The Museum of the Western Prairie will be closed to the public from Tuesday, Feb. 1, through Saturday, Feb. 5 for a special project. During that time staff members will reorganize a large section of the storage area.
"As many people know," said museum curator Bart McClenny, "there are a lot of things in the museum beyond what is on exhibit." He notes that most museums typically display only a fraction of their collection. "At the Museum of the Western Prairie, for example, we have about 50,000 items. Of these, there are about 1,500 items on display."
Many visitors, initially, do not understand why a museum stores the larger part of the collection. But the goal of any museum is to both interpret and preserve the past for as long as possible. Since museums utilize objects to illustrate history, the objects themselves are of great concern. "The best conditions for long-term preservation of most artifacts are storage conditions, not display conditions," said McClenny. "But you can't be a museum without artifacts on display. Ideally a museum exhibits a portion of the collection for a period of time, then returns those objects to storage.
Different items are brought out of storage to replace them and later the process repeats."
The current project, McClenny said, will improve the storage area of the museum. "Unfortunately the building does not grow as quickly as the collection. As we collect more and more, it's a challenge to fit everything in the same space." During the closure the museum staff will also perform routine checks and evaluations of items in storage. "This kind of work, in the end, makes us more efficient. In the future it will be easier for the staff to bring out new items and to put old ones away." That, McClenny notes, is good for the public, too. "Ultimately, visitors will see more of what the museum has to offer."
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