Acid Free – Unpacking Collections

Acid Free is a consultancy dedicated to unpacking museum collections. We believe getting to grips with the basic documentation of collections is the key to unlocking their potential to engage and inspire audiences. Better catalogued collections are more likely to be unboxed and accessed. Unpacking collections is also about unpacking the language we use to describe objects, and revealing their historic and contemporary social significance.

Projects

Making African Connections

I am working on an exciting new project with Brighton Museum, to (re)catalogue and digitise around 200 objects collected in Botswana in the late 19th century by Rev. Willoughby, a British missionary, now part of Royal Pavilion & Museum’s collections. Some of these objects will return to Botswana on loan, and others will form a temporary display at Brighton Museum.

Curatorial Consultancy

I have been responsible for updating collections policies, plans and procedures which have contributed to Brighton Fishing Museum successfully regaining its Accredited Museum status. Working with the trustees, staff and volunteers, I have managed the implementation of a new collections management system, and supervised the work to inventory and catalogue the museum’s collections to Spectrum standards. My approach as a consultant is hands on, working alongside the team to unravel complex cataloguing conundrums and embed best practice in collections documentation and care going forward.

Collections Review

For Hastings Museum & Art Gallery I developed a bespoke collections review methodology, drawing on examples of best practice and tailoring available tools to meet…

Transformers

I was a member of the 2017/18 cohort for the Museums Association’s Transformers: Diversify CPD programme. Transformers gave me the opportunity to learn about museum activism, influencing change in the workplace, and helped me gain the confidence to speak up about issues which are uncomfortable, but necessary.

Supermuckers

Are museums doing enough to address the socio-economic diversity of their workforce? At the 2018 Museums Association conference in Belfast, I worked with other members of Museum as Muck to devise and produce an intervention asking conference delegates to examine their own class privilege, and ask themselves what they could do to further diversity agendas when it comes to class.

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Services

Acid Free can help your museum with collections review projects, backlog documentation, collections policies and procedures for Accreditation, or working with your collections data to make it more inclusive and accessible.