A New Museum Typology?

Abstract

The focus of this paper and case study is the public art Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, which will open in 2021 in Rotterdam. In our marketing campaign we present the Depot as the first fully public art storage facility in the world; but in fact, the development of opening up collections to the general public has been a focus for many institutions in the last decade. The concept of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen relates to different strategies for making the collection accessible, from visible storage and visitable storage, to the older concept of collection study rooms and the presentations we intend to make in the two public galleries within the depot, on the topics of collection care and collecting. With the opening of this building, we aim to reach a wider audience than the one that normally visits the museum, whom we will address as fellow collectors and owners of this public collection.

While there are notable tensions between the public function of the building and the museum’s primary vocation to preserve the collection for future generations, this new space also has the advantage of placing ignored artworks in the spotlight. The Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen represents a new typology in the museum field, in particular in the visual arts; however, there are more initiatives on the way, including the V&A East in London or the Centre Pompidou’s new collection centre in the suburbs of Paris. A collection centre open to the public is not a feasible model for every museum, particularly because it is expensive and makes strong demands on organisations. In the future, we will face questions around unlimited collection growth and de-accessioning. Nonetheless, the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen represents an effort to keep the depository active and more accessible.

Keywords:

• visitable storage
• study room
• collection centres
• collection care
• collection online
• de-accessioning
• conservation
• open storage
• case study

Notes

1 An updated version of this paper will be published by the museum in a publication by the museum on occasion of the grand opening of Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, forthcoming October 2021. In that essay, the main focus will be on the history of the storage facilities of the museum, in relation to its efforts to open up the collection in both museum and online projects from the 1990s onwards. The current essay more strongly focusses on a critical analysis of the concept of open storage and its effects on collection management.

2 The outdoor sculptures are stored elsewhere, alongside a few odd-size objects.

3 Private collectors can rent a storage room with adjacent gallery, where they may either stage presentations of their collection or hold conferences and meetings. Currently, the museum is negotiating with two corporate collections and several private collectors to rent storage rooms.

4 The museum functions as a foundation that oversees both the municipal art collection (85 per cent of the 151,000 objects) and the art collections of several other foundations, the largest being the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Foundation. Subsidies received from the municipality cover rental costs for the museum and Depot, as well as the costs for staff and collection management, but not for exhibitions, education, the collection restoration program, and all the other programme activities the museum undertakes.

5 Early examples include the visible storage at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver (c. 1980s) and the national collection of Staffordshire ceramics at Stoke-on-Trent, UK, in the late 1980s/ early 1990s.

6 See for example the open storage building at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea in Cheongju.

7 The museum pays rent to the municipality of Rotterdam, which in turn pays rent to the Stichting Collectiegebouw. Stichting Collectiegebouw is reimbursing the loan and interest over a period of 40 years.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sandra Kisters

Sandra Kisters has been Head of Collections and Research at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, since 2015. She was previously Assistant Professor in Modern Art at Utrecht University, Radboud University and VU University; she received her PhD at the latter institution in 2010. Her doctoral thesis was published in a revised English edition in 2017 as The Lure of the Biographical. On the (Self-) Representation of Modern Artists, which was awarded the AICA award 2018 and the Karel van Mander price in 2020. Kisters is closely involved in the realisation of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, including the moving of the collection and the restoration studios programme.