About the Client:

Gifted to the town of Paisley by the industrialist Sir Peter Coats in 1871, Paisley Museum and Art Galleries is an internationally recognised organisation located in the town of Paisley, Scotland. It is operated by Renfrewshire Council and houses one of the largest municipal art collections in Scotland, including over 800 paintings.

In 2017 the museum opened its new publicly accessible facility called ‘The Secret Collection’ a 2100 sqm state-of-the-art Museum Storage facility housing the excellent museum collections of Renfrewshire Council Arts & Museums service. Strategically located within the basement of a prime town centre property (a former Littlewoods department store), the centrally located facility attracts both the general public and those looking to study the history of the area.

The Requirement:

Before the development of the Secret Collection site, the Museums vast archive of 350,000 artefacts were housed within several locations across Paisley. Some of these storage facilities were not ideal for collection storage (risking damage from light, humidity, temperature and pests), and the diverse locations made access to the collections difficult.

During 2015 the museum team decided to consolidate this collection into a single space. This aimed to improve access and give the museum collections team more control over the storage environments in which they were kept. A suitable site was chosen within Paisley town centre and a tender submitted to attract businesses that could support its development.

Floorplans

The floorplans below demonstrate the size of the task, with a vast cross section of archive storage solutions required. 

The Solution – A Range of Archive Storage

Following an in depth tender process, Rackline were chosen based on the teams experience in the development of archive storage installations, and the vast range of solutions they were capable of providing. The storage requirements for the project were vast and required months of planning.

Rackline audited the current collections on a item-by-item basis, taking detailed measurements and highlighting best practice storage methods. This audit formed the blueprint of the storage designs. These plans and storage designs were tweaked and optimised over a 12 month period by Rackline’s technical team in consultation with both the project architects (Collective Architecture), the main contractor and museum curators.

The end result produced storage solutions perfect for the wide variety of items they held. Storage was designed and installed by Rackline within 7 individual collection stores which included: Textiles, Ceramics, World Cultures, Natural History, Fine Art, Archives & Social History. Each supplied storage solution  is tailored to the individual needs of each collection type, with careful considerations given to accessibility and collection protection.

Some of the archive storage solutions installed:

• Multitrak Mobile Shelving
• Longspan Shelving
• Toast Rack Vertical Storage
• Pallet Racking
• Cantelever Racking
• Mesh panels
• Roll Holders
• Secure Cabinets

The cross section of storage installed within the Secret Collection site highlights the diverse options available from Rackline. Each bespoke, tailored solution is designed to protect the individual items they hold while retaining accessibility for its teams, researchers and the general public. 

Gallery

Below are a few photo of the Archive Storage solutions installed by Rackline, and the impressive collections held by Paisley Museum: 

The Result.

The Paisley Museum Secret Collection has become a tourist attraction within the town, with more people than ever able to access and experience the collections it holds. The public and researchers can now access the vast collection of artifacts which were previously hidden, they can do this while ensuring their safe keeping for future generations.

Get in Touch.

If you work within the museum sector (or any other for that matter) and are looking for solutions to keep your collections safe, then take a look at our dedicated Museums Page, and Archives Page. If you have any queries, feel free to contact us on our main contact page, or below: