Creating a Collection: A Tour Through the Smith College Museum of Art

How do museums build and unbuild collections?

Hi, welcome to “Creating a Collection: A Tour Through the Smith College Museum of Art.” This digital tool will introduce you to the guidelines that museums of all types follow when adding objects to their collections, and when removing them.

To guide you through the collecting “rulebook,” we’ll take a tour of the Smith College Museum of Art. By looking at what artworks are on view—and what’s not on view—we hope you will begin to understand how a museum creates its collection.

To read more before diving in, see:
1. How This Works
2. How to Read a Museum Label
3. What is "Public Trust?"

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