RE-ORG project overview: Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre (PWNHC) is the centralized museum for the Northwest Territories (N.W.T.), Canada, and is operated by the Culture and Heritage Division of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Government of the N.W.T. The PWNHC participated in the RE-ORG: Canada (Prairies and North) training program in 2018–19.
The PWNHC collection has over 85,000 objects, but only a small portion (20 or so large objects) were part of the RE-ORG project. The collection comprises objects relating to human history, fine art and natural history. The PWNHC is also the legal repository for archaeological objects excavated under N.W.T. archaeology permits.
Project members: Rosalie Scott, Susan Irving and Ryan Silke
Main storage challenges
- The PWNHC had not expanded its environmentally controlled storage facilities since it opened in 1979.
- The main storage room had been at capacity for many years.
- Storage had expanded into a non-relative humidity-controlled space (the breezeway) for stone, ceramic sculptures, and tapestries (Figures 1 and 3).
- Although 99% of the permanent collection was housed on site, the remaining 1% was stored at an off-site warehouse.
- The transfer of Government of Nunavut-owned objects out of the PNWHC had created only modest room for growth and opportunities for reorganization of the PWNHC’s own collection (Figures 2 and 4).
© Government of the Northwest Territories, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
Figure 1. Before RE-ORG: disorganized, antiquated shelving in the breezeway that did not serve a purpose.
© Government of the Northwest Territories, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
Figure 2. Before RE-ORG: large objects stored in open spaces in the main storage room.
© Government of the Northwest Territories, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
Figure 3. Detail of the PWNHC floor plan.
Project details
Within a year, the PWNHC achieved the following storage improvements:
- It conducted an analysis of large objects using an adapted worksheet from the Canadian Conservation Institute to gain a better understanding of the number of objects, the types of objects involved and their storage requirements.
- It identified large objects that did not require climate-controlled storage and selected them for relocation from the main storage room.
- It designed a new storage layout in the breezeway using static shelving units suited to large objects (tall units with adjustable shelves and non-woven polyethylene curtains [Tyvek] to reduce light and dust) (Figures 5, 6 and 7).
- It relocated large objects from open floor areas in the main storage room to purpose-built shelving in the breezeway.
- It freed up space in the environmentally controlled main storage room, improving access, workflow and safety for staff.
- It improved tracking of objects in the collections database by assigning defined storage locations for each object.
- It reduced floor clutter in the breezeway by raising objects off the floor, which improved accessibility and staff movement.
- It clarified decision-making regarding which objects require environmentally controlled storage, which can be stored in the breezeway and which should be stored at the warehouse.
- It strengthened the museum’s funding application to the Museums Assistance Program to support the purchase and installation of new storage equipment.
© Government of the Northwest Territories, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
Figure 4. During RE-ORG: large industrial objects being prepared for the move to the warehouse.
© Government of the Northwest Territories, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
Figure 5. During RE-ORG: the breezeway cleared of old shelving units.
© Government of the Northwest Territories, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
Figure 6. During RE-ORG: new shelving installed and filled with objects in the breezeway.
© Government of the Northwest Territories, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
Figure 7. After RE-ORG: the new shelving in the breezeway closed in using non-woven polyethylene.
The project took 30 weeks to complete with the help of no more than 3 team members throughout the 4 phases (Table 1).
| RE-ORG phase | Number of weeks to complete | Number of team members |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Getting started | 2 | 2 |
| 2. Storage condition report | 2 | 2 |
| 3. Storage action plan | 2 | 2 |
| 4. Storage reorganization implementation | 24 | 3 |
The RE-ORG project cost $20,875 to complete, with all of the budget being allocated to storage furniture (the PWNHC chose not to account for staff time [84 person-weeks] in its budget). The PWNHC was also successful in securing a $10,000 grant from the Museums Assistance Program for the project.
| Budget item | Amount (CAN$) |
|---|---|
| Staff time | n/a |
| Tools, supplies and materials | 0 |
| Storage furniture | 20,875 |
| External services (such as contractors) | 0 |
| Total project cost | 20,875 |
Based on the RE-ORG Self-evaluation Tool for Collections in Storage (PDF Version), the PWNHC made improvements in one out of four RE-ORG components: “furniture and small equipment.”
According to the results in Table 3, the “furniture and small equipment” component experienced an improvement with an increase of 7% (Figure 8).
| RE-ORG component | Score (before) | Score (after) |
|---|---|---|
| Management (maximum of 42 points) | 26 | 26 |
| Building and space (maximum of 54 points) | 49 | 49 |
| Collection (maximum of 51 points) | 48 | 48 |
| Furniture and small equipment (maximum of 33 points) | 28 | 30 |
© Government of Canada, Canadian Conservation Institute. 136963-0013
Figure 8. 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
| RE-ORG component | Percentage of improvement |
|---|---|
| Management | 0% |
| Building and space | 0% |
| Collection | 0% |
| Furniture and small equipment | 7% |
Lessons learned
Based on the experience of the PWNHC, the following should be considered in future RE-ORG projects:
- The formalized analysis process used during RE-ORG can help form a strategic approach that could be applied to future projects and provide a solid basis for funding applications.
- The processes learned through RE-ORG can be applied to other storage projects, for example, consolidation and reorganization of a human history collection to improve access, storage efficiency and preservation.
- The strategic removal of a few objects can have a domino effect throughout the storage space, leading to a more efficient system overall.
Additional resources
- ICCROM web page describing the RE-ORG method