About the Client
The Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service (CIMS) was established in 2007 to provide joint services to the residents of Ipswich and Colchester. Operated by the Colchester Borough Council, the service runs several venues:
The Requirement
During 2017 Colchester Borough Council was relocating the museum service from its old Museum Resource Centre which contained its offices and stored collections, to new facility being built at the museum service’s main off-site stores building in Colchester.
As part of this move and due to to the huge inventory a large amount of space was to allocated to the museum collections storage. These included specialist storage areas allocated to:
- Natural History
- Artworks
- Archives
- Metalwork
Within these storerooms the council requested storage solutions including:
- Adjustable cabinet system with doors to accommodate specimens and existing wooden drawers.
- Mesh Racking for hung artworks.
- Archive storage shelving for storing a range of boxes of varying sizes.
- Robust shelving to securely hold metalworks.
After discussions with a number of suppliers, the council settled on Rackline based on the experience of the team, and the ability to create tailored museum collection storage solutions that would protect their large cross section of collection items.
The Solution
To achieve the brief from the client, Rackline’s teams began by building a close relationship with the building contractor and deploying its space planning team to visit the site. This provided them with an understanding of the space available and any potential issues. It also allowed them to audit the collection to identify the shapes and sizes of the items they wished to store.
Only after this could the Rackline designers suggest solutions:
Artworks
Pull out picture racking was chosen to hold the artworks. Panels were sized at 3200mm x 1800mm, that together with hooks to hold even the largest canvases. In total 28 pull out frames and 6 static frames were specified providing 343m2 of hanging space.
Storage Boxes
For box storage, Rackline provided 25 bays of its Prospan longspan shelving solution. These were specified as open, and fitted to mobile bases to maximise space. In total the 25 bays provided 193 linear metres of shelving with a capacity of almost 1800 archive boxes.
Natural History Collection
Within the Natural History store a variety of systems were employed to fit its incredible collection. Steel cupboards were constructed from Rackline’s Proform shelving solution. These were manufactured with brackets, that were adapted to the wooden specimen trays held by the museum. These were designed to hold specimens of small animals. birds, eggs, bones, shells, plants and also geology/fossil samples.
These cupboards were free standing and also provided on mobile bases to maximise the the museum collection storage space.
The Result
The result for the museum group is a huge amount of additional museum collection storage. Each category of item has it’s own specific storage area and solutions to keep them in the best conditions possible. The capacity of storage is large enough for their existing collections and gives overhead for it to grow over the coming years. Additionally the Installed solutions are robust and hard wearing to provide many years of service.
Find Out More
If you would like to see more case studies demonstrating our solutions for Museums and Heritage click here. If you would like to learn more about our museum collection storage options, then drop us a message to now@rackline.com, or call us on 01782 770144 or fill in the form below.