Creating a Collection: A Tour Through the Smith College Museum of Art Main Menu How do museums build and unbuild collections? How This Works Instructions on How to Use this Website How to Read a Museum Label This will help you navigate the SCMA and other museums What is "Public Trust"? How Museums Collect Why Museums Remove Objects from their Collections How Museums Remove Objects from their Collections

Why Museums Collect

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There are many reasons why a museum would want to add a new object—in the case of an art museum, artwork—to its collection. If you’re a collector, you might already know this. You may just be starting a collection. You may want 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 main reasons museums collect new objects.

Click one of the pages below to learn more about one of the reasons museums collect. The new page will direct you towards an artwork in the SCMA!

This page has paths:

  1. How do museums build and un-build collections? Samantha Page

This page has tags:

  1. How do museums build and un-build collections? Samantha Page

Contents of this tag:

  1. Filling a gap
  2. Building a new collection
  3. Replacing something in bad shape