Illuminating intuition with evidence: assessing collection risks within Museums Victoria's exhibitions

Abstract

Collection risk assessments were conducted for each of Museum Victoria’s three exhibition venues, using a method based on the Cultural Property Risk Analysis Model (CPRAM) to identify, characterise, and quantify risks. The results of the assessments showed that cumulative light exposure was, by far, the highest risk to collections on display. However, other results were less intuitive. Water leaks and pest infestations made up a large percentage of recorded incident reports but ranked very low in terms of overall expected loss to the collection. Loss due to seismic activity ranked higher than expected, given the popular perception that seismic activity need not concern those living in the Melbourne region. The assessments also highlighted which object populations are more likely to suffer damage. Plastic materials, fluid-preserved specimens, objects on open display, and objects on very long-term display were found to be most at risk. The results of the assessments were illuminating and will inform future exhibition design and maintenance programmes. Additionally, the results identified existing data gaps and thus also identified areas of research that will benefit collection care. Such research—for example, microfading tests—will enable future risk estimates to become increasingly realistic and validated.