New storage to care for the museum collection

Keswick Museum has improved the care of its collection with the installation of a new high-quality storage system.

The museum, officially accredited to national standards, manages a collection of around 20,000 items which reflect different aspects of Keswick and Lakeland life, including Fine Art, Industry, Literature, Geology and Natural Sciences. Safe storage of the collection is critical to maintaining these standards.

New shelving – made possible by a £2879 grant from the Friends of Keswick Museum – has been supplied and installed by Rackline who provide museum-standard storage which is strong, easy to clean, and tailored to individual spaces.

The museum store, being limited in size and shape because of the design of the 125 year-old Arts & Crafts building and without efficient shelving in place, has previously made it difficult for staff to access some of objects in the collection, to put them out on display or allow researchers to examine them.

Jane Affleck, Manager at Keswick Museum commented:

“As the museum’s Assistant Curator is currently doing an inventory of the entire collection, this was the perfect opportunity to increase and improve our storage facilities by installing new racking.We have inventoried over 12,000 objects so far since the project started at the end of April this year. With this generous grant from the Friends group we can now more easily access the objects and meet national museum standards for collections care. Volunteers who are interested in these collections will also be able to do further research into them in a safer work environment.”

This grant from the Friends of Keswick Museum is a supplement to an Arts Council-funded project to fully inventory the museum’s collection. As well as improving the care of the objects and the information held about them, the museum is sharing its discoveries through its social media channels and a new digital interactive in its display of Keswick School of Industrial Art objects. Volunteers have been photographing KSIA objects which are currently in storage, and visitors can now see them in 360-degree images on a touchscreen in the museum.