Have you completed a collections move and found yourself left with a plethora of foam, polyester fiberfill, and boxes that you would happily share with another institution? Or maybe you’re moving out of storage space or just closed an exhibition and have furniture you can no longer use? Repurposing archival materials and museum furniture takes time and effort, which is often not built into our job descriptions. As stewards of cultural heritage, we must be conscious of protecting our environment by not creating unnecessary waste. This presentation will focus on creative and efficient ways to share unwanted goods through community resources, furniture vendors, social media, and online classifieds.

1. Recycling and Reusing
Archival Materials and Museum Furniture

2. Speakers
• Katie Fleming: Gallery Manager and Education
Coordinator, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
• Barbara Hanson Forsyth: Senior Manager of Collections
and Exhibitions at Mingei International Museum
• Lisa Schmidt: Ambassador at CultureNut Xchange, a
division of Exhibits Development Group

3. Buried in Batting!
Katie Fleming
Gallery Manager &
Education Coordinator
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum
of Anthropology
Berkeley, California

4. The Move

5. Basketry &
Textile
Packing
Scope: 10,000+ baskets and 12,000+
textiles needed to be assessed,
photographed, packed and relocated
Timeline: 2 years
Team: 1 project manager, 5-8
preparators, 2 registrars, 1
conservator, lots of volunteers!

7. Packing
Materials
Used
Cardboard boxes
Packing Paper
Polyester Fiberfill
Bubble Wrap
HDPE Plastic Bags
Acid Free Tissue
Ethafoam
Archival board

8. • 1500lbs of polyester fiberfill
• 5,000+ cardboard boxes
• 200+ plastic pallets
• 10,000+ sheets of packing
paper
• 3,000+ feet of bubble wrap
Packing Materials
by the Numbers

9. Reuse During
the Move
Sorting, labeling and re-using packing materials
Fabrication of storage mounts for safety both during
travel and long-term
Modifications of storage furniture for travel
Daily inventorying of materials
Daily scheduled time for materials management
Modifications of storage furniture for maximum
reuse and functionality in new space

10. Redistribution Project – Finding Recipients
Professional
networks
Social platforms Community Reuse
Organizations
Long shots!

11. Professional Networks
Museum Associations
Professional Networking Groups
City and Community Arts Organizations
Colleagues and friends

12. Social Platforms
LinkedIn
Craigslist
Nextdoor
Facebook Groups

13. Community Reuse Organizations
SCRAP
East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse
Urban Ore
Your local organization!

14. Long Shots!
PTAs, teachers and schools
Independent arts and community organizations
Retirement communities
Local makers
Shipping organizations and movers with storage space

15. Obstacles
Time
Finding
recipients
Security
Funding
Institutional
restrictions
Space

16. Takeaways
• Build a reuse and redistribution plan into your
move or project
• Use modular and durable materials whenever
possible
• Expect the unexpected
• Build time into your work day for materials
management and logistics
• Develop and leverage community networks
• If space allows, retain materials for your next
project

17. There’s no such thing as a
green collections move…
But one can find creative solutions to reuse and
repurpose furniture and other resources

24. Packing frenzy

25. Friday load-out days

26. Our temporary “staging” unit

27. A Game of Tetris

28. Packing drawers

29. Drawer “box” with objects packed in place
and inventory list

30. Stacking drawers

31. Using drawers as boxes
• Objects packed in place with plenty of tissue
• Barcode stickers placed on each drawer
• AWSD built custom inserts to go between the drawers
so they could be stacked and placed on pallets

32. Left: Custom-made racking for rug storage serves as primary rug
storage during renovation and overflow storage upon re-opening
Right: Rolling “chest” of Spacesaver drawers

38. WMA Conference
Recycling and Reusing Archival
Materials & Exhibition Furniture

39. Platform Model
Buyers
FREE TO US
the platform to browse, list in
search of, and buy
Platform
Sellers
FREE TO LIST
Items for sale on the platform
39

40. The Problem:
We watch museums and science centers throw valuable
assets and products into the trash every day.
● Museums have little time to devote to deaccessioning
○ Removing the items is time sensitive
● Museums have numerous idle assets
○ Limited storage space
● Museums want Green solutions, but don’t practice what they preach
● There is no easy way to connect museums who are looking to buy/sell
used exhibitory
● There is no existing marketplace platform to address their specific needs

41. Museum industry platforms or markets:
41
-Why
-How
-When
-Who

42. More museums are focusing on sustainability, leverage
CultureNut’s green nature to reach customers
“Museums hold the diverse physical and intellectual resources, abilities, creativity,
freedom, and authority to foster the changes the world needs most.”
- The Museum Journal (April 2017)
Take the pledge!
Green efforts are increasingly important
Museums will proudly display the CultureNut logo
if they pledge to:
● Reduce waste during deaccessioning
● Recycle or resell 30% of no-longer used
exhibitry items

43. Questions
Lisa Schmidt
hello@culturenut.com
651 335 4984

44. Break into four groups
to discuss real world recycling obstacles

45. Regroup and Report Out