Cheryl:

I can't tell you whether the space allocation formula you quoted is
appropriate, but since your's is an academic museum  I think it's
educational  function to the student body and the larger community needs
to be given more attention re: facilities than simply lumping it with
other "administrative offices".   I'd talk with others at
college/university affiliated museums to see what their real life
experience is.  

RE: your storage area question, collection storage, artifact prep, and
student work should NOT be in the same area.  If you do that your
ability to maintain security via limited access to collection areas is
forever compromised if you also plan to /depend on a regularly changing 
group of students to help do the work at the museum.  The students
should have a work area near staff work areas, even if it means 2 or 3
students share the same desk.  This allows easy interaction with the
staff and facilitates the informal learning opportunities that go with
students working at museums.  

I've worked at institutions that have a prep area inside the collection
storage area, but I recommend against it.  To me prep areas are places
where you can not only prep artifacts for display, but also do dirty
things related to artifacts you don't want to do near your
collection.... like unpack a set of prints that you were recently given
that has been wrapped in newspaper and covered in dust.  A prep area
should be a place that can be stripped and cleaned if it gets dirty or
you feel it has been contaminated for some reason.  With that in mind,
you may want to think about having a sink in that area.  

If you plan to use students to assist in any aspect of artifact prep,
again for security reasons it should be near by but separate from the
main storage facility.  You might want to wall off (with concrete blocks
for security) a section of the total collection area for the prep area,
but make sure it can be entered without going through collection
storage.  Because it will house artifacts temporarily, it should be a
secure area, but I can envision a scenario where you permit selected
students working on a few artifacts that have been moved into the prep
area to have unsupervised access to that area although only staff have
access to collection storage.  If at all possible, I'd also be sure that
access to locked areas if via an ID card reader rather than keys.  It
allows you to monitor who goes into what areas and is much easier and
less expensive to deal with if somebody loses their keys.  

If you are concerned about having your print collection and painting
collection in the same room for cleanliness/ contamination reasons you
can again wall off a smaller area for the prints.  This wall would be
within the collection storage area so it need only be wall board.  In a
previous museum I worked in they did exactly that to separate the
textile collection from a general history collection.  There was a door
between the two areas and it worked fine.  However, if you have that
kind of arrangement, be sure the prints area and the larger painting
area are on separate HVAC zones so you can keep each at the appropriate
temp and RH for the artifacts in storage at that location.  At the
history museum I mentioned, the textile room and the much larger general
history collection room were on the same HVAC zone.  Achieving and
maintaining the proper climate in two rooms of very different size and
use took a lot of tinkering with the HVAC system that could have been
avoided if they were set up as 2 separate zones.  The prep area should
also be zoned separately from the collection areas.

Good luck with your plans for your new building.  

Linda Bitley


>>> [log in to unmask] 12/18/2006 10:13:47 AM >>>
Hello all,

Lately I have been researching Gallery and Museum spaces for a
proposed
construction project, and I read that a Museum/Gallery should devote
"40%
of space to exhibitions, 40% to storage and 20% to administrative
offices,
etc."  The author did not explain this figure.

This raises 3 questions:
1) Is this the current thinking?
2) Where would education/classroom space fit in?  I assume in the 20%,
but
that seems inadequate to me.  In a 6000 square foot building, that
would
translate to 2400 each for exhibition space and storage space, and
1200
for admin and education.
3) Would the prep area be included in the storage figure?

A fourth question, unrelated to square footage, involves dedicated
storage
space versus shared space.  The architect wants up to include our
painting
storage (rolling racks) and our print files in the same room as the
prep
area and student worker area.  I feel this is a bad idea because,
without
a lockable room of its own the works will be exposed to risks from too
many areas (security, dust and other environmental hazards, light,
etc.) 
Would any of you advocate for a large room that encompasses storage of
all
2-d works, preparatory and study area, student worker and intern
stations
and Gallery archives?  Call me a nervous Nelly, but I just don't like
the
idea...

Thank you so much in advance.

Best,
Cheryl


Dr. Cheryl Kramer
Director,
Handwerker Gallery
Ithaca College
Ithaca, NY  14850
USA

+ (607) 274-3548 (tel)
+ (607) 274-1774 (fax)

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