“Does the child not bring into the house… an unusual variety of objects that they have gathered? Will they not take these now prized possessions to a corner of their own?”
Duncan Cameron (1971), The Museum, a Temple or the Forum.
Figure 1Prairie Stories. Note. (Acadiana Center for the Arts, 2025). Figure 2 Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage. Note. (Houston Museum of Fine Art, 2025). Figure 3Emma Louise Schmidlapp Building, connecting corridor. Later Greek and Roman Sculpture. Note. (Cincinnati Museum, 1930).
Creating and stewarding collections that are truly reflective of contemporary values, beliefs, and sentiments requires a level of awareness, consideration, insight, and collaboration that cannot occur only within museum archives and boardrooms. Although collecting is frequently thought of as a “behind-the-scenes” activity, collections work is in dialogue with larger, global communities, bonding museum professionals and the general public through reflective works.
Without community input and an approach rooted in community storytelling, external professional perspectives, collections become limited – the foundation is weak. Displays become reductive. Interpretations feel stripped of deeper meaning. To get to the heart of what a collection should achieve, we must examine the roles of collection staff who enable objects to speak for themselves.
What are collections?
There are an endless number of definitions for the term collections, dependent on a museum’s size, mission, and function. Yet the common foundation of a collection is an assortment of objects that are intentionally and strategically chosen to highlight important stories, moments, figures, and movements. Within contemporary arts, such collections can include 2D, 3D, conceptual, installation, and digital work (Bevan & Brace, 2019).
These objects are a point of connection for audiences to project their experience and outlooks upon, evoking emotion and intimacy to educate and entertain. This connection enables audiences to step into active roles of co-authorship – bringing new layers of meaning, all their own, to be symbolically draped over an object or artwork. Because of this connection, collections are the foundation for research, education, community outreach, and community development.
As each object embodies an originating community, an artist’s being, and the culture from which it was born, it demands a level of “careful, sound, and reasonable… planning and decision-making” (Merritt, 2008, p. 46).
Not just physically, but emotionally-grounded tiers of care that consider all meanings as equal. Therefore, it is a curator’s duty to abide by professional and ethical standards, and when they do not yet exist, to create standards for future generations of museum professionals.
How to Care?
Curatorial and collections care sit upon a foundation of proactivity. A core function of provenance research is to improve understanding of an object, including its origins, ownership records, and contested histories (Pickering, 2020). When a detail is omitted, it can potentially discredit or damage an entire community.
In the context of contemporary arts, we must consider the artists of Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Ukraine – oppressed artists and communities whose work can be stripped of meaning through a simple, underinformed assumption. We must consider Black Americans, women and men of color, and LGBT+ artists and the objects they create. Objects and artists must be given the chance to speak for themselves with freedom – an urgent need heightened by growing censorship within the United States and abroad. When that freedom is granted, meaning is opened, rich, and multifaceted. The connection between artist, audience, and institution is honored and bolstered.
“The poetics of the oppressed is essentially the poetics of liberation: the spectator no longer delegates power to the characters either to think or to act in his place. The spectator frees himself; he thinks and acts for himself!”
Augusto Boal (2000), Theatre of the Oppressed.
This care also extends to acquisition practices, situated within the intersections of institutional collections policies, shared ethical standards, and curatorial commitments to communities served. Navigating the different and at times contradictory demands of these policies and practices, proposed acquisitions must speak to community members, “apply legal and intellectual guidelines”, and fit within what the museum can provide in terms of storage and conservation (Pickering, 2020, p. 9).
“Know what stuff you have. Know what stuff you need. Know where it is. Take good care of it. Make sure someone gets some good out of it…”
Merritt (2008), National Standards and Best Practices for U.S. Museums.
To truly gauge whether an object can evoke meaning and feeling, a curator must establish open, consistent dialogue with people inside and outside of museum spaces.
Does technology hold a place within Curatorial practice?
The answer is simple: absolutely.
Although record-keeping often falls within the responsibilities of a collections manager or registrar, curators must have unfettered access to collection records, object data, and essential information. These records form the basis of any future research. Commonly protected within Collections Management Systems (CMS), information can be searched, associated with other objects, and catalogued for future safeguarding.
