Mobilising Collections Storage to Deliver Wide-Ranging Strategic Objectives at the Sedgwick Museum

Abstract

Can a new storage facility drive a strategic transformation for a museum? What opportunities does an off-site ‘behind the scenes’ facility provide for developing a museum’s stakeholder relationships and its public engagement role; furthermore, what impact can it have on the social needs of a new community?

The Colin Forbes Building is a 650-square-metre facility opened in 2019 by the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK, located around 4.5 kilometres from the main museum site in central Cambridge. When fully populated it will provide high-quality, environmentally controlled storage for more than 80 per cent of the Sedgwick’s rock and fossil collections and its unique historic archive. In this case study, we describe how a project conceived to improve storage is now driving a much wider range of strategic initiatives.

The project is part of a new Strategic Plan for the Sedgwick Museum, adopted in 2019 and instigated by an external review of the museum’s activities, new leadership and extensive consultation. With the building project itself nearly completed, the challenge lay in mobilising this new facility to contribute to delivery of the aforementioned Strategic Plan. By equipping and presenting it as a dynamic centre for collections-based research we are enabling active development of the Sedgwick’s relationship with the scientific research community. Furthermore, it will enable the Sedgwick to deliver public engagement in ways that enhance the existing ‘traditional’ museum offer. The facility’s location on the edge of a major new community currently under construction on the north-west outskirts of Cambridge, enables us to engage meaningfully with a much wider public and university audience in an area of the city that currently has very little cultural provision. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, we review approaches and achievements, and reflect on how the project can continue to support strategic transformation in the post-pandemic period.

Keywords:

• collections storage
• collections research
• case study, public engagement
• community engagement

Acknowledgements

▶ The authors acknowledge the contributions of Duncan Maskell, previously University of Cambridge Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Lindsay Grear, previously Head of the School of Physical Sciences, Andy Whittam, previously Director CASP, Graham Balmforth, University of Cambridge Estates Division and Cowper Griffith Architects. Past and present staff of the Museum and the Department of Earth Sciences also made valuable contributions, in particular Sarah Wallace-Johnson, Matt Riley, Sandra Freshney, Sarah Hammond, Catherine Craston and Andy Buckley.

▶ The Sedgwick Museum also acknowledges the support of Arts Council England’s Designation Development Fund, which supports the Realising the Potential project.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Liz Hide

Liz Hide is Director of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Her role involves ensuring the museum is inclusive and audience-focused, and balancing the needs of researchers, students and the public. Her interests include the role of university museums at the interface of universities and their communities, the social history of geology, and how museums address social inequality and discrimination. Previously she led the University of Cambridge Museums consortium and was Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology at National Museums Scotland. Through her freelance work she has supported museums and organisations to deliver strategic change.

Dan Pemberton

Dan Pemberton is a museum professional with over 30 years’ experience working in the museum and library sectors. Educated in marine zoology and vertebrate palaeontology, Dan has spent the last 20 years working with geological collections, with past experience of archaeological, social history and maritime collections. In recent years he has served as Project Manager for a number of digitisation and 3D modelling projects, and provided expert advice for specifications of the Colin Forbes Building, the Sedgwick Museum’s new geological store in west Cambridge. At the time of writing Dan is overseeing the migration of collections to the new store.