1. Museums, registrars and sustainability
Maurice Davies November 2010
Good morning
I’m going to talk about sustainability – what it is, what it means for museums, what it
means for collections, what it means for loans and finally what it means for you – for
registrars
2 Standard definition
3 This is something we say in Code of Ethics about museums. Museums have such a
long-term purpose, often thinking in generations rather than decades, they are clearly
involved in sustainability more than many other kinds of organisation.
As museums are in the sustainability business, they could think more explicitly about
sustainability. In the UK we’ve been looking at what ideas of sustainability mean for
museums and it’s been quite exciting, helping us think differently about some things
4. This is how sustainability is usually thought about. Note that its much more than
environmental sustainability, or going green
5. But a key part of sustainability is going green so we asked people in museums in the
UK how they could be more environmentally sustainable. It won’t surprise you that these
are the things they identified
I think museums are discovering that it is simple to save the first 10-20% of resources but
then it gets really specialised – first there are special museum issues (such as protecting
collections). It also gets specialised for each individual museum building. And we don’t
have that much expertise yet. The good news is that there’s plenty of expertise coming
up in this conference.
6. To improve their social sustainability museums identified these actions. And many
museums are of course getting on and doing them
7. One way to think about economic sustainability is simply to make sure that your
museum will have enough money coming in to support what it wants to do.

2. From this point of view, a museum is likely to be stronger, more resilient, more durable if
its money comes from a range of sources. Governments like to argue this, as it means
museums are less dependent on them!
Most museums may not feel they’ve found the answer to economic sustainability, but the
truth is many museums have survived for a long time, so in the long term, museums may
be more economically sustainable than we sometimes think.
8. But I want to look at economic sustainability in another way.
Many museums have thrived by getting bigger and bigger. From one point of view this
has been very successful. Until recently museums were very confident about their role
and many were confidently building bigger buildings, getting bigger collections, reaching
bigger audiences – and spending bigger amounts of money.
But as we anticipate, or in some cases already begin to experience, reduced income
because of the global financial crisis and recognise the need to reduce our use of natural
resources, increasing public benefit through growth looks less likely to be the answer for
the next decade.
So instead of trying to raise more income to keep getting bigger, perhaps we could stay
the same size.
Or even think about getting smaller. Then we would need less money and less natural
resources. Of course we need to pay attention to social sustainability too, as museums
must bring social benefit
9. But social benefit doesn’t come from simply doing more. There is growing evidence in
the rich countries of the world that increased wealth has not made people happier.
Economic growth has certainly allowed people to have more possessions (and allowed
museums to keep collecting more), but people don’t feel any more satisfied with their
lives. So, these are good suggestions for a sustainable organisation. The point about
quality of relationships is important – this is a key to well being and sustainability
10 So far we’ve looked separately at environmental, social and economic sustainability.
Thinking about sustainability as a whole gives many more ideas about what museums
could do to be sustainable. I hope that it is becoming clear that sustainability is about
change.

3. Darwin said that in evolution the species that survive are those that adapted the best.
This meant that they changed in the best way.
They were flexible and did not tough it out in a hostile environment.
Sustainability is not about being hard and strong and defensive. It means adapting, being
flexible and working with society, the environment and the economy. There is a need for
innovation
If we think more about sustainability, these ideas emerge
11. I think that to achieve sustainability museums will have to follow these common
principles, or values. These points summarise the draft principles on sustainability that
the Museums Association has devised. You can find a fuller version at
www.museumsassociation.org/sustainability.
Each museum will need to use principles such as these to find what works for it, given its
location, assets (knowledge, history, collections, buildings), audiences, opportunities,
constraints and other contexts. Each museum will need to learn from others but also
change and innovate in its own way if it is to be sustainable.
12. Now, let’s think about the implications of sustainability for collections. There’s a
growing recognition that it’s not sustainable to collect for its own sake – As I’ve
suggested, simply having things doesn’t make the world a better place. To bring public
benefit, collections need to be used. They need to be researched and displayed. Above
all they need to be shared with people, not hoarded, unseen in stores and depots. It’s no
good calling something a research collection unless it is actually actively being used for
research. (mention Collections for the Future)
Don’t you all have things in your collections that you wish weren’t there! Most museums
actually wish that past generations had collected a bit less and passed fewer things onto
them. If we are to make our museums sustainable, we mustn’t pass those same things
on to the future ‘just in case’ they want to use them. It’s a conference in itself, but I
predict that over the next decades there will be growing discussion of the benefits of
making museum collections smaller if they are to be useful to future generations.
Sustainability means collections need to change, not stay the same
Another reason to think carefully about what we pass on is that by generously preserving
things for the future we might in fact be making it harder for future generations to survive
if we use too much energy and natural resources to do so and so contribute

