CENTRAL STORAGE FACILITY FOR MUSEUM COLLECTIONS: A NEW TASK FOR THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR MUSEUMS AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Abstract

Museum is collections. Their safe and appropriate storage has always been and will remain the basic statutory activity of every museum. As can be found in both domestic and international sources, merely a fraction of museums’ collections is on permanent display, while their remaining part is kept in museums’ storerooms. Therefore, the priority goal of every museum, of its management, and organizer, should be the availability of an adequate storage area. Regrettably, history and praxis demonstrate that it is precisely within this field that museums have always had and continue having the greatest needs. Worldwide museology faces the ongoing challenge of museum collection storage, and this is the challenge that Polish museums face as well. Fortunately, for over two decades a process of actual transformation in this respect has been occurring, the latter resulting in modern storage facilities being built. These, complying with the latest standards, shall guarantee high-quality protection to the collections, as well as a low-budget construction, and low energy consumption in the course of operations. Poland, too, has been participating in these changes. Recently, the topic of museum storage areas has entered the list of priority tasks of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, which in 2016 commissioned the National Institute for Museums and Public Collections (NIMOZ) to provide appropriate reports, analyses, and concepts, while in 2018 it formally assigned the Construction of the Central Storage Facility for Museum Collections Project (CMZM) to NIMOZ. A new position of the Director’s Proxy for the Central Storage Facility for Museum Collections has been created. This means that a major development in the history of Polish museology has taken place: at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and its subordinate cultural institution definite steps have formally been taken in order to resolve the problems of museum collection storage in Poland. The assumption has been made that CMZM will be a pilot and model solution that can be followed by subsequent storage facilities for museums in Poland’s other regions.