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Why Museums Collect

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There are many reasons why the SCMA may want to add new artworks to its collection. If you’re a collector, you might already know this.

You may just be starting a collection. You may want to widen the scope or increase the depth of your collection. You may be filling a gap in your collection, or replacing something that isn’t in good shape anymore. These are some of the reasons art museums collect new artworks, too.

Click one of the pages below to learn more about "Building a New Collection" and "Strengthening a Collection," two of the main reasons museums collect.

This page has tags:

  1. How do museums build and unbuild collections? Samantha Page
  2. How Museums Collect Samantha Page

Contents of this tag:

  1. Strengthening the collection (filling gaps, adding breadth + depth)
  2. Juan Gris's "Fruit Dish, Glass, and Newspaper"
  3. Building a new collection
  4. "Luster dish, seated king and queen in center"
  5. Dwight W. Tryon's "Dawn"
  6. Thomas Wilmer Dewing's "Lady with a Lute"
  7. Louis Comfort Tiffany's "Duane Street, New York"
  8. Lockwood De Forest's "Ramesseum at Thebes"
  9. Winslow Homer's "Song of the Lark"
  10. Abbott Handerson Thayer's "Winged Figure"
  11. Horwitz Collection
  12. Replacing something in bad shape