RE-ORG project overview: Maison de Mère d’Youville
The Grey Nuns of Montréal’s department of archives and collections participated in the RE-ORG: Canada (Quebec) training program in 2016–17. Their collection of 5000 objects related to social heritage was stored in 250 m² in the Maison de Mère d'Youville in Montreal. The RE-ORG project involved 500 of these objects, which were in three different rooms of the house.
Project leads: Mylène Laurendeau and Brigitte Campeau
Main storage challenges
- The objects were scattered throughout different parts of the house, which made controlling and inspecting the collection difficult (Figures 1–4).
- The layout of the space was inadequate, which made it difficult to find objects and to achieve the goal of showcasing the Grey Nuns’ heritage.
- Following the RE-ORG project, the rooms used to house the permanent exhibit were to be demolished. As a result, new space had to be created for the storage of all these objects.
© ASGM L272-Maison de Mère d’Youville, Montréal, storage reorganization
Figure 1. Before RE-ORG: a section of the collection storage area, which included furniture and other bulky objects.
© ASGM L272-Maison de Mère d’Youville, Montréal, storage reorganization
Figure 2. Before RE-ORG: view of the same section of the collection storage area, which shows other furniture and costumes.
© ASGM L272-Maison de Mère d’Youville, Montréal, storage reorganization
Figure 3. Before RE-ORG: another section of the collection storage area, which included works of art on paper, furniture and other objects.
© ASGM L272-Maison de Mère d’Youville, Montréal, storage reorganization
Figure 4. Before RE-ORG: framed works were kept outside of dedicated storage spaces, were on the floor and were not organized using a suitable storage system.
Project details
Within a year, the Maison de Mère d’Youville was able to make the following storage improvements:
- They brought together the collection objects that were scattered throughout several rooms. They also brought into the storage space objects that had been kept elsewhere and created a space, using scaled plans, for items from the permanent exhibit that had to go back into storage (Figures 5–7).
- They moved and grouped existing furniture together to maximize space.
- They hired professionals to move the drawer cabinets; the goal was to bring the different units together to optimize storage space (Figure 8).
- They acquired three large metal shelves to store and group together most furniture items in the collection (Figure 9). They also built three wooden storage units for paintings and mock-ups (Figure 10).
- They built a platform on wheels to avoid having to store a particularly fragile object directly on the floor.
© ASGM L272-Maison de Mère d’Youville, Montréal, storage reorganization
Figure 5. During RE-ORG: custom boxes were constructed to store certain objects from the permanent exhibit (two mock-ups, a papier-mâché statue and an old painting).
© ASGM L272-Maison de Mère d’Youville, Montréal, storage reorganization
Figure 6. After RE-ORG: costumes were grouped together in a side section of the storage area, freeing up floor space in the main section.
© ASGM L272-Maison de Mère d’Youville, Montréal, storage reorganization
Figure 7. After RE-ORG: a track hanging system was installed for the stations of the cross.
© ASGM L272-Maison de Mère d’Youville, Montréal, storage reorganization
Figure 8. After RE-ORG: drawer cabinets grouped together to optimize floor space.
© ASGM L272-Maison de Mère d’Youville, Montréal, storage reorganization
Figure 9. After RE-ORG: furniture grouped together on metal shelves, which optimizes the use of vertical space in the room.
© ASGM L272-Maison de Mère d’Youville, Montréal, storage reorganization
Figure 10. After RE-ORG: framed works were grouped together in a custom storage unit.
The project took 85 days to complete with the help of no more than 2 team members during phases 1 to 3 and 25 team members during phase 4 (Table 1).
| RE-ORG phase | Number of days to complete | Number of team members |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Getting started | 20 | 2 |
| 2. Storage condition report | 5 | 2 |
| 3. Storage action plan | 10 | 2 |
| 4. Storage reorganization implementation | 50 | 25 |
The RE-ORG project cost $24,378. More than half of this amount was allocated to staff time and external contracted services (Table 2). Less than a third of the budget was spent on tools and storage furniture. The Maison de Mère d’Youville was also successful in securing a $9,920 grant from the Museums Assistance Program for the project.
| Budget item | Amount (CAN$) |
|---|---|
| Staff time | 16,053 |
| Tools, supplies and materials | 5,930 |
| Storage furniture | 1,645 |
| External services (such as contractors) | 750 |
| Total project cost | 24,378 |
Based on the RE-ORG Self-evaluation Tool for Collections in Storage (PDF version), the Maison de Mère d’Youville made improvements in all four of the RE-ORG components: “management,” “building and space,” “collection” and “furniture and small equipment.”
The results in Table 3 show that equal improvements (15%) were made in the “building and space,” “collection” and “furniture and small equipment” components (Figure 11).
| RE-ORG component | Score (before) | Score (after) |
|---|---|---|
| Management (maximum of 42 points) | 22 | 23 |
| Building and space (maximum of 54 points) | 31 | 39 |
| Collection (maximum of 51 points) | 38 | 46 |
| Furniture and small equipment (maximum of 33 points) | 22 | 27 |
© Government of Canada, Canadian Conservation Institute. CCI 132794-0032
Figure 11. Graph illustrating the percentage of improvement to the scores for the RE-ORG self-evaluation tool, calculated by comparing scores before and after the storage reorganization project.
Description of Figure 11
| RE-ORG component | Percentage of improvement |
|---|---|
| Management | 3% |
| Building and space | 15% |
| Collection | 15% |
| Furniture and small equipment | 15% |
Lesson learned
Based on the experience of the Maison de Mère d’Youville, the following factors should be considered in future RE-ORG projects:
- Contact those responsible for museology training programs in the area to see if their students can lend a hand. We would like to mention our very productive partnership with the students in the museum techniques program at Montmorency College in Laval. As part of a course on setting up storage spaces, 22 students came to help out with our reorganization project.
Additional resources
- Video of Mylène Laurendeau and Brigitte Campeau’s presentation at the 2017 RE-ORG: Canada (Quebec) one-day conference, RE-ORG : Canada (Québec) – Rapport sur l’état des réserves : Maison de Mère d’Youville(Sœurs de la charité de Montréal « Sœurs Grises ») (in French only).
- ICCROM web page describing the RE-ORG method.