding mission. So any plans, policies,
> guidelines, contacts, or nuggets of advice relating to collecting,
> exhibiting, and the "care-n-feeding of", outdoor sculpture, would be most
> appreciated.
>
>   - David -
> David Lewis, retired curator, and current museum board member, volunteer,
> and supporter.
>
>
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