[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

art inventory - summary of direct replies



I received a lot of good advice in response to my recent inquiry re: taking
inventory of the artwork at our university. My appreciation and thanks to
everyone who replied!

Some replies were posted to the list, while others were sent directly to me.
Here is a summary of the seven direct replies I received:

**********

Have you checked to find out what Department is responsible for
keeping Inventories of College owned property for Insurance purposes
to see if your old Inventory is there or has been previously filed with the
Insurance Carrier? They could/should ask the Insurance Carrier.
Worth checking on.  And then, comparing what you do find with
what is supposed to be there.  Sometimes, the results are scary.

**********

We here in the Archives are supposed to keep track of the portraits and
busts on this campus (medical school). It is mainly for insurance purposes,
but our list includes the following "fields:"

Name of person portrayed
Name of Artist
Estimated value (usually given when artist did work)
Location

The controller's office here is not really interested in when the work was
created or a description of it and that's the reason we don't have much
detail in our list (aside from the fact that it is not a priority right
now). We also have a hard time knowing when a new portrait is added or
displayed here, but that's another situation to deal with someday!

**********

We are a state university and do an inventory every year. Great fun. Each
item has a number on the back, if it is valued at a certain price. It used
to be $300 but has been raised to about $1,000 or so. I never remember the
guidelines.

I also keep a running inventory on Excel for my use. I would suggest giving
everything a number and attaching that number somewhere on the back of the
painting. We also record a brief description of the painting/sculpture (such
as the name if known). We include the acquisition date and an appraised
value and the location. This would be the physical location of the art work.

**********

You might check with your state arts agency. Sometimes grants are available
to help with such projects, including bringing in experienced curators.

**********

We have attempted twice to do a complete
inventory (but I didn't do the legwork). The first time we entered it into
a database made by the school, which did not allow for ANY inconsistencies
(like misspelling words or leaving off Mr. or Mrs.). The next time we
placed it into a FileMaker Pro file. It is user-friendly and since we never
have one consistent person to do anything or time to do a lot of editing,
it was a good program to use. We also took digital photos of each work to
place with the files. Unfortunately, the person who did it left right after
she finished, leaving no instructions on how to access the work. I haven't
seen the results yet and it's been two years.

We basically made out sheets with the fields we wanted and entered the
information by hand--one sheet for each work--then transferred it to
computer. Of course it would be easier if you had a laptop to take with
you. Other places have figured out ways to barcode items without harming
them. That way the next time around is much easier.

I remember that there were about 15-20 things we noted about each work. Let
me try to write them here:

Title of work
Accession numbers (we seemed to have several systems implemented over the
years, so we made categories for all of them)
Date of donation
Date of the work
Donor/Provenance-decide exactly how you want to enter names--last name
first, titles like Dr., Rev., etc., initials, all that
Artist-same here
Category (did not work to have them too specific because we couldn't always
tell the difference between oil and acrylic, etc.). It's best to do it
broad enough so an item won't fit into two different categories. For
instance, we had portraits in the portrait category and the painting
category.
Department with stewardship of piece
Exact location--building, floor, room, note about where in the room
size--I think we specified horizontal first, vertical second, including
frame
Past appraisals
Description
Condition (I think we used a scale 1-5 good to bad, and identified the
degrees in advance)
Past conservation attempts
Any other notes (like, suppose you know the donor comes by occasionally
asking to see the work, or there is some story that goes with it)
We probably also noted the date of the inventory and the person taking down
the information and what to name the digital photo??

It is more time intensive than it appears to those not actually doing the
work.

**********

I recommend that you consult a book titled, "Museum Registration Methods".
It is published by the American Association of Museums. There is a good
chapter on "Classifying Paintings, Drawings, and Prints by Media, with a
Note on Classifying Constructions". There is also a good chapter on
"Inspecting and Describing the Condition of Art Objects". This book is the
bible for anyone working with artwork and artifacts in museum registration.
The information in these chapters can help you with the description of
objects; each chapter also provides a brief bibliography at the end that you
might find useful. If you have trouble obtaining this book, let me know and
I could xerox and mail the chapters to you. You may want to view the website
for the American Association of Museums at www.aam-us.org.

Some recommendations for the inventory itself:

1) Do you have support from the campus administration to conduct the
inventory? Some individuals can be very difficult about providing access to
their areas. I don't know if the artwork on your campus is only displayed in
public areas or if it is also located in private offices and meeting rooms,
etc. It would be helpful to send out a campus wide letter to all
offices/departments prior to beginning the inventory so that people know
what you are doing and why you are doing it.

2) For the inventory itself, I recall the inventory sheet as being quite
simple. Location, Title and artist, and medium. There was a column to make a
check mark to confirm that the object was indeed located and in its proper
location. The individual conducting the inventory also included their
initials and the date.

While conducting the inventory you will want to note if there is any visible
damage to the artwork and also make note of hazardous locations - are
paintings or prints hung above heating and cooling vents, are they exposed
to direct sunlight, how secure is the artwork from theft?

It doesn't sound like you have paperwork completed for any of the artwork
such as accession forms. If you do, the inventory is a great opportunity for
a records/objects reconciliation.

You might also want to make a distinction between objects that would be
considered artwork as part of the college's collection (paintings, original
prints, etc.) and objects that are property (framed posters, etc.).

**********

Last I heard, The Cleveland Clinic had an extensive art collection and a
sensible system for art inventory.  Give them a call.