Eye on the Esplanade: Good policies make for good management

By Tim McShane on May 14, 2021.

Some regard ‘policy’ negatively. Others find policy confusing, or boring. Yet good policy is the result of a carefully considered plan of action and can be beneficial for managing museums. The Esplanade has several policies used in caring for the artefacts held in Public Trust. These have evolved through a process of asking, “What course of action yields the best result for the public?”

The Acquisition Policy conserves the limited storage space by saying we will not collect more than two examples of the same artefact type or that come from outside our geographical mandate. The Deaccession Policy says we may dispose of objects in poor condition or with little or no known history, both of which severely limit our ability to display, and interpret items. The storage space saved or freed up through disposals lets us acquire and preserve pieces in the future that represent a greater diversity of human experience in the Medicine Hat area. The Loans Policy states under what conditions we accept temporary responsibility for private property, and when we will make objects from the collection available to a larger audience by lending them to other museums.

The Esplanade is beginning to develop an Exhibition Policy as well. This will help ensure exhibits we develop for the museum, as well as temporary and travelling exhibitions we install in the galleries, continue to serve the interests of the public.

Good policy is not set in stone. In exceptional, unforeseen circumstances, we may disregard policy if we feel it is in the best interest of the public to do so. We review the collections policies every five years, and update as required to ensure we continue to serve the Public Trust responsibilities the best we can.

Tim McShane is the Museum Curatorial Assistant at the Esplanade

6
-5