What is more neglected is the role of digital collaboration within curation. As many curators may conduct much of their research in solitude – surrounded by stacks of books, crates, and cabinets of relics – digital solutions can play a significant role in expanding research efforts. Information from small museums facing resource constraints can be channeled into larger projects (Avgousti & Papaioannou, 2023). Collections staff can assemble digital rooms of artwork for the loaning process. Most importantly, curators can use digital tools to connect with others. Platforms such as Zoom, Discord, and other digital communication tools should be leveraged to support museums’ missions of active collaboration.
Much of the modern assumptions and critiques of curatorship stem from elitist, racist, and sexist practices rooted in colonialism – infiltrating every acquisition, exhibition, and provenance record. The idea of curation as a “behind-the-scenes” role only exists because it was a profession dominated by men seeking to separate themselves from broader communities: by taste, predilection, and intelligence (Cameron, 1971). Community service was not the goal. Many early curators sought to extend their personalized influence over collections, forcing objects to speak stories that aren’t theirs.
Reading back on this history evokes fear and anger within me. How many stories have been forever lost to violence, oppression, and denigration? Which objects sit devalued and unheard? What losses of knowledge play an active role in our current world?
I believe that the field of curation is radically changing because of this shameful history. The pendulum is slowly swinging, and audiences are gaining autonomy. Rebelling against its own past, curatorship and collecting practices are beginning to acknowledge the value of objects and others – others that exist on the fringes, outside museum galleries. Museum authority is not compromised. It has been expanded and opened.
Figure 4Emily Larsen, director of the Springville Museum of Art, answers a question asked by moderator Ganel-Lyn Condie at the Interfaith Panel and Discussion. Note. (Springville Museum of Art, 2024).
The “democratization” of museums is a philosophical shift that has extended inward into the practices of collecting and curating. At its core, it is about respect. Respect for what we know and for what we do not. Respect for people, objects, and for ourselves as practitioners. The integrity to challenge and abandon assumptions that may be deeply rooted in disrespect (Svanberg, 2018).
Museums still have far to go. The progress made does not erase past exclusions and transgressions, and museums must resist the temptation to congratulate or glorify the fulfillment of their basic duties. Diversifying a collection without diversifying the staff caring for it is not sufficient. Acknowledging unethical acquisitions without changing the policies that allowed this purchase is not enough.
What gives me hope?
To me, the best, most poignant curatorial work has always been rooted in humility and respect. To care for an object is to acknowledge that its meaning may escape you. You may not know its full histories, associations, and truths. Allowing others to contribute and increase understanding is what creates truly democratized collections practices that directly affect each seemingly small decision that stewardship entails.
In my personal practice as a curator and small-business owner, I’ve witnessed how successful exhibitions typically involve diverse collaborators. Collections care is strongest when supported by professionals with diverse skillsets. Acknowledging that I do not hold all the answers has only led to better outcomes. This creates room for dialogue – a core aspect of modern museum missions.
It is in the state of accepting that we do not know everything, but hold the desire to know, where the most honest, lasting collections work begins.
References
American Association of Museums. (2008). National standards and best practices for U.S. museums (E. E. Merritt, Ed.).
Avgousti, A., & Papaioannou, G. (2023). The current state and challenges in democratizing small museums’ collections online. Information Technology and Libraries, 42(1), Article 14099.
Bevan, A., & Baars, C. (2019). Art collections. In B. Campbell & C. Baars (Eds.), The curation and care of museum collections (1st ed., pp. 49 – 76). Routledge.
Boal, A. (2000). Theatre of the oppressed (C. A. McBride & M. O. L. McBride, Trans.; New ed.). Pluto Press.
Cameron, D. F. (1971). The museum, a temple or the forum. Curator: The Museum Journal, 14(1), 11–24.
Svanberg, F. (2018). From totality to infinity: Reimagining museum collecting. In C. Johansson & P. Bevelander (Eds.), Museums in a time of migration: Rethinking museums’ roles, representations, collections, and collaborations (pp. 135–146). Nordic Academic Press.
Emma K. Sonnier | In Progress: A Museum Studies Journal 
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