4. unnecessarily to climate change and resource depletion. ‘There’s no point in saving
history for the world if it costs the earth’
The preservation of collections cannot disregard the need to reduce energy
consumption.. We cannot afford to control temperature and relative humidity too much. In
most of Europe we can design and manage buildings so that they don’t need air
conditioning. In part this will be about the design and fitting out of buildings – they need to
be massive so that they have a stable climate inside; many traditional building designs
achieve this
13 . For some time we have thought that the preservation of collections needs very tight
control of temperature and relative humidity. Many museums still think the ‘standard’
should be this… However, there is a growing belief that this is really not at all necessary.
Many types of object are fine in a much wider range of humidity and temperature. Some
museums are now using this sort of requirement for loans And some museums are going
further still and designing new galleries for to this even wider design Crucially the wider
ranges can usually be achieved without air conditioning and so can save significant
amounts of energy – over a third Of course some objects are very sensitive to changes
in humidity and they can have their own microclimate, such as a controlled display case.
But even then, as I said, sustainability is about change and we may come to think that
allowing things in museum collections to change appearance, to age is actually OK.
Certainly views on gallery conditions are changing. The Indianapolis Museum of Art
announced earlier this year that it was widening its control of humidity and temperature in
its exhibition galleries and lenders seem to be fine with the museum’s lead.
I am no expert on this. But I hope you can see that with these changing views about
control of temperature and humidity registrars have a great opportunity to help and
encourage these changes so that museums can be more environmentally sustainable in
their lending. A crucial thing is to update your museum’s loan conditions to reflect new
thinking. I think that’s exciting and good news.
14 If we reduce the energy use in exhibition galleries then that will improve the
sustainability of loans. What about other aspects of the environmental sustainability of
loans? How green are temporary exhibitions? And how do they compare to other ways
museums get collections used, for example websites.

5. 15 The results might not always be what you expect. We imagine exhibitions use a lot of
energy with all the travel and the aeroplanes. However, the V&A found: Exhibitions: on
site and touring – seen by 2.7 million people for just 5% of the museums carbon
emissions
And we may think that websites are much better for the planet – quiet, clean, small.
However, the V&A found that IT – including web servers – more than twice as much at
11% of total carbon emissions
16 Before we go on let’s remember that loans are a great thing!! In fact, they are such a
good thing and as registrars you do such great work in making them happen I think you
should all give yourselves a clap…
As I’ve said I think registrars have a great opportunity. To take a good thing and make it
more sustainable. As I’ve just shown, loans are already environmentally more
sustainable than perhaps we thought, especially if we can have a new approach to
controlling temperature and relative humidity. They can of course be made more
environmentally sustainable and this conference will show you many more ways in which
loans can become greener. You’ll be able to take back many ideas to your museums
But sustainability is about more than just going green so also want to talk about ways in
which loans can be made more economically and socially sustainable
17. From a social point of view it’s pretty simple. As I said earlier – a collection has to be
used and there’s no better way of getting it used than getting it out of store, where no one
ever sees it! At the Museums Association in the UK we’ve been doing work to encourage
long loans – perhaps 3-5 years, as they are often no more work than shorter loans, and
can bring bigger social benefit for the same economic and environmental cost. There are
now many examples of museums lending things from each other for a long period – in
the case of the British Museum this is sometimes for decades, as with the Egyptian
Gallery they lend to in Glasgow The work to encourage collections mobility in Europe is
fantastic example
18. This book is part of the project Collections Mobility 2.0, Lending for Europe 21st
Century. It talks about many things, including the benefits of long loans to both lender
and borrower in long-term loans:
For the borrower:
1. the object can enhance the profile and significance of the existing collection
2. a star piece can be the centrepiece of a collection-based display

6. 3. new audiences can be attracted
4. there can be scholarship and new research
5. events or educational programmes can be built around the loan
6. the work involved in the loan has long-term effects
7. a long-term loan is more economical than a short-term loan or an acquisition
8. new techniques of care of handling can be learned
9. a long-term loan can be an alternative to restitution
10. a long-term loan may be a chance to upgrade conditions in the gallery.
For the lender:
1. an object that was unseen or seldom seen is given exposure
2. a duplicate object can be used by another museum
3. an object is released from storage and frees up storage space
4. the object can be seen from a new perspective
5. it may be used for scientific research by the borrower
6. it may be conserved by the borrower
7. new information can be gathered
8. the lender does not lose any rights of ownership
9. the lender generally does not have to cover costs
10. the loan gives the lender the chance to rotate displays.
Its important to recognise that loans bring many benefits to the lender as well as to the
borrower. Sometimes loans can be seen as a burden on the lender – but lending is a
wonderful thing, and museums could do more to promote their lending. When Tate
launched its annual report this year it made headline news by talking about how much
lending it does and what good it does.
I’m sure some of you have been involved in this book and the European collections
mobility work that it builds on. It combines ideas about collections mobility with much
practical information and makes many of the points I have done – that collections need to
be USED and that lending is an excellent way of achieving that. It also talks about the
importance of taking an economically sustainable approach to loans and keeping costs
down
19 Freda Matassa: ‘There are many financial considerations when planning a loan but
there are many ways of reducing costs’ ‘While the real costs have to be paid by
someone, asking for a loan fee for what is essentially the normal work of a museum is
not in anyone’s best interests. Any public collection has a duty to lend’

7. There are many suggestions for areas to reduce costs of loans in the collections mobility
book. At the Museums Association we are doing our version of collections mobility and
one part is called Smarter Loans. We want to set out the key principles of lending (much
as the European book does) and then help people think intelligently about what that
means for each loan they make. In terms of reducing cost, a basic principle is that the
lender should not benefit financially from a loan. Lending is not a commercial business
transaction; see it as a partnership between lender and borrower to create public benefit.
Suggestions for reducing costs (from Encouraging Collections Mobility and from Smarter
Loans)
• only require essential conservation/preparation/framing and keep charges
reasonable
• only require essential photography and documentation
• reuse existing frames, crates, etc; use standard frames where possible
• rent equipment, crates, etc., instead of creating new ones
• consider part-loads or shared shipments instead of exclusive-use vehicles
• to allow this, be flexible with dates
• use couriers only when essential and share them with other museums
• for insurance, keep values low and justifiable
• trust the borrower
• don’t ask for higher standards of temperature and relative humidity than you
provide in your own museum
• be willing to consider lower standards for less vulnerable items, especially if the
loan brings wider benefits (I’ll talk about that more in a moment)
Also, think about what is being borrowed and lent – is there a smaller alternative, or
something similar closer to home
Note that many of these will improve environmental sustainability, too
I have a worry that because higher quality crates and trucks are becoming available that
further reduce the risk of damage to items, the costs of lending might in fact be going up
when they should be going down. However, for sustainability we need to think carefully
about whether there really is a benefit in going beyond basic levels of environmental
control and transport quality. we need to have transport requirements appropriate to the
significance, value and vulnerability of the item
(Of course, the same is not true of security where continually improving standards
usually does make sense).
20. Registrars can have a key role here in having intelligent, well informed discussions
about what is appropriate for each loan. I worry that registrars have a difficult job where it
can feel like you have all the responsibility if anything goes wrong but none of the credit
for the success of exhibitions.

8. Registrars have a key role to play in making museums more sustainable. Lending is a
very high profile activity and making it more sustainable will encourage people in other
parts of museums to be more sustainable. This conference is a fantastic initiative and I
hope you all take practical ideas from it back to your museum. But more than that I think
as registrars you have an opportunity to lead some of the thinking in your museums. You
are much more than collections managers or loans organisers. You can take a lead in
getting collections used more and in improving access.
And of course, with the knowledge you’re going to get at this conference you can take the
lead in making lending more sustainable.
Registrars often know more people in other museums than other staff, so are in a great
position to build partnerships, and put other colleagues in touch with each other – that
makes museums stronger and more sustainable.
But I think the most important thing will be for registrars to become experts in thinking
about and managing risk. Again there is a whole conference in this, and I have just a few
minutes left. So very briefly, we have thought for too long that we need to minimise risk,
or even eliminate it. But thinking about sustainability shows what we need to do is to think
both about the risks and the benefits of a loan. Some risk is justified because of the
public benefits that come from lending. If thousands of people will see an object that
would otherwise be stuck in store for decades then perhaps it is OK if it deteriorates a
little, or is slightly damaged. The risk of a little change to the object is justified,, because
the public benefit of keeping the object locked away is very small. To feel a little better
about it we could say we are simply allowing the object to age a little, to naturally change
as it grows older.
Thinking about sustainability suggests that as long as the financial and environmental
costs are reasonable, the most important thing is the pleasure and learning that seeing
the object brought to people. That’s what really matters.
Thinking like this is a real challenge to museums who have got used to seeing
preservation and minimising risk as so central to what they do.. But I hope I have shown
museums need to change the way they think and what they do in order to improve their
contribution to economic, social and environmental sustainability.

9. This conference shows registrars are ready and able to lead thinking in museums and
bring beneficial change. My challenge to you during this conference is to think about the
role you play and what you can do to change what museums do to support sustainability.