Museum Storage Facilities in the Netherlands: The Good, the Best and the Beautiful

Abstract

Despite the fact that the Netherlands is a small, centralised country, its storage facilities are surprisingly diverse. What has led to the development of such different storage solutions? In order to address this question, we followed three lines of investigation. Firstly, a survey was conducted to evaluate stored collections in the Netherlands. Secondly, a selection of facilities were visited to investigate the evolution of storage buildings, systems and collection management. Thirdly, to inform future decision-makers, a quantitative benchmark was created by evaluating key data on floor areas, objects and costs.

This article discusses the evolution of storage in the Netherlands in terms of sustainability, access, climate control and location. Each facility was developed with objectives specific to its time and relevant for the stakeholders of that project. Over time, project stakeholders, objectives and ambitions changed. Political and economic drivers formed the basis for shared storage facilities in which different functionalities to work with or study the collection are available. When budgets were cut and sustainability became a global issue, a shift towards low-energy buildings occurred. Over time, Dutch museums became aware of their societal roles and their accountability as treasurers of the nation’s heritage. Collection centres were created to foster connections with the public and to legitimise the vast numbers of stored collections. This study shows that in order to develop new storage facilities that are economically, socially and financially sustainable, attention must be paid to longer term objectives for such buildings.

Keywords:

• museum storage
• collection management
• museum collection
• storage benchmark
• storage survey

Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the help of many people. We are especially grateful to Merel van Heesewijk and her contribution to the benchmark section, and to all the storage facility managers who so generously shared their information and experiences. Marzia Loddo’s project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 707404. The opinions expressed in this article solely reflect the author’s view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information presented here.

Notes

1 BREEAM is the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for the master planning of projects, infrastructures and buildings (What is BREEAM 2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bart Ankersmit

Bart Ankersmit is a conservation scientist at the Cultural, Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, which is part of the Ministry of Culture. Educated as a chemist, he specialised in risk management for collections. Bart is active as a museum climate consultant, researching ways to make museums and storage facilities more sustainable. He notably authored a book entitled Managing Indoor Climate Risks in Museums, with the aim of finding sustainable solutions.

Marzia Loddo

Marzia Loddo has worked as an expert in applied arts conservation in several Italian museums. She holds the European title of Doctor of Preservation of Architectural Heritage (2019, Politecnico di Milano). In 2020, she published her first monograph, Storage Facilities for the Collections of Western Art Museums. A Focus on the Italian Context, on the topic of art collections storage. Marzia is currently based in the Netherlands, where she is a postdoctoral researcher at the Delft University of Technology.

Marc Stappers

Marc Stappers is a building physicist at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. He offers expertise on the effects of thermal insulation, the indoor climate and sustainability within cultural heritage contexts. He is a guest lecturer at several Higher Profession Education and Training institutes on the topics of building physics and museology. He has authored articles including ‘Climate Control in Historic Churches’, and is co-author of Managing Indoor Climate Risks in Museums.

Cindy Zalm

Cindy Zalm is an art historian who has mostly worked in Collection Management. Since 2017, she has been Head of Collection Management for the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (NMVW, an organisation responsible for Dutch ethnographic museums) and is currently developing a new collection centre housing multiple institutes. She has previously held multiple roles relating to the development of several Dutch collection centres.