Hi - I'm new to this group and am interested to see how useful it is for
research and information distribution.

I am about to begin an essay on National collecting.  To keep the focus
narrow I will be limiting my discussion to art collecting but am interested
in the issue as a whole. The questions I'll be discussing include:

What is a National Collection?  Or, perhaps more to the point, what should
a National Collection consist of?  Should it be of objects which have been
produced solely by inhabitants of the Nation?  Or should it be
international, leaving the collection of nationally/locally produced items
to the "regional" museums?

Or should it consist of any objects which are perceived as having some kind
of relationship to the Nation regardless of their origin?  Perhaps a
National Collection should attempt to collect only objects of an exemplary
nature (competing with all the other institutions in the world who are
trying to do the same thing)?

Why do museums collect?  Why not just have large exhibitions spaces, solely
devoted to "public programming" which are reliant on institutions such as
Universities for the supply of - and research into - objects?

I'm sure many of you have been involved in these kinds of discussions and
there must be a heap of papers out there which have been produced as a
result.  My focus for this (smallish) assignment will be on the development
of a small painting collection so I am particularly interested in anything
related to this specifically.  However - who knows what it could develop in
to!

Please send me any comments, references or papers which could help me
define my ideas and spark off some new avenues of inquiry....

thanks,
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