Bauder-Landsgard Collections Study Center (BLCSC)
Update for December 1, 2007
The BLCSC moving project is coming closer and closer to completion. With nearly
all of the objects moved to the BLCSC, we will spend the upcoming winter
months doing indoor work and fine tuning.
The plaster busts have all been photographed and have a permanent home on the last aisle of shelves in the storage area. Ceremonial drinking horns and other miscellaneous objects are housed there as well. Now all of the aisles on the small objects side of the building contain at least some objects.
The last aisle on the large objects side of the building will hold more than a dozen hanging cupboards retrieved from the basement of the museum’s main building, the Westby-Torgerson Education Center basement, and the Mork furniture area adjacent to Vesterheim’s library.
It has been over a year since large
objects lined the center aisle of the BLCSC. The sight brings back memories
of the nearly 200 trunks and boxes moved during the early months of
the project in 2006.
In addition to increased access for researchers and improved collections care,
the BLCSC allows the curatorial staff to identify and select objects to
rotate
through the exhibit galleries in the museum’s main building. An “Object
Temporarily Removed” card is put in place of any object that is removed
for exhibition,
loan, education, or photography for museum publications. These cards serve
as a place holder for objects while they are removed and helps to ensure
their proper return.
At the end of November we said goodbye to collections assistant Melissa Thompson. Melissa took a new job in North Dakota, and the entire Vesterheim family wishes her good luck in her new position. She served the BLCSC project well and was an instrumental figure in every aspect of the day-to-day operations. There have been a lot of laughs, friendships, and condition reports over the past two years.
We moved 145 object this month, bringing the total to 9045. The upcoming months will be spent processing objects and putting some finishing touches on the BLCSC storage area.