I imagine that there are a other museums that are in our situation and I’d be curious how many of you feel it is a problem, or how you deal with it.

Our museum has a lot of curatorial departments that have a lot of crossover between them.  Some of them are time based (Antiquities, Modern & Contemporary), others are culture based (Latin American, American, European, Asian), others are media based (Prints & Drawings, Photography, Film & Video), and we’ve now added one that is religion based (Islamic).

Objects in the Islamic department are also Asian or Antiquities.  Our Asian department collects not only traditional woodblock prints and the like, but also contemporary photographs, videos, and sculptures—sometimes by the same artists collected by the Photography and Modern & Contemporary department.  Our Latin American department collects prints, drawings, contemporary paintings, and videos.  This list could go on and on.

I don’t want to discourage the cross-department collecting, but while the curators are only really concerned about their most recent acquisitions, I’m concerned that twenty years from now, it’s going to be strange why the same artist has works that look identical in different departments.  Am I being too uptight about this?  Does anyone have any similar situation or thoughts?

I’d appreciate hearing any comments any of you have.

Thanks,

David

David Aylsworth

Collections Registar

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

tel:  713-639-7824

fax: 713-639-7780