Storage

DEFINITION

The place or space for the safekeeping of objects not currently being exhibited; containment for books, tools, or other materials that might be needed in the future; later today or years from now. Among the personality traits common to people immersed in the visual arts is the compulsion to accumulate stuff. We put tremendous energy into playing with our collections, much of it deciding where to put it all. We each have our ways of dealing with the stuff that lands on our floors, desks, tables, and so on. The quality of our storage becomes crucial. In the effort to store things well, we need to balance accessibility, safety, security, order, and cleanliness, against the limits of our time, energy, and other assets. In order to maintain the conservation of some things in storage, it may be necessary to control atmospheric temperature and humidity. The best types of storage also protect things from exposure to harmful vapors, light, fire, microbes, insects, and other creatures.Also see art conservation, climate control, Collyers' Mansion, entropy, fumigation, hygrothermograph, glassine, material culture, flat file, polyethylene, polypropylene, preparator, silica gel, solander box, stack tray, and storerooms.