COLLECTION MOVE
The museum closed December of 2016 and will be reopening in September of 2018. The timing of my internship worked out perfectly. A month or so into the Spring semester, all of the renovations to the existing vaults were completed and the new spaces were finished to begin moving the collection and storage spaces.
The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art is home to over 5,000 pieces including ceramics, photographs, paintings, works on paper, sculpture, video, and installations. Each and every single one of these works were carefully placed in multiple galleries as temporary storage. After long planning, the collection and management team had devised a plan for new storage techniques within the vaults and the order in which the collection should be moved.
It took months and nearly everyone involved within the staff as well as a moving crew from University Facilities to relocate all of the shelving, racks, cabinets, and large works down to their new homes within the basement vaults.
These were my absolute favorite weeks within the internship because not only was I gaining hands on art handling experience, but I was able to see the entire collection outside of a database. My mentors and co-workers offered great personalities to work with and a positive learning experience.