Mobilising Collections Storage to Deliver Wide-Ranging Strategic Objectives at the Sedgwick Museum

Abstract

Can a new storage facility drive a strategic transformation for a museum? What opportunities does an off-site ‘behind the scenes’ facility provide for developing a museum’s stakeholder relationships and its public engagement role; furthermore, what impact can it have on the social needs of a new community? The Colin Forbes Building is a 650-square-metre facility opened in 2019 by the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK, located around 4.5 kilometres from the main museum site in central Cambridge. When fully populated it will provide high-quality, environmentally controlled storage for more than 80 per cent of the Sedgwick’s rock and fossil collections and its unique historic archive. In this case study, we describe how a project conceived to improve storage is now driving a much wider range of strategic initiatives. The project is part of a new Strategic Plan for the Sedgwick Museum, adopted in 2019 and instigated by an external review of the museum’s activities, new leadership and extensive consultation. With the building project itself nearly completed, the challenge lay in mobilising this new facility to contribute to delivery of the aforementioned Strategic Plan. By equipping and presenting it as a dynamic centre for collections-based research we are enabling active development of the Sedgwick’s relationship with the scientific research community. Furthermore, it will enable the Sedgwick to deliver public engagement in ways that enhance the existing ‘traditional’ museum offer. The facility’s location on the edge of a major new community currently under construction on the north-west outskirts of Cambridge, enables us to engage meaningfully with a much wider public and university audience in an area of the city that currently has very little cultural provision. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, we review approaches and achievements, and reflect on how the project can continue to support strategic transformation in the post-pandemic period.