so I've been packing for the big Florida move this week (a partial explanation for the paucity of posting), and I've been having some fun going through old boxes and pulling out the things that I have loved and packed away and forgotten. In the past day I've found letters my mom wrote me when I went to college, a book my sister had shipped to me from England when I was in middle school because I couldn't wait for the US release, and a wooden dog my dad carved me when he was learning to whittle many years back. They are tiny little treasures, tied to precious memories, and the hardest part about moving is facing the decision to pack them away and put them in storage or to let them go entirely. I am TERRIBLE at letting go of things that remind me of happy or interesting memories (there's contagion thinking again, right?), and it occurred to me this weekend that one of the magical things about museums is that you never have to make that choice. Once something is worthy of being accessioned into your collection it's there. It's a part of your Museum and the story it tells forever. (Or, you know, mostly forever. There are always items that are de-accessioned, but they are generally much more rare than additions to the collections.)
Anyway, if I were a Museum moving would be easier in the sense that I wouldn't have to make that wrenching "keep or donate?" decision...but harder in a lot of other ways. More on that next time--because there's a lot to think about when an institution wants (or needs) to pick up and head somewhere else.